READ
"1984" by George Orwell
"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K. Rowling
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
"Bones to Ashes" by Kathy Reichs
"The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
"Cloudstreet" by Tim Winton
"Rides a Dread Legion" by Raymond E Feist
"Catch 22" by Joseph Heller
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey
"Dune" by Frank Herbert
"Audrey Hepburn, an Elegant Spirit" by Sean Hepburn Ferrer
"The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Lucky Man" & "Always Looking Up" by Michael J Fox
"The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet" by Benjamin Hoff - such a cute book. Passages of Tao writings are shown side-by-side with passages of "Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner". Even more interesting is that the author (who writes in first-person) is often interrupted by Pooh and friends, with songs and sarcastic comments about his writing. The humor is fun and engaging but I found the overall content to be a little.... well boring. It took me forever to finish this - mostly because I was too tired to concentrate. I also don't feel I left the book learning much. So whilst it was fun, it was also boring. Oh well.
"The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger - Amazing. I bought this book Saturday. I sat down to read it at about lunch time on Sunday. I finished it at 1am Sunday night. Stuff the dishes, stuff the washing. Stuff sleeping. I had to finish this book. I had heard a lot of good things about this book and that there was a movie coming out but wasn't sure if I was really wanting to jump on board the bandwagon. But I succumbed to the peer pressure and bought it.
In case you have been living under a literary rock "The Time Traveler's Wife" tells the story of Henry DeTamble - a man with a rare genetic disorder which causes him to jump backwards and forwards in time (within his own timeline) with no control. Upon arriving in this different period he is naked and disorientated and often has to steal to find clothes. During one of these time travels he meets 6-year old Claire and continues to "visit" her various times up until her 18th birthday. They don't meet again for 2 years until Claire runs in to Henry at his work, but he does not know who she is - he is yet to travel in time to meet her. The story then goes on to detail their life together and the difficulties Claire experiences with a disappearing husband and also their problems with having children. (loved the reason - don't want to spoil it but it makes for a very interesting image.)
Confusing? Yes it can be. But if you try not to analyse it too much and just go with the flow it seems to work it self out in the end. The writing is fantastic and touching, the characters extremely well-rounded and themes are thought-provoking. The story may sound like science fiction but reads more like fact and is more of a romance.
Fascinating book but not sure if I want to see the movie when it's released. Who know's what they've done to it?
STILL TO READ
"The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche
"Tokyo Cancelled" by Rana Dasgupta
"Einstein" by Walter Isaacson
"The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"War & Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
"A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy
"Monet & The Impressionists" by George T M Shackelford & Terence Maloon
"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins
"The Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain De Botton
"The Guernsey Literacy and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer
"The Beatles and Philosophy"
"Derrida: writing and difference"
"Breath" by Tim Winton
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
