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This is an academic text, so your mileage may vary, depending on what you're looking for.

I found the historical chapters most interesting, there's something very captivating when reading about Dogen travelling from place to place, learning from old masters and ultimately returning to Japan. The book taught me a lot about different currents of thought regarding zazen (or sitting meditation), but it was a pretty heavy read on its own, and as a neophyte, some of the more profound insights probably escaped me.

I'll revisit the book once my understanding grows a bit.

The original self-help book, which apart from contemporary attempts actually succeeds in it, mainly because it wasn't a marketed product sold to masses as trendy self-improvement. The book contains practical advice for someone living a privileged life in the Roman imperial times. Not everything here is applicable to the modern day, but its power lies in illuminating that some of the concerns have been universal (or at least widespread in the western world) and by reading some of the thoughts of those who came before us will lead to greater understanding of our place and our worries in the here and now.

It's hard to give a rating for religious scripture, but as for this edition, I found the commentary and the glossary very good additions. The Great Liberation Through Hearing In The Bardo itself is a hefty read and hard to follow in places, but granted, it's not even meant to be studied only once, but to be savoured and understood slowly throughout life. The text is very vivid, containing various descriptions of places, states-of-being and otherworldly beings that one's mind is capable of projecting at the time of death and immediately after. This should be an interesting read to anyone curious about the metaphysics of death or what goes through the mind of someone at the very brink of death.

This edition did not do justice for Elric of Melniboné story at all. I feel like the book was made as a collectible for those already well-versed in Moorcock's fantasy, but for someone just diving in this contains plenty of uninteresting chaff. There's a whole transcript for a graphical novel without the pictures for example. It feels cheap, like the book was put together in haste, without really considering the complete experience.

The Elric of Melniboné as a story requires separate praise however, which is a solid 5/5 in my opinion, full of adventure, mystique and sorcery. It is about a third of this book and the only reason why anyone should pick this up, unless building up a whole collection of these chronological books.

All in all, the edition is poor, but the main story is fantastic.

This was my first book into Zen and Buddhism in general and I found it to be very enlightening and it sparked my interest looking more into the subject matter. There's a general overview into the main traditions of Buddhism, with the latter part of the book dedicated to Zen. Watts sprinkles the text with his own experiences and fables from the traditions, which makes this book pretty lively and pleasant to read, as opposed to reading an encyclopedic text. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.