read a book a week

I am so glad I made this a goal. By thinking about it, I am more likely to accomplish. I have already finished 2 book since my last post – and they were both amazing. First, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When the book is about following one’s dream and seeing life as an amazing journey – how could it not be great? Also, I felt the need to read something by the brilliant Ayn Rand, and since Atlas Struggled looked a little too daunting, I opted for the shorter volume, Anthem, which is a celebration of individuality and a warning against extreme collectivism. I enjoyed it greatly – sort of the optimistic version of 1984. Read both.

I got a little behind in posting, but not in reading. I reread Night by Elie Wiesel which was just as powerful as the first time I read it. I need to find copies of its sequels and read those as well. Also, I read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – the slightly more farcical, but still thoroughly amusing sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I definitely needed the lightness of Adams after the profoundness of Wiesel.

23. Long Lost – Harlan Coben

Somewhere between okay and good, though its a bestseller.

i went to Maldives, i wanted to read related book.
but this book is boring… shame.

This book is very long, and difficult book.
difficult points are:
-have to read the Haruko-Jyoka(New King Lear’s first part)
-need to knowledge of politic and Buddism
if i have not vacation, i could not read.
but i make substantial reading.
I’m looking forward the next book, “the horse dragging the sun”

Though written in the 70’s, the story of the struggles and hardships this “ordinary family” face are as relevant as it is now.

My heart (and throat) ached for the characters. There was a constant stream of tears. I wanted to somehow reach through the pages of the book and comfort them, to mend their open wounds.

I suppose I should keep a reminder to always have a box or pack of tissues nearby, especially when reading or watching movies. Those always get to me.

I had been meaning to read a book of Mary Oliver’s ever since I stumbled upon “The Journey,” so I read through her book entitled New and Selected Poetry. I found it rich and beautiful – well deserving of its national book award. Her appreciation for nature is admirable, and her ability to see meaning in the simplest of moments incredibly inspirational. I also decided to read Dracula, after all ‘tis the season.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

I finally got around to reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – can’t believe it took me this long… I loved it; I am finding the sequels, and I am reading them as well.

22. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Long but excellent read and highly recommended. Some quotes from it:

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have – to hold on tight until the dawn”

“Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. Some things are so sad that only your soul can do the crying for them.”

“A dream is a place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare.”

“Fear dries a man’s mouth, and hate strangles him. That’s why hate has no great literature: real fear and real hate have no words.”

“The truth is that there are no good men, or bad men,’ he said, ‘It is the deeds that have goodness or badness in them. There are good deeds and there are bad deeds. Men are just men-it is what they do, or refuse to do, that links them to good or evil. The truth is that an instant of real love, in the heart of anyone-the noblest of man alive or the most wicked-has the whole purpose and process and meaning of life within the lotus-folds of its passion. The truth is that we are all, every one of us, every atom, every galaxy, and every particle of matter in the universe, moving toward God.”