10 books

A list of 10 books which changed my life, well, perhaps not changed…..at least made me think or perhaps appreciate certain things more. It’s certainly not a list written in stone, I’m doing it off the top of my head now so perhaps I have failed to give recognition to more important books but here it is, you may notice a lack of “self-help” books here, although some are important are I do consider helpful in day-to-day learning I don’t feel any have influenced me enough to be in my top ten, as for such books as “relationship self-help” if someone needs assistance through memes and “chicken-soup for the soul” type advice then sadly your are looking for “join up the dots” on a blank sheet of paper, try reading about someone like Pablo Neruda and his works instead, such instincts are from the heart but supported with the head (importantly supported by the head) and if your parents never passed on the example of how to treat someone good with respect and manners or you have learnt lessons by experience then don’t kid yourself there is a magic formula in a book, you are just attempting to justify something or look for hope. You would not learn to box using a book, experience, hard training and many punches to the jaw teach you this, we all fall down many times hitting the canvas with a thud but we pick ourselves up and learn to be a better person because of our mistakes. Books do have a special power, each one of the 10 I list here I read in paper form, either hard back or paper back, I just don’t do kindle or e-readers, it feels so soulless reading a book in digital print, a book feels like a living breathing creature, something to lay on your bedside table, reach out, feel the grain on the pages, grow old with and watch it age yellow. There is a certain comfort holding a book, something you never experience with a e-reader. If you have ever read to a small child you can see how they venerate the book, cherish it once you put it down and almost treat it as it its got some magical power…….which of course books do…..they have the power to change us, educate us and make us think, so here is my list which is in no order……. The Old Man and The Sea…..by Ernest Hemingway Written more than 20 years before I have born, I have read this book many times, I have two copies, one is a Hardback, displayed proudly on my bookshelf, the other is an old second hand used and abused paperback, dog eared and ripped, yellowing and stained but it’s an old friend I take outside to read, the book (my copy) has seen better days, much like Santiago, the lead character who is an old Cuban fisherman. There is just something about Hemingway’s books which makes you feel part of the action and this book, for me is a lesson in persistence, never giving up even when everything seems against you. In Praise of Shadows….. by Junichirô Tanizaki This is a very short book which can be read in a couple of hours, it’s a reflection on Japanese art and architecture, not subjects I was particularly interested in but I just love the way the book in written, although it’s a translation the descriptions and order of the words feel so beautiful rolling off the tongue almost as if they were poetry. The book also has a personal spot with me, last year (2016) I spent some days and nights at my Mother’s bedside before she passed away, I was afraid of the silence as I sat next to her as she lay unconscious seeing out her final hours. Between saying all my personal stuff to her I read to her aloud from this book, I will never know if a part of her within her brain registered the words or my presence but I found it a comfort reading to her and this book as a very special place in my heart due to this moment. What Dreams May Come……By Richard Matheson Another book with came me great comfort after the death of my Father about 20 years ago. It’s about a guy who is killed in a road accident, in the afterlife he learns his wife committed suicide after his death and was in a kinda purgatory, he travels through (a) Hell to find her, It’s just so beautifully written, touching, holding and moving, the sacrifice someone would be for love. The God Delusion …..by Richard Dawkins So this a very important book to read. Everybody should read it. You don't have to agree with it, but it will still be an education. It matters, unless you believe the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that the Earth is flat, or any equivalent nonsense that science has exposed as false belief. I was an atheist before I read this book but it educated me and strengthened my belief (or lack of perhaps I should say) It helped me to stop feeling alone in my struggle of knowing we have one life to be enjoyed and which we should not waste on pointless adoration of a mythical something, Christopher Hitchens’s “God is Not Great” is also an important book to read too which is in a similar vein. Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now….by Ayaan Hirsi Ali  I am not going to go into too much detail about this book here as you can see what I wrote about this on one of my other posts but this is a very important book to read, as it all this amazing lady’s books are. I had the privilege of once meeting Ayaan during a talk that she did, an amazing person. Read this and her other books then decide yourself if this is a peaceful religion and if Islam and its followers are compatible with democracy and the freedom of the west. Reading books alone has not brought me to the conclusion I am at, speaking to a girl who’s family disowned her because he fell for a non-Muslim who would not convert in Birmingham also discussing with another girl who is an apostate living in Glasgow from Iraq and why she can never return home…these people’s living stories I have heard and the emotions they display when telling them is powerful, there is nothing moderate about Islam and its followers on every level. Billions and Billions ….by Carl Sagan This is a very accessible easy to read science book by the visionary Carl Sagan, it also concludes with a touching epilogue by Ann Druyan (his wife) written two months after his death. The is in the form of essays written by Sagan. It’s an eye-opener of a book, why don’t they make this compulsive reading in schools? Welcome to the Universe…..By Neil deGrasse Tyson, J.Richard Gott and Mchael A. Strauss This book was developed from a lecture series designed for non-science university students, this wonderful book plots a course through astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, assuming nothing in the reader more than an intelligent interest and a level of education attainable by a conscientious curious reader. Each of the authors brings his own distinctive voice to the telling of the story, drawing contributions from his colleagues where appropriate. The result is that this enormous subject is covered as broadly as it could be, yet to a depth that is readily accessible. Read this book and see a beauty in science which is supported by empirical evidence and not blind faith of the ego-centric believer of the Goat Herders Guide to the Universe which I call the bible. Prepare to be amazed reading this book, if the first couple of chapters don’t capture your mind then stick to your iron age book of fairy tales. The Buried Giant ….Kazuo Ishiguro Again I have already wrote a review about this book in a previous post so will not spend much time writing about it here, I will say this is a book of hypnotic beauty. There is something so sweet about the old couple in this book and how their memories are fading into a fog, I found certain comparison between how my Dad was with my Mum, and how my Mum struggled to hold on to the memories of the man she married and loved for half a century as her mind tried to fight off dementia like a figurative dragon, again this link to this book. Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda….Pablo Neruda It’s no secret that I am a big fan of this man and consider him the greatest poet who ever lived. I have written a post all about him before. Throw these relationship advice books away, they will be more use as kindle (not the e-reader type) on a fire as you read from this book to a woman to make her aware of true intentions and despite the restraints of modern society and all its falsities that there is something called love and it can be displayed by following this man’s example, being a perfect gentleman and of course, reading out to her aloud from this book. This fact and the fact that time revels all and masks slip in this masquerade ball which we all dancing a jig at, always remember to use the head with the heart, some people are just a beautifully wrapped bag of shit and we learn this from experience but the words this man writes makes us believe there is something worth searching for out there still. One Hundred Years of Solitude …Gabriel Garcia Marquez The story involves six generations of one family, established by Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran, who also helped found the town of Macondo, in the lowlands of Columbia. It’s just pure escapism, that’s what this amazing book is for me. No matter how shit people are, how cruel the world can be, just pick up this book and escape within its covers to Macondo and live!!!!