What I Read :: Summer\ 2014 Update | List

Well, I had high hopes of what to read this summer. Alas, as most things, that did not go as planned but I did manage to get some reading done and even find another book to put amongst my list of favourites and the list of books that changed my life.


Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho is such a book. It was recommended to me by a friend after we both came to realised we shared the same love and appreciation for his more well known book The Alchemist.

I must admit, I have this problem that when a book is so very good and I can feel it changing me long term and for the better I tend to not want to experience to end and slow my reading experience just because, does this happen to anyone else or am I the only weird-O in this respect?

Seriously this book is, as is the authors style, written in a way that is so easy to read and touches your heart so simply and with what seems little effort. You don't even have to read it in order you can just pick a chapter and go to town and everything just seems to have your name or a circumstance of your past, present or future written all over it. I hate reading over books but oh my goodness I may have to read this one again just for fun! Yes I recommend it, I recommend it very much.

I also read:

 By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paul Caelho

I don't have a copy of this book cover but here is one of the quotes that stood out to me. I admit it's a pretty love story but it was more fun to consider the travel than it was the love between the characters. It was a great way to feed wanderlust for me. If you feel like reading about a deep even spiritual love, where the importance of having a complete self to join to another is discussed then I recommend this book.

I liked the fact that their love did not completely consume them. I do not feel that love should completely consume you. That you should loose all that you are for the favour of all that someone else is. Human beings have a functioning psyche before they fall in love and realistically it does not disappear once you fall in love with someone. You still passionately want things with the fire and fury of a beating hear. Things that have nothing to do with your partner. There is pain even while in love that has nothing to do with your partner and I think it's time we all accept and acknowledge this reality.

That is what i liked about this book. It explored the reality that love is a but a beautiful path along our journey in life, a road we choose to get to our destination of self actualisation. It is not the end all be all.

Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

I must admit I did not love this book but I'm glad I finally read it. Do you know how some books, if you've seen the tv adaptation you miss out on things? This is not the case with Alice, I could have totally done without reading the book but I must admit I never quite realised how snarky Alice was. This picture is my favourite rendition of her that I've seen because I feel like it captures her bit of an uppity attitude. The cover of the ebook though! yipe! If you read it as an adult there is a lot of underlying psychological issues to be gleaned from it, as I am sure, most know by now.

I will say this, i would without question read this to young children, the visual imagery is palpating and perfumes the reading experience. It charges the imagination and has that whimsical but still brooding feel. I understand why people love it. I'm just not one of those people for I found it rather too negative at this age I am at. That's just my perspective though. Plus I do admire that it is written in such a beautiful way that children will more than likely miss the message of negativity for years! Which I always think is skilled admirable writing.

Now I am flirting with the idea of starting a book club, which is easy to do ; I always have big dreams when school is out...this silly active brain o'mine. I needed to finish Alice since last year but since I wasn't enjoying it I kind of quit. I started in this way in hopes of getting through a few of the classics, a lot of them I know the general story of but have not read word for word. It is through this venture I ended up reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a couple years ago, now one of my favourite books.

I just feel like, just as a writer should write, so too should they read and I was just tired of letting excuses get in the way of expanding my vocabulary and feeding my wanderlust in one of the cheapest ways possible for a working student such as myself. It's a little difficult when reading has become so much a part of my job though, it kind of sucks a lot of the fun out of it...

Speaking of which, as I elaborated in my recent currently post, I already have a long list of books I need to read for academic purposes starting immediately...eek, not fun. I best get back to it!

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Peace. Love. Fiction.