Posts tagged for the soul

I believe I can see the future

The Lost Song

The Cat Empire


Hurry up Spring!

I LOVE this song and this is by far the best video that accompanies it

A People’s Revolution
A People’s Revolution
A People’s Revolution

A People’s Revolution

Take Off Your Cool (Feat. Norah Jones)

Andre 3000

Baby, take off your cool

Go tell your friends what Johnny did

Why, thank you

Why, thank you

Apt

Apt

Lusty

Push up the fader/bust the meter/shake the tweeter

Lunar calendar 2011 *Gorgeous* infographic

Lunar calendar 2011

*Gorgeous* infographic

Seventy Four Books My 2011 reading list. I have cleansed my bookshelves, removing all the books I’ve yet to read (or finish reading). There are a lot. I buy a lot of books. I have a book addiction. I like the smell of the pages and I like lingering in bookshops. Or lurking. Fortunately I also read a lot. So, I’ll try and make a dent in the pile. These babies are now stacked next to my bed. Gloating gleefully. But as I read them, they’ll be returned to the bookshelf and maybe by 2012 I can start buying more books and not feel guilty. Really, I don’t know why I didn’t do this before. I may blog about particularly good ones, but in the meantime, here is a full list with a little note about each: n.b. not in any particular order 1. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami (second-hand, bought from Pulborough train station’s mini library for £1) 2. Buddha - Deepak Chopra (already read to chapter 7 six months ago, umm… no excuses) 3. If this is a man/The Truce - Primo Levi (gift from David, one of his faves) 4. The Language of Passion - Mario Vargas Llosa (bought for $2 in a weird underground store in Athens) 5. The Life You Can Save - Peter Singer (impulse buy, paid full price, sucker) 6. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (lent to me by John’s mum) 7. The Victims Return - Stephen F. Cohen (a gift after reading an article about it in the NY Times) 8. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga - Deepak Chopra (put down at page 17… it seems Chopra fails to ignite me, which is perhaps why I stopped following him on Twitter so long ago) 9. Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales - (gift from Johnny Baboon) 10. The Metamorphosis and other stories - Franz Kafka (I bought this when another book referred to it, which, I cannot remember) 11. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke (purchased from local charity shop, its weighty) 12. Dominion - Matthew Scully (staple AR reading, except I’d not made it past page 24, but there is a nice wombat-themed bookmark there) 13. The Diary of Frida Kahlo (I love her. It’s mostly Spanish and pictures, but I love her) 14. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (crap, I don’t know where this came from. I’m not sure if I borrowed it and have failed to return it…) 15. John F. Kennedy an Unfinished Life - Robert Dallek (I was given this by Patrick’s mutti about six years ago) 16. Living to Tell the Tale - Gabriel García Márquez (part of the following collection of Amazon wish list gifts from my mum) 17. The Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel García Márquez 18. Collected Stories - Gabriel García Márquez (half-read) 19. Leaf Storm - Gabriel García Márquez 20. News of a Kidnapping - Gabriel García Márquez 21. In Evil Hour - Gabriel García Márquez 22. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera (I love this man’s writing, a gift) 23. Dewey - Vicki Myron (a gift from John’s mum. There is a picture of a cat on the cover) 24. Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga (Bought because I enjoyed White Tiger so) 25. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño (started, daunted, retreated. There are nearly 900 pages, that could take me the whole of 2011) 26. The Pankhursts - Martin Pugh (lent to me by David) 27. 117 Days - Ruth First (a gift following an interesting insight on Radio 4) 28. Feminizing Politics - Joni Lovenduski (just because) 29. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (because The Lacuna was so damn good) 30. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (a gift, I think) 31. Freedom From Fear - Aung San Suu Kyi (a joyous gift from John this Christmas) 32. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby (another stocking-gift from Johnny, probably because I cried to myself while watching the film) 33. Any Human Heart - William Boyd (again from lovely John) 34. Fiesta - Ernest Hemingway (borrowed from Mr Baboon) 35. Sovereign Virtue - Ronald Dworkin (Christmas gift from my mum in 2007, as per my request. Its a hefty tome on equality) 36. The Art of War - Sun Tzu (bought in DC, of all places) 37. Building the Rule of Law - Jennifer A. Widner (bought in Adelaide in ‘06. Its about African judicial independence) 38. Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallaire (I’ve had this for a long while. It’s time I read it) 39. Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell (free with The Times, except I didn’t by the Times. Matt snaffled it from a Nero for me) 40. The World Crisis the Way Forward after Iraq  - essays (I bought this or it was a gift, I can’t recall…) 41. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (inherited from my grandparents. The copy is from 1943 and beautiful) 42. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (as above from ‘43) 43. Monster of God - David Quammen (bought in Boston a while back. I made it to page 27 back then) 44. Man Alone with Himself - Friedrich Nietzsche (read half of this when walking Hadrian’s Wall in 2008) 45. The Evils of Revolution - Edmund Burke (unread. Totally) 46. The Sickness unto Death - Søren Kierkegaard (as above) 47. Concerning Violence - Frantz Fanon (ditto) 48. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo (part-read, only partly-part) 49. A Revolution in Kindness - Anita Roddick (this is actually a hand-book given to Body Shop staff. My mum used to work at their HQ, until it was taken over by evil L’Oreal and she was made redundant) 50. The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein (a gift from my vbff Josie) 51. The Savage Garden - Mark Mills (this has a dreaded ‘Richard and Judy Summer Read sticker on the front’ *pulls face*) 52. The Mission Song - John Le Carré (a gift?) 53. The Bolter - Frances Osborne (signed: ‘For Cat’, its a long story…) 54. Women in Contemporary Politics - Wendy Stokes (an inspired Chrissy gift from the parents this year) 55. Gift from the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh (a gift from my grandparents to my great grandmother in 1957) 56. Animal Voices, Animal Guides - Dawn Baumann Brunke (!! a gift) 57. The China Study - a pair of Campbells (stopped at page 103, should really finish) 58. Atonement - Ian McEwan (made it to chapter 2, before it was a hit movie film) 59. Hearing Secret Harmonies - Anthony Powell (1975 copy) 60. Turn of the Tide - Arthur Bryant (1958 copy) 61. Harry Black - David Walker (1958 copy) 62. Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell (inherited) 63. Dreams - Carl Gustav Jung (I bought this in.. ‘08?) 64. A Short History of Ethics - Alasdair MacIntyre (I made it to page 35, maybe in late ‘07 early ‘08) 65. Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche 66. The Republic - Plato (I have a bookmark on page xlix of the intro…) 67. Che Guevara - Jon Lee Anderson (bought from an Oxfam Bookshop) 68. Mao - Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (a gift from my granny for Christmas a few years back) 69. The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse (a gift from Patrick. Teaching me of the German greats…) 70. Agamemnon - Aeschylus (1970 copy) 71. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex - essay collection (1968 copy, my aunts I think) 72. The Anacreonta (1955 copy, a collection of poetry given by my uncle to his “Lovely One, to help pass an idle hour”) 73. The New Killing Fields - a collection of essays (bought in ‘06. I studied the genocide a lot) 74. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera (my current read. I adore it so much, I only read it in little bursts so as to save it)

Seventy Four Books

My 2011 reading list.

I have cleansed my bookshelves, removing all the books I’ve yet to read (or finish reading). There are a lot. I buy a lot of books. I have a book addiction. I like the smell of the pages and I like lingering in bookshops. Or lurking.

Fortunately I also read a lot. So, I’ll try and make a dent in the pile. These babies are now stacked next to my bed. Gloating gleefully. But as I read them, they’ll be returned to the bookshelf and maybe by 2012 I can start buying more books and not feel guilty. Really, I don’t know why I didn’t do this before.

I may blog about particularly good ones, but in the meantime, here is a full list with a little note about each:

n.b. not in any particular order

1. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami (second-hand, bought from Pulborough train station’s mini library for £1)

2. Buddha - Deepak Chopra (already read to chapter 7 six months ago, umm… no excuses)

3. If this is a man/The Truce - Primo Levi (gift from David, one of his faves)

4. The Language of Passion - Mario Vargas Llosa (bought for $2 in a weird underground store in Athens)

5. The Life You Can Save - Peter Singer (impulse buy, paid full price, sucker)

6. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (lent to me by John’s mum)

7. The Victims Return - Stephen F. Cohen (a gift after reading an article about it in the NY Times)

8. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga - Deepak Chopra (put down at page 17… it seems Chopra fails to ignite me, which is perhaps why I stopped following him on Twitter so long ago)

9. Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales - (gift from Johnny Baboon)

10. The Metamorphosis and other stories - Franz Kafka (I bought this when another book referred to it, which, I cannot remember)

11. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke (purchased from local charity shop, its weighty)

12. Dominion - Matthew Scully (staple AR reading, except I’d not made it past page 24, but there is a nice wombat-themed bookmark there)

13. The Diary of Frida Kahlo (I love her. It’s mostly Spanish and pictures, but I love her)

14. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (crap, I don’t know where this came from. I’m not sure if I borrowed it and have failed to return it…)

15. John F. Kennedy an Unfinished Life - Robert Dallek (I was given this by Patrick’s mutti about six years ago)

16. Living to Tell the Tale - Gabriel García Márquez (part of the following collection of Amazon wish list gifts from my mum)

17. The Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel García Márquez

18. Collected Stories - Gabriel García Márquez (half-read)

19. Leaf Storm - Gabriel García Márquez

20. News of a Kidnapping - Gabriel García Márquez

21. In Evil Hour - Gabriel García Márquez

22. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera (I love this man’s writing, a gift)

23. Dewey - Vicki Myron (a gift from John’s mum. There is a picture of a cat on the cover)

24. Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga (Bought because I enjoyed White Tiger so)

25. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño (started, daunted, retreated. There are nearly 900 pages, that could take me the whole of 2011)

26. The Pankhursts - Martin Pugh (lent to me by David)

27. 117 Days - Ruth First (a gift following an interesting insight on Radio 4)

28. Feminizing Politics - Joni Lovenduski (just because)

29. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (because The Lacuna was so damn good)

30. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (a gift, I think)

31. Freedom From Fear - Aung San Suu Kyi (a joyous gift from John this Christmas)

32. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby (another stocking-gift from Johnny, probably because I cried to myself while watching the film)

33. Any Human Heart - William Boyd (again from lovely John)

34. Fiesta - Ernest Hemingway (borrowed from Mr Baboon)

35. Sovereign Virtue - Ronald Dworkin (Christmas gift from my mum in 2007, as per my request. Its a hefty tome on equality)

36. The Art of War - Sun Tzu (bought in DC, of all places)

37. Building the Rule of Law - Jennifer A. Widner (bought in Adelaide in ‘06. Its about African judicial independence)

38. Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallaire (I’ve had this for a long while. It’s time I read it)

39. Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell (free with The Times, except I didn’t by the Times. Matt snaffled it from a Nero for me)

40. The World Crisis the Way Forward after Iraq  - essays (I bought this or it was a gift, I can’t recall…)

41. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (inherited from my grandparents. The copy is from 1943 and beautiful)

42. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (as above from ‘43)

43. Monster of God - David Quammen (bought in Boston a while back. I made it to page 27 back then)

44. Man Alone with Himself - Friedrich Nietzsche (read half of this when walking Hadrian’s Wall in 2008)

45. The Evils of Revolution - Edmund Burke (unread. Totally)

46. The Sickness unto Death - Søren Kierkegaard (as above)

47. Concerning Violence - Frantz Fanon (ditto)

48. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo (part-read, only partly-part)

49. A Revolution in Kindness - Anita Roddick (this is actually a hand-book given to Body Shop staff. My mum used to work at their HQ, until it was taken over by evil L’Oreal and she was made redundant)

50. The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein (a gift from my vbff Josie)

51. The Savage Garden - Mark Mills (this has a dreaded ‘Richard and Judy Summer Read sticker on the front’ *pulls face*)

52. The Mission Song - John Le Carré (a gift?)

53. The Bolter - Frances Osborne (signed: ‘For Cat’, its a long story…)

54. Women in Contemporary Politics - Wendy Stokes (an inspired Chrissy gift from the parents this year)

55. Gift from the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh (a gift from my grandparents to my great grandmother in 1957)

56. Animal Voices, Animal Guides - Dawn Baumann Brunke (!! a gift)

57. The China Study - a pair of Campbells (stopped at page 103, should really finish)

58. Atonement - Ian McEwan (made it to chapter 2, before it was a hit movie film)

59. Hearing Secret Harmonies - Anthony Powell (1975 copy)

60. Turn of the Tide - Arthur Bryant (1958 copy)

61. Harry Black - David Walker (1958 copy)

62. Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell (inherited)

63. Dreams - Carl Gustav Jung (I bought this in.. ‘08?)

64. A Short History of Ethics - Alasdair MacIntyre (I made it to page 35, maybe in late ‘07 early ‘08)

65. Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

66. The Republic - Plato (I have a bookmark on page xlix of the intro…)

67. Che Guevara - Jon Lee Anderson (bought from an Oxfam Bookshop)

68. Mao - Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (a gift from my granny for Christmas a few years back)

69. The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse (a gift from Patrick. Teaching me of the German greats…)

70. Agamemnon - Aeschylus (1970 copy)

71. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex - essay collection (1968 copy, my aunts I think)

72. The Anacreonta (1955 copy, a collection of poetry given by my uncle to his “Lovely One, to help pass an idle hour”)

73. The New Killing Fields - a collection of essays (bought in ‘06. I studied the genocide a lot)

74. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera (my current read. I adore it so much, I only read it in little bursts so as to save it)