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August 10
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Irina
marked as to-read:
The World Of Yesterday (Paperback)
by Stefan Zweig
bookshelves:
to-read,
to-read-next
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Irina
marked as to-read:
"Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman" and "The Royal Game" (Paperback)
by Stefan Zweig
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 21
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Irina
gave
to:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Paperback)
by Patrick Süskind
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2007
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July 16
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Irina
marked as to-read:
Feeding the Squirrels: A Novella (electronic - Adobe Acrobat (PDF), HTML, Microsoft Reader (LIT), Mobipocket (PRC), CD-ROM or Kindle)
by Roy L. Pickering Jr. (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 10
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Irina
took the never-ending book quiz.
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Irina
made a comment on
The Book Thief:
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Irina
marked as to-read:
Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman (Grove Great Lives)
by Stefan Zweig
bookshelves:
to-read,
to-read-next
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Irina
marked as to-read:
Chess Story (New York Review Books Classics)
by Stefan Zweig
bookshelves:
to-read,
to-read-next
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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June 16
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Irina
gave
to:
The Alchemist (Plus)
by Paulo Coelho (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Irina said:
"“The Alchemist” teaches you to find the courage to live things behind, not to be afraid to lose what you have and force yourself to pursue your personal legend at no matter what cost. As we leave just once, and if we don’t do what is necessary...more
“The Alchemist” teaches you to find the courage to live things behind, not to be afraid to lose what you have and force yourself to pursue your personal legend at no matter what cost. As we leave just once, and if we don’t do what is necessary for our inner fulfillment, we will never be happy.
The story though is somewhat unrealistic. The main character is a shepherd boy, who has nothing to lose: he is young, doesn’t have a family to support, and the most he will lose are his ships, who he might regain back quickly as soon as he has the money. Now, if we think about our real lives, quite often it is not easy just to leave things behind and set yourself on the path of pursuing your personal legend.
Towards the book end, the author is trying to demonstrate his side of believing in God, and that everything, earth, sun, wind…humans is one thing only. This takes a believer to buy into this idea, and is very difficult to connect to the real life.
But what I personally got out of this book was that it made me THINK. It made me to rethink my life and start asking myself a question: What is my personal legend?
My favorite quotes are:
“To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“If a person is living out his Personal Legend, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“Don’t think about what you’ve left behind.” “If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”
“…why should I listen to my heart?” “Because you will never again be able to keep it quite. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you are thinking about life and about the world.”
“Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
...less
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Irina
gave
to:
The Book Thief (Hardcover)
by Markus Zusak
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 2008
Irina said:
"This is a fantastic read!
The story is told by the third person, who happened to be “DEATH”. This allows the author to tell about future events at the present moment, which forces you to perceive current events differently than if you did no...more
This is a fantastic read!
The story is told by the third person, who happened to be “DEATH”. This allows the author to tell about future events at the present moment, which forces you to perceive current events differently than if you did not knowing what was going to happen in the future.
I have to confess though, if in the beginning, I liked the presence of the Narrator (Death), when I reached the middle of the book, it annoyed the hell out of me. The story is not really philosophical, but rather factual.. about the war, love, hunger, last, emotions, steeling, life. It is written in a very simple language, but somehow it pulls you into the events, and you really feel that you are part of it, smiling and crying together with the book characters… and all of a suddenly, you are interrupted by DEATH, the Narrator - :)- this immediately brings you back to the reality and you detach yourself from the story. And I don’t know, maybe the author intended for such an effect, but at the end it annoyed me, as wanted to stay a part of the story.
The events take place in the Nazi Germany, on the verge of the World War II . The main character is a 9-year old girl, Liesel, who arrives to the Himmel street to live with her new foster parents, because her mother can’t take care of her anymore. The first death she sees is at the age of 9, when she sees her brother dying while traveling with her and her mother to their new foster parents house. And this is the time when the book stealer is born. During the course of events, there are a lot of characters that pass through the book.
The writing style is very unique and chosen very wisely to deliver such fundamental historical events in such a simple way.
The author focus is on crimes of the National Socialism, war, and how it affects all people. The author is not describing the Holocaust in the traditional manner, but rather forces us to experience it through the eyes of the German girl. The author’s skill to deliver such tragic events in the history of humanity in such a simple story that take you a mile away. You go through events through the eyes of Max, a “stinky jew”, who spends his days in the dark and cold basement hopping that some day “this madness will end”, and through the eyes of Hobberman, the foster father, and Rudy, and other simple people, who don’t know much about the war or politics, but who’s lives and families are greatly impacted by Hitler’s crimes.
...less
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