Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable written in novel form by Richard Bach. The story is about a seagull learning to fly and living life. The book was published in 1970 and was instantly acknowledged by people in United States. More than 1 million copies were printed by the time the year 1972 ended.
The book climbed in atop the New York Times Best Seller list and bagged the position for complete 38 weeks.
The book explains the tale of a seagull, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, who is passionate about flying and tries to learn as much as he can about his passion. Due to the limitations of seagull life, he becomes unwilling to conform to the flock which results in his banishment from the community of seagulls. He leads the life of an outcast and continues to train himself in flying and is pleased with his capabilities. On a fine day, Jonathan is taken by two other gulls to a plane of higher existence where all the gulls are passionate about flight. In this new place, Jonathan finds a friend in the wisest gull around, Chiang. Chiang takes Jonathan to another realm of knowledge which was still unexcavated for him and Jonathan learns the way to instantly move around everywhere in the universe. Chiang tells him the secret that you have to start by knowing that you have arrived already. Jonathan comes back to the earth after learning all this as he is unsatisfied with this life. He deems to find other seagulls just like him so that he could spread his knowledge and love for flying. He emerges successful in the mission and gathers a few other gulls who faced expulsion for not accepting the traditional limitations of their life. In the end, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, the first student trained by Jonathan, goes on to become a teacher and starts spreading the knowledge on his own. Finally, Jonathan moves on to teach other flocks of seagulls.
A truly inspirational and enlightening book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is indeed an immortal piece of knowledge. The enormous publicity and the fact that it is in print even today has won it a berth among the top 10 all time best sellers.
