I have enjoyed the positive messages from Og Mandino over the years, so I was looking forward to “The Choice”. I admit it, I enjoyed reading it, especially the first part. I think this is mainly due to the fact that I recently quit a job to work on various writing and speaking projects. That part of the story, where the main character leaves his job to write was my favorite, and since I’m a book person, I really connected with the author’s huge library and wished I had a lighthouse that could serve as my library and writing. den.

The part I didn’t like about the book was the actual “choice”. Personally, although it was a choice, I don’t think it was very difficult. As a parent, if I have ever been given a choice between my life or my daughter’s life, there is no other option. I would do anything for her, and if it meant I would die for her to live, so be it. I have a problem with a supreme being also asking someone for that choice. So while I found much of the book enjoyable and even motivating, with other little gems hidden throughout, I didn’t like the main “Choice” which was the title and the biggest “point” of the book. And it was too convenient in the end for the supreme being to decide that he didn’t have to die after all.

For those reasons, I have mixed feelings about Og Mandino’s “The Choice.” I liked some parts, but I didn’t like the “choice”. It is a short book, barely 100 pages long, so it was a very quick read. I’d be inclined to enjoy it, because the parts where he quit his job to write what he felt he needed to get out of really resonated with me. And some of the life lessons are also worth reading. I just wish he had passed on those lessons without the main character choosing between his son dying of something or he having to die. That didn’t bother me at all. Since I have mixed feelings I guess I would say it’s about 3 out of 5 stars.