The internet is a fascinating place. It can be both scary and amazing at the same time. Scary because it can be an echo chamber where one’s views, no matter how extreme and radical, can be validated and amplified. But it’s also amazing because put to the right uses, it is a fountain of knowledge. I prefer to take the latter approach to the internet rather than the former.

Here is a case in point. Last year, I chose to search out inspirational readings and motivational stories on the web. As part of my search, I landed on a blog started by Chiao Kee Lim called the The Dirty 30’s Club. While the blog has gone a bit stale (no new posts since May 2013), there are many great readings and stories there.

In one of the readings, The Creatures at the Bottom of the River, the book Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach was mentioned. I found the reading very interesting and thought it might be worthwhile to investigate the book. When I saw the overwhelmingly positive reviews the book received on Amazon, I decided to let it jump the queue in my 2016 reading list. By the way, if the name Richard Bach sounds familiar, his more famous book is Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Illusions is a book that is food for the soul. The story that Bach tells is not meant to entertain but to instruct one on how to live and lead a better life. In other words, if you are looking for an action-adventure novel, a suspenseful mystery, or a dramatic love story with deep character development, then I wouldn’t recommend reading the book. On the other hand, if you’re looking to develop yourself and challenge your way of thinking, then you will get a lot out of Bach’s writing.

Given my recent desire to seek out positive, inspiration readings, I enjoyed Illusions. It was a great compliment to the short readings I’ve been doing lately. I also found that a lot of the lessons from the book reinforced what I’ve been learning from other sources. Primarily, Bach teaches us that our life is made up of choices we make (and control) and that those choices influence the circumstances and outcomes of our lives. Furthermore, Bach emphasizes how important our thoughts are, particularly our visualization of success, to realizing our goals, hopes and dreams. These are just a couple of the many topics that Bach covers.

While I wouldn’t consider Illusions a Must Read, it’s a book that I suspect I will come back to often to reread. While I may not reread the entire book cover to cover in one sitting, I could definitely see myself rereading specific passages or chapters. It would be a great way to reset and adjust my outlook on life and thought processes, particularly when things may not be going exactly the way I want.