Wednesday, August 19, 2009

"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print."

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 - read this in about an hour and cried for the last half. An amazing story about an amazing woman. Because it is written by her son you get a true feeling of what sort of person she really was. Has cemented her even more as one of my favourite people and also made me want to help UNICEF.

"The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt - I picked this off the shelf thinking it would just be a light, fun read. Another travel/romance story set in Venice. However, upon reading I found that this definitely wasn't what it was. It's a true story, based around the fire of the Fenice Opera House in 1996. It looks at the scandal surrounding the fire, the people that were involved or witnessed it, as well as other interesting people at the time. It also brings you in to the crazy private lives of the Venetians. Fantastic read which really makes me want to travel to Venice.

The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald - wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading this but I enjoyed it. It seemed very short and I read it in only a couple of hours but it was interesting and well told (once you got past the writing style - very, very descriptive). Makes me want to go to a party in the '20's.

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

TO BUY

"The Guernsey Literacy and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer
"The Beatles and Philosophy"
"The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet" by Benjamin Hoff
"Derrida: writing and difference"