Book Review: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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Reason for reading this book:

This book was this months read for my book club

My thoughts.

Dear Son:

I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors.  You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose.  Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you.  To which I have besides some other inducements.

These are the opening sentences of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.  I like how he just started out by assuming his son would like to know a little something about him.  He also rambled on and on with little or no punctuation. Sentence or paragraph structure or chapter breaks.  There is one break from where he left off and then took it up again many years later after a friend asked him to finish.  He never did write about his experiences during the revolutionary war.

I enjoyed getting to know Benjamin Franklin from his point of view.  I was most impressed with his bright inquisitive mind and his ability to solve problems.  I was also impressed at the many things he invented and the groups he organized.

The thing I was most impressed about was his personal creed.  He adopted 13 virtues that would lead to perfection and kept an accounting in a ledger of his daily activities.  He set a personal goal to achieve perfection in this life--and he believed it was achievable.

But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it;

Overall I liked this book and would like to read a biography about Benjamin Franklin that tells more about what he accomplished in this life.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

three reasons review