Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Reading List

I have finally done it. I have finally compiled a list of the books I want to read - well, I had actually done that before, but I am more excited now because I have now alphabetized it by the author's last name. I know... I sound like a total nerd to be so excited about this, but it means that I finally have a list that I can go off of. The thing is, this list is going to take me forever to get through. As of right now, August 17, 2010 @ 8:53 PM, I have 876 books on my list. 876...that's an incredible number of books - and to think that I want to read all of those and I will continue to add books to that list. Just a few of the books that I have listed and where they are on the list:

Selling Hope by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb (No. 834)

Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith (No. 798)

Naked Came the Manatee by Elmore Leonard (No. 548)

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell (No. 159)

Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin (No.12)

Those are just five of the 876 books that are on my list. If you have any books that you think I should check out or read or if you have anything else you would like to share, feel free to let me know!

Peace and Love

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Smithsonian's 40 Things

So I just got done reading an issue of Smithsonian (July/August 2010) that had a cover story stating "40 Things You Need to Know About the Next 40 Years." Smithsonian Magazine is now 40 years old and offered the 40 things that we should know about what is going to or could happen in the next 40 years, which would culminate in the year 2050. There are some very interesting items that we should note and the one that struck a chord with me was item number 40: "Reading will be more athletic. It will seem weird to read without moving your body."

This article talked about such things are how reading will become something we do less often with actual books and more often virtually on a screen. This thought, while it could be true, saddens me because I love to read actual books. There is something about turning a page as opposed to touching a screen or scrolling down. Plus, reading from actual materials doesn't affect our eyes as much as staring at a screen does. The thought that books as we known them could be gone makes me not want to use the new technology of the Amazon Kindle or the Barnes and Noble Nook. The Internet is always going to offer things to read online, but I'm not a huge fan of using other things in order to read books as well. I may just be a purist when it comes to reading, but I'd rather buy hardcover and paperback books any day.

Peace and Love

Friday, August 6, 2010

PostSecret

So I just finished reading the last of the PostSecret books - there are now 5 of them. In chronological order they are:

1. Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
2. My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
3. The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
4. A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
5. Confessions of Life, Death, and God: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren

I have skimmed through a couple of these books before and I get a set of some postcards in my inbox on Sundays to look at, but reading these books really makes you think about the fact that everyone has some sort of secret. Everyone goes through something that they keep a secret that someone else has in common with them. Everyone has doubts, fears, and troubles that bring us down. But these books show just how resilient we are. These books could probably be considered an easy read, since it's easy to get through them quickly, but I wouldn't consider them an easy read - while the reading part is easy, the thinking about the secrets hits a little deeper than that. Instead of just skimming over words on a page, these words have a deeper meaning. These words have a story behind them.

These books get an five star rating and an A+ for how incredibly impactful they are. I have not sent in a postcard, but I have seen my secrets on the pages of those books and I have felt relief.