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    Jonathan Livingston Seagull
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull
    Ebook91 pages42 minutes

    Jonathan Livingston Seagull

    By Richard Bach and Russell Munson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Experience Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s timeless and inspirational message like never before in the new complete edition of this philosophical classic, perfect for readers of all ages—now with a fourth part of Jonathan’s journey, as well as last words from author Richard Bach.

    This is the story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules…people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves…people who know there’s more to this living than meets the eye: they’ll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than they ever dreamed.

    A pioneering work that wed graphics with words, Jonathan Livingston Seagull now enjoys a whole new life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribner
    Release dateApr 14, 2009
    ISBN9781439167298
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull
    Author

    Richard Bach

    Richard Bach was a tactical fighter pilot, a motion picture stunt pilot, and flight instructor before becoming one of the world’s bestselling authors. His books include Illusions and, most recently, Running from Safety.

    Read more from Richard Bach

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    Reviews for Jonathan Livingston Seagull

    3.5/5

    2,994 ratings83 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Enjoyable and thought provoking on my first read. I'll probably come back to it at some point. A fable, open to a few different interpretations.
    • 3/5
      More pictures than prose. Easy to read. Interesting concept for a book. Many themes for such a short book. I read it based on a recommendation on a list of great books, I do not think I would classify this as one.
    • 3/5
      I read this one quite late, so it's a little silly now. I really wish I could go back in time and read this book when I was maybe 12, I would've loved it then!
    • 4/5
      What took me so long? Jonathan Livingston Seagull has literary and visual charm and makes for an easy read. You can take the story at surface value or interpret it across as many levels as you wish. Furthermore, Part Four adds to the overall texture and completes the narrative. The work is a classic, of course, and hard to approach without bringing the baggage of its popularity, but it's easy to see why JLS became such a hit.
    • 5/5
      Jonathan Livingston Seagull is not like the others of his Flock, he does not care for shrieking and fighting for every breadcrumb from the fishing boats, but rather spends his time learning more about and perfecting his flight. Inspirational? Yes. Banal? I do not think so. I remember I liked the book as a kid, and now reading it to my son I still found it enjoyable. The book has received a lot of bad reviews and critiques for being shallow and too simple. Of course self-improvement and following one's passion are not the only values in life, but they are still important concepts, and any way the story also focuses e.g. on helping others. And Jonathan's passion - flight - even has practical applications. Some passages may appear with a religious tone, butI think the book has more in common with fantasy, perhaps because there is no subordination to a god, just some fantastical elements.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful book. It's like a dream comes true. Absolutely must read.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful read about the individual fight for freedom and the right to be ourselves.
    • 4/5
      Having read many enthusiastic reviews about Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I thought I ought to read it. It was a bit of a disappointment, because the 'message' of the book is, sort of, second nature to me, ie:Don't follow the herd;Do your own thing;Whatever 'your thing' is, give it all you can;Use the knowledge, skills and understanding you gain learning about and doing 'your thing' to help others to do likewise.A good read for young people finding their way in the world.
    • 4/5
      I read this when I was a teenager many moons ago growing up in foster care. Wanting to be "free" as Jonathan I definitely could relate..... Always will be a favorite of mine.
    • 5/5
      Great book, enjoyed the pictures throughout and the story of striving for perfection. I read this one sitting on a 70's armchair in the sun and I would strongly recommend the experience. I think depending on the mood you are in you could find this cheesy or too happy go lucky but if you are feeling a little illuminated at the time I think this is a great one to maintain your mood.
    • 5/5
      How much can I love a book?I utterly adored this one. No need to say anything else.
    • 5/5
      Great book, enjoyed the pictures throughout and the story of striving for perfection. I read this one sitting on a 70's armchair in the sun and I would strongly recommend the experience. I think depending on the mood you are in you could find this cheesy or too happy go lucky but if you are feeling a little illuminated at the time I think this is a great one to maintain your mood.
    • 5/5
      I read it again and experienced the same feeling again. It's nice to read, albeit in allegorical form, that we are free to be ourselves no matter what other conformists think. The key is not conformity but belief in freedom and belief in the infinite nature of potential. Such a simple tale, such a strong message!
    • 5/5
      I thought I Had left a review, so I may be repeating myself
      I first read this book about fifty years ago, I understood it then .but more so now. It's actually so relevant to what's happening in the world today,2022. Our struggle for freedom, our need to live and own our own truth. The heart of the story is love, and that is what we are trying to achieve today, worldwide. Well done Richard Bach, for having the insight ,50 years ago, of what the world would be needing. I do believe this book should be put on the top listed, for everyone to read.
    • 5/5
      Deeply meaningful for the perfection of life, inspirational in the purest sense, poetic and beautiful
    • 3/5
      A young seagull called Jonathan Livingston is frustrated with him regular life, but has a passion for flight and speed. He antic bring him into conflict with his flock and they cast him out. Upset by this he decides to continue his finding the limits of flight. He come to the notice of other who say they can teach him much more.
      He moves to where other gull love to fly, and begins an almost zen like process to raise his flight to an almost sacred level.

      Having achieved this, his teachers say that he now has to work on love, and that his freedom is tied to his ability to forgive. He returns to the flock that banished him, hoping to share his new outlook.

      It is a short book, only 90 odd pages, and quite a lot of those a photos of seagulls in flight. I can fully understand why it is so popular, as it is quite spiritual in its perspective, holding freedom in the same regard as forgiveness, love and respect. Really 2.5 stars as it was really nicely written.
    • 5/5
      Great resource for middle youth and teens religious education class. Read together and discuss ideas of both science (flight) and spirit. We all can be a savior if we have a fearless passion for life, learning and love of strangers.
    • 4/5
      Jonathan Livingston Seagull; (4*)I really liked this little book. It is a fast and easy read with wonderful lessons to be learned about friendship, freedom and the value of things that really matter.In it you will follow Jonathan's travels around the world and see everything through his eyes. One would not think one could learn anything from this wee book about a fictitious little seagull but this reader did. This is a lovely tale. I feel I can recommend it to youth and adult alike.
    • 5/5
      Keeping in mind that I read this book almost 44 years ago, I remember it was very inspirational. Of course I may feel differently as someone who's 59 than almost 16 but still I loved it. For some reason I couldn't stop associating it with the Strawbs 1972 song "Flying." I don't know why.

      I read it under somewhat similar circumstances to another reviewer, who had just run away from home. I had been deeply unpopular up until that grade, and my Dad had just died. I was having a better year but still the inspirationality, to coin a word, helped. It was the right time of my life to read it.
    • 5/5
      ótimo gosto muito deste aplicativo
    • 4/5
      Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" is a philosophical allegory, characterizing a seagull who became an outcast, because his perspective towards life was different than his flock. This quick read provides inspiration and gives precedence of individuality over social stigma. Its a tale of over coming peer-pressure, striving for perfection and finally giving it back to the society. The book reminded me of "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. But it lacked the gravity and impact that "The Old Man and the Sea" provided.

      "Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight, how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly. This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds.”

      In this allegory, I like to see, Birds represent Humanity, Flying - Living, Eating - Existing. I would recommend this book to everyone. This book can be read within an hour.
    • 5/5
      I've loved this book ever since high school ... it's been twenty years, but I'm still captivated.
    • 5/5
      I read this book in my childhood and just found it again here. What a wonderful story of hope and promise. It was a blessing to me then and I hope it blesses you now.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I am positive over 90% of the people who read this book do not and never will understand it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Read during my most impressionable years, in high school, along with many other Richard Bach books. I'm sure it will probably seem a bit naive to this old cynic now.
    • 5/5
      This book was my Bible growing up. Not literally of course, but I kind of wish it was...
    • 3/5
      An entertaining and charming story that just pokes at some interesting philosophy without making any opinionated choices. Mildly inspiring, but in a way that feels like it tries a bit too hard. Enjoyable, but not high-impact.
    • 4/5
      I found this book on my father's bookcase and decided to give it a shot. I was 12 at the time and even then I was able to see changes I could make in my own life. Now In my 30's I have bought the book again. I still find it easy to read but it is much more meaningful. It is a short book with pictures included that enhance the story. Give it a shot and see what kind of gull you might be.
    • 5/5
      Great metaphor for everything. Simply put, easy read.
    • 5/5
      one of the best books EVER!

    Book preview

    Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

    Part One

    It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.

    A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.

    But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one . . . single . . . more . . . inch . . . of . . . curve. . . . Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.

    Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.

    But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve—slowing, slowing, and stalling once more—was no ordinary bird.

    Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight—how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

    This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.

    He didn’t know why, for instance, but when he flew at altitudes less than half his wingspan above the water, he could stay in the air longer, with less effort. His glides ended not with the usual feet-down splash into the sea, but with a long flat wake as he touched the surface with his feet tightly streamlined against his body. When he began sliding in to feet-up landings on the beach, then pacing the length of his slide in the sand, his parents were very much dismayed indeed.

    "Why, Jon, why? his mother asked. Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!"

    I don’t mind being bone and feathers, mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.

    See here, Jonathan, said his father, not unkindly. "Winter isn’t far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all

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