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Wisdom of the Ages reads like a Wayne Dyer workshop on "What the Masters can Teach You". His ambition is to offer the wisdom taught by the world's "great teachers" (such as Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Michelangelo and Emily Dickinson) and then provide an easy-to-digest interpretation for modern readers. He uses a format of briefly quoted passages (about a page or less) from 60 famous teachers, thus the "60 Days to Enlightenment" claim in the title. After each quote, Dyer offers his own three-page essay on how this "teaching" can be applied to contemporary life. He finishes with a list of exercises that put the master's advice to use. Finally, he gives each passage a heading such as "Soulcentre" for a quote from Herman Melville's Moby Dick, or "Communication" for William Blake's poem "A Poison Tree". While his tone is always reverent, Dyer's interpretations occasionally sound flat and obvious--as if he is dumbing down for his audience, rather than elevating readers to a higher consciousness, or at least a higher education. This is a shame, because when Dyer writes from the eloquent and enthusiastic voice that earned him his huge popularity (there certainly are glimpses in this book), one see why so many consider him a "master teacher" in his own right. --Gail Hudson
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