What Should I Do with My Life? (ISBN 0375507493)

Amazon.com Review:
In What Should I Do with My Life? Po Bronson manages to create a career book that is a page-turner. His 50 vivid profiles of people searching for "their soft spot--their true calling" will engage readers because Bronson is asking himself the same question. He explores his premise, that "nothing is braver than people facing up to their own identity," as an anthropologist and autobiographer. He tackles thorny, nuanced issues about self-determination. Among them: paradoxes of money and meaning, authorship and destiny, brain candy and novelty versus soul food. Bronson’s stories, limited to professional people and complete with photos, are gems. They include a Los Angeles lawyer who became a priest, a Harvard MBA catfish farmer turned biotech executive, and a Silicon Valley real estate agent who opened a leather crafts factory in Costa Rica. Bronson is a gifted intuitive writer, the bestselling author of The Nudist on the Late Shift, whose thoughtful, vulnerable voice emerges as the book’s greatest strength and challenge. He describes his subject’s lives along with the ways they annoy, puzzle, and worry him. He frets about meddling with his questions, yet once, memorably and appropriately, he offers a talented man a top post in his publishing company. While this creates the juiciness of his portraits, it also can make Bronson the book’s most memorable character and the only one whose story is not resolved. Even so, this remarkable career chronicle sets the gold standard for the worth of the examined life. --Barbara Mackoff

Po-ly Executed:
As you read this book, it occurs to you that Po Bronson is nowhere NEAR as smart as he thinks he is. Of course, that only occurs to you after it dawns on you that he is a pompous idiot who thinks himself a genius. Isn't that the most annoying kind of idiot, after all? Anyway, Bronson apparently convinced some people to open up their lives to him so that he could either write annoying, limp-wristed paeans to them, praising their industrious souls or so that he could cruelly rake them over the coals and mock how lazy, stupid and spaced-out they are. After reading a few of his snide, superior, hyper-critical appraisals of peoples' lives, you begin to fantasize about the semi-talented Po Bronson getting the same treatment. If the quality of product reflected in this book is anything to go by, Po Bronson should have never "changed course" to become a "writer." Certainly not recommended.

Peoples' Lives are always interesting:
This is NOT a career guide as described in the Amazon text above. To me this was simply a book about people. It is the people here who speak, not Mr. Bronson. He is being a modern day Studs Terkel perhaps, but this book let's a variety of folks talk about how they stumbled through their lives trying to figure out what gives them satisfaction, how to earn money, where to live et. Peoples'lives and struggles are always interesting, and sometimes their mistakes do not have to be our mistakes, but their lives can be inspiring nevertheless. This might be a nice gift for younger people.

Inspiring read that leaves you with something to think about:
I think it this book is a great read and I recommend it to people who are wondering "what to do" with their lives. A collection of inspiring stories about different people and how they came into their lives. I found it a thoroughly satisfying read. Wide variety of personal stories, delivered in a pithy and straightforward way. I really like this book and I think it will resonate with anybody who has experienced the difficult of making and living with life and career choices. It would even be useful for recent college grads who are 'searching' for their corner of the world. Although some would call this a "self-help" book, I disagree. It's inspirational, but it is not prescriptive. Po Bronson leaves it up to the reader to make of this book what they will.

Helped Me Choose Quickly:
At a time in my life when I have the opportunity to make choices about what to do next, this book helped me gain perspective by telling the stories of others' choices. I credit it with helping me to just choose the path where I have the most interest rather than continue to ponder and agonize over the perfect fit. I rarely get audiobooks but this time I enjoyed listening to Po Bronson's voice in my car during a couple long drives. Only 4 stars because the title implies more of a self-help book when it is really a collection of mini-biographies of people choosing a direction for their lives.

A little inspiration, but nothing special.:
I bought this one when I was at a point in my life in which I was asking the question posed in the title, read it, found it unremarkable and cheesy, then ended up selling it to a used book store. I think the appeal of this book hinges on what you're looking to get out of it. It's essentially a book of inspirational stories that will bring a smile to your face, but aren't too intellectually stimulating. If you're looking for a better collection of stories based around people talking about their jobs, try Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs by Bowe et al or Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel. Both Terkel and Bowe do a fantastic job of letting the interviewees stories shine for themselves instead of trying a little too hard to reach for a sappy sweet moral like Bronson does. If you're looking for some feel good inspiration al la the Chicken Soup series, you will probably like this title. Nothing wrong with those books or What Should I do With My Life, but they're just not to my taste.