Free the Beagle: A Journey to Destinae [With CDROM]

by Roy H. Williams

Book Overview

A contemporary fable about a beagle and a lawyer on the classic hero's journey. A richly multifaceted tale overflowing with essential lessons for business and for life.

A lawyer named Intellect and a beagle named intuition travel the road to self-discovery. They struggle through the Forest of Confusion and Swamp of Depression, arrive at the Village of Compromise, climb the Purple Mountains, cross the Fruited Plains, only to be...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885167571
• ISBN13: 9781885167576
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Bard Press (TX)
• Length: 127 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A story you won't forget

Intuition is more than just the name of a beagle. Intuition walks alongside all of us. It cries out, it licks our face, it will lead us out of danger and guide us to glorious places. We just need to learn to listen to it, trust it, unleash it.Take the time to really read this book. It may appear simple on the surface, but there are so many important messages and layers for those willing to pay a little extra attention. (just take a look at the discussion group at the end)Want to learn about life? Want to learn about business? Want to learn about motivation? Want to learn about spirituality? It's all in Free The Beagle. Some books are forgotten days after being read. This story will stay with you for years to come.p.s. Listening to the CD is even more fun than reading the book.

The Matrix meets Alice in Wonderland in the rabbit holes

I've never read a book before that made me interpret things in so many ways and at the end prove that I was right, along with about five other completely right interpretations, well, ok, I did read Alice in Wonderland and we have spent a couple of generations interpreting that.The last chapter of the book alone, the roundtable discussion, will confirm your every fear . . . that you only had one or maybe two interpretations right.Drop your leash and follow the Beagle and the Lawyer on their trip to Destinae and be amazed at where you end up, you may never be the same person who started the journey again! P.S. I found a whole different dimension to this book when I read it out loud to someone, try it, you'll see what I mean. Try out pages 58, 59 and 107 just for fun!

Wow. This is a book you'll DEFINITELY read more than once.

Having just finished Free the Beagle, I am at a loss as to where to start this review. The funny thing about it is that I think Roy Williams would approve of such hesitancy. First of all, Free the Beagle tells a fantasy story of a lawyer and a beagle traveling together on the rough road to destiny. Is there an allegory buried within this simple adventure story? Most certainly, but the success of the book is that there is more than one interpretation to be had, perhaps one for every type of reader out there. As a business book, Free the Beagle will most certainly find itself in the company of Who Moved My Cheese, Peacock in the Land of Penguins, and Roy Williams' Wizard books. However, I recommend that you pick it up with no preconceptions. Knowing little to nothing about the book until I received my copy (meaning, I didn't read a bunch of hype about it first), I went into it with an open mind. What have I decided? That Roy Williams is a master. He understands his audience so clearly... How can I explain?I read Free the Beagle expecting a simple business allegory. I was charmed by the little dog, amused by the rigidity of the logical lawyer, and the journey Roy Williams concocted for them. They traverse through such places as the Forest of Confusion and the Sea of False Hope, overcoming loss. The tale harkened back to The Little Prince or Flatland or even those new popular book/movies "Harry Potter" or "The Lord of the Rings." When I concluded the first section as the lawyer's journey concluded, I thought, "Huh. Nice story." Very applicable to any sort of interpretation depending on what the reader is needful of. Then I moved on to the startling second section. It surprised me that Williams included a transcript of a roundtable meeting held to discuss this book. In attendance are a number of educated, successful folks who have all read the story. The discussion is led by Ray Bard, the publisher. For 20 pages, the book is discussed by this diverse group of people and each person brings his or her own interpretation to the book--such interpretations that I never really even considered. Each interpretation (I won't list them here because, hey, why ruin it for you?) was so fully realized, it became clear that Roy intended each from the very beginning. Instead of allowing the reader to only see one reading, he included the roundtable discussion to open each reader up to the myriad of interpretations. It reminds me of the Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians--a mysterious stranger gathers just the right group of folks to get just the right results. A book for everyone, Free the Beagle is a lot of fun to read and full of self-discoveries. I will be re-reading the story, maybe even a few times! Jack Covert

A Modern Parable

This is an amazingly insightful piece of work and a definite must read for today's (and tomorrow's) leaders. Every leader should study William's work as both a guideline to ethical behavior and a blueprint for success.Williams has mastered the lost art of parable. Where most other author's merely take a simple idea and tell a story around it, Williams is incredibly good at creating a work that causes the reader to look at the worlds around and inside him or her self. Every reader will take a different story away from Free the Beagle, but each reader will come away from the book with a new understanding of self and others.

A sure best-seller!

You know it's buried somewhere in your brain - the creativity that you once had as a child, back before you obediently slipped your arms into the straitjacket of conformity that bound you tighter and tighter while the years sped by. If you could only find a way to liberate the creativity again! Free the Beagle by Roy H. Williams points the way. It's an amazing allegory about you, your life, your responsibilities, and your relationships, and it has the power to teach you to see everything through new eyes. It's a can't-put-it-down book, a short novella that's both shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough for whale to swim in. It's about balancing your left brain (an order-seeking lawyer) and your right brain (a freedom-loving beagle) so that you can learn to access your creativity and be a more open, more productive and more positive human being. When you discover the principles in Free the Beagle, you've found the closest thing there is to operating instructions for your brain.You'll read it quickly, and want to read it again. The style is spartan (though you might spot an extra adverb here and there), yet it is written in a way that the thinking reader will see layers of meaning begin to unfold. Few books with such an economy of words say so much. Don't expect this to be another trite Who Moved My Cheese? But if you liked that book, you'll love Free the Beagle. If you hated Who Moved My Cheese? you'll especially love it. The time is right for Free the Beagle by Roy H. Williams, and the proof will be seen when it quickly becomes a best seller - one that people actually read! To top it off, an audio CD dramatization of the book is included in the miniscule price - so no one will have an excuse for not reading it. Free the Beagle might be the best investment you'll make in a book this decade. Buy it now, and you'll be in-the-know when everyone is talking about it.