Blessed Are the Weird: A Manifesto for Creatives by Jacob Nordby lives up to its title as a public declaration of the ideals of his Blessed Are the Weird online tribe.  Nordby expounds on his original short piece, drawing on the model of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.  Each chapter delves into a line from the original piece.

What I appreciate most about this book is the overall energy.  At one point I even wrote in the margin, “This book is like one long motivational speech!” His obvious passion and personal stake in the subject matter propel the reader along from one idea to the next. My biggest takeaway from the book was this: “In our formula for Real Magic, the first thing is to know ourselves.  Next, we ask what we truly desire” (141).

The pace gets significantly bogged down by the so very, very many long and repetitive quotations.  I found myself wishing he had taken more time to paraphrase and integrate the concepts into his chapters rather than just peppering them with large amounts of other people’s words.  It made me wonder if underneath his energy and passion there might still be some insecurity whispering that he needed to prove his position had merit with the support of lots of things other people had said.  I also found the chapters to wear a little long, and the pace (and my engagement) waned toward the end of the book.

Overall, I think anyone who is an Enneagram 4 will appreciate and resonate with this book.  His mission, as I understand it, is to free people from being locked in their mundane and “soul-killing” lives to pursue what they were really made to do–whatever that might be, and however weird, strange, and magical it might seem to everyone else.

If you are sensitive about strong language or spiritually synchronistic remarks, then this book is not for you.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.