Ratings2
Average rating4
I chose this book because I both wanted to read some of the original Winnie the Pooh (because the bear has some great wisdom) and more about Taoism and this book seemed to capture both perfectly.
Indeed in that sense it is a great read, with little snippets from the original Pooh books by AA Milne (incl illustrations) which Hoff uses to explain the fundamentals of Taoism. As Hoff explains in the introduction; the Tao is an Eastern philosophy, which is difficult to understand coming from a Western culture. However, using a Western story (Winnie the Pooh), we can kinda get a basic understanding and they both seem to strengthen each other really well.
In the first book, The Tao of Pooh, the two concepts really work together really well. You get the best quotes from Winnie the Pooh, with great insights about Taoism and I get a sense what Taoism is about. In the second book, The Te of Piglet, I felt there was a lot of negativity. There's a really long chapter on why the Eeyore's in the world are really terrible. In the book the writer also interacts with the characters, and is really awful against Eeyore, and I felt this was not at all according to the little things I knew from Taoism.
A large part of the second book is also negative about the current world situation, where people own too much and care too little about other human beings, which is more the writer's personal view of the world than what the reader could learn from Taoism.
Recommendation
All in all I really recommend the first book if indeed you have an interest in Winnie the Pooh and Taoism. Especially if you want to dive further into Taoism and get a basic understanding of the fundamental ideas of Taoism.
I advise against reading the Te of Piglet. All-in-all it was too much the writer's personal opinion, rather than more info on Taoism, and a really negative view in that.