The Haul #1
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
- The Invention Of The Jewish people by Shlomo Sand
- The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
- Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Intuition Pumps And Other Tools For Thinking by Daniel Dennett
- Orientalism by Edward Said
- Julius Caesar by W. Shakespeare
- Origami All You Need To Know by Ashley Wood
- Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Let’s start at the top of the pile. I may never read half of them but the feeling that I could do makes me a happier person.
This week the longlist for next year’s Booker Prize was announced. Shame on me, I hadn’t read a single title from it (I’m still waiting for the publication of the new David Mitchell and Ali Smith). In an attempt to change this, I read the first few pages of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and as you can see, I must have enjoyed it. I am now 100 pages in and all I want to do is – finish it. Expect a review of it at a later date. So far I would say I am loving it.
Perhaps one of the most controversial books in this pile: The Invention Of The Jewish People by Shlomo Sand. I guess, I am curious what all the fuss is about.
Right under it we find Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. – You probably know that I work in a bookshop, right? And what do we do all day in a bookshop? We certainly don’t read books – there’s no time, but on our breaks we often talk about them. This book was recommended by a colleague of mine. We were talking about beauty ideals and I had confessed that for years I hated my eyebrows. Compared to other people’s, mine seemed odd; never growing in a beautiful curve but always with a tendency to grow together. Can you imagine what a life changing event it was when I found out that those other girls’ brows were plucked and not natural? Anyway, my colleague and I went on debating feminism (and yes, I call myself a feminist but unfortunately I still seem to care about my eyebrows and the shape they come in). To cut a long story short, my colleague said I would have to read this book and it would change everything. Big promises here, I hope it delivers.
The next one is a classic – Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book is from Ealing Oxfam and has a beautiful 70’s porn-style cover. But it will do. I read The great Gatsby two years ago and was impressed by the lyricalness of the prose. It’s time to gain a similar reading pleasure, I hope this can deliver…
Don’t ask me how Intuition Pumps And Other Tools For Thinking written by Dennett ended up in this pile. It was free, so I took it.
Orientalism is one of those texts you hear about because you study. Or studied. With all the islamophobic tendencies in society today, it’s probably a good thing to arm yourself with some counter arguments. Purchased. I had a photocopied version of this back in Germany but never read it.
So I went to the Globe today to see Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar . Preparation is key.
Another free book – this time about Origami. I like Origami although I am far from being good at it. It always was my dream to sit in a boring lecture and fold the most complicated paper models. Never happened before, but now it might.
This is that strange case where someone mentions a book to you and you think “perhaps” and then the book suddenly appears everywhere. At one point you will give in and accept fate – you have to buy it. Happened with Krakauer’s book Under the banner of heaven. I really liked Into Thin Air, fingers crossed this will be equally as good.
This week I also bought the new issues of Saga and Revival. I love Saga, I started by buying the tradebacks but I am so intrigued with the story that I cannot wait for the next trade to come out. It is that good! When it comes to Revival I am a little bit behind, I still need to catch up with the story line and #17 & #18 are missing.
