The Book Club

Hey everyone, I thought an ongoing topic to discuss anything book related would be nice. 

Anything related to literature is on topic, e.g. What are you reading? Favourite authors? Favourite Books? Recommendations for fellow members? Best bookstores? 

FirstPrev12(page 2/2)
16 comments

I read and wrote a review on Solomon's Noose by Steve Harris – a great book and a very interesting read. Not only about one man's struggle to come to terms with being a convict, living in squalor and his everyday battle with being Her Majesty's hangman. Recommended. Read my review here if you're interested ...

http://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/the-hangman-of-hobart-town

A great review Leon .. makes one tempted to read the book :)

this sounds interesting,   must get to the library and book it,    like faye and s,d, i tend to have more then one at time on the go,   not a dozen,   but at least 3.   usually on different subjects,    just pick up whichever mood im in, 

Read your review Leon...enjoyed it!

Read this book many years ago and was recently reminded of it by another poster…the book is  “Narcissus and Goldmund” by Hermann Hesse Nobel Prize winning author and is so interesting because in it Hesse portrays the never ending conflict between flesh and spirit... between the emotional person who constantly seeks new adventure and whose spirit is awakened each day by the world around them…. and the person who is hemmed in and slowly suffocated by scholastic restraints.

The two main characters in the book Goldmund and Narcissus reminds us that the only way to find the path to happiness….is to know ourselves…and the only way to do that is to not only use our minds... but to experience life as much as possible…

This novel brings home the reality that whether our path of happiness ends up in the arts, sciences, being in the service of others, whatever you chose or whatever is thrust upon you…we need to use both our intellect and our amygdale to make decisions about where to go. People who choose one way of being over another……will have a terribly difficult time finding fulfilment in their lives.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book:

“One of the disadvantages of school and learning, he thought dreamily, was that the mind seemed to have the tendency to see and represent all things as though they were flat and had only two dimensions. This, somehow, seemed to render all matters of intellect shallow and worthless...” 

And…

“I believe . . . that the petal of a flower or a tiny worm on the path says far more, contains far more than all the books in the library. One cannot say very much with mere letters and words. Sometimes I'll be writing a Greek letter, a theta or an omega, and tilt my pen just the slightest bit; suddenly the letter has a tail and becomes a fish; in a second it evokes all the streams and rivers of the world, all that is cool and humid, Homer's sea and the waters on which Saint Peter wandered; or becomes a bird, flaps its tail, shakes out its feathers, puffs itself up, laughs, flies away. You probably don't appreciate letters like that, very much, do you, Narcissus? But I say: with them God wrote the world.” 

For anyone who is interested in the book but doesn't want to hunt for it...I have found a good summary which I'll find a place for.

FirstPrev12(page 2/2)
16 comments



To make a comment, please register or login

Preview your comment