Saqib Noor's Blog, page 3
July 3, 2017
TheBookBag.co.uk Book Review – 03.07.2017
It was a pleasure to have the book, “Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants”, reviewed by Sue from the Book Bag.
Here is an extract from the review:
The book is very readable, if harrowing and frightening in places, but it’s the sort of book where you quickly succumb to ‘just another chapter’ syndrome and a book which I expected to read over several days was finished in less than twenty four hours.
The full book review can be read by clicking here.
June 11, 2017
The Science of Hope
Dear readers,
As I travelled to sporadic, distant destinations in the world, with my clumsy feet and widened eyes, to locations of severe austerity, I palpated a surprising theme of universal hope in places I did not think it was possible to have.
From the spinal victims of the Haiti earthquake – left paralyzed in the collapsing rubble, to the teenagers with advanced bone tumours in Cambodia – still believing in cure, to the young and enthusiastic surgeons of Ethiopia – determined for a bette...
May 31, 2017
The Everlasting Light
There was once a proud and noble king who ruled over an ancient kingdom, high in one of the remotest mountain ranges in the world. He ruled with sincere honesty and merciful compassion. And just like all good kings in all good kingdoms of all good stories, he was loved by all of his people.
He would distribute the excesses of his wealth amongst the poor. He would ensure lasting peace with all of the kingdom’s neighbouring friends and rivals. He guaranteed all his people were treated fairly a...
The never ending light
There was once a proud and noble king who ruled over an ancient kingdom, high in one of the remotest mountain ranges in the world. He ruled with sincere honesty and merciful compassion. And just like all good kings in all good kingdoms of all good stories, he was loved by all of his people.
He would distribute the excesses of his wealth amongst the poor. He would ensure lasting peace with all of the kingdom’s neighbouring friends and rivals. He guaranteed all his people were treated fairly a...
May 23, 2017
One act of hatred, a thousand acts of love
There are times when the world cannot be understood, so overwhelmingly sad, so inexplicably cruel. The events in Manchester are so sickening and indeed, so overbearing that it is far easier for me to hide away from the images of the media, to turn off the news, to put away my phone. Merely contemplating the sudden loss of happy, innocent lives at a once-joyous event and the everlasting grief caused by the madness of this truly evil act is difficult for me to comprehend.
Right now, I cannot br...
May 22, 2017
Goodreads Giveaway
I am giving away three signed copies of my book, Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants via a Goodreads Giveaway. The deadline for entry is June 12th 2017. I give away the books because I want to write letters to the winners, thanking them for their entry, adding to the collection of deeply personal letters already embedded within the book, describing all my travels abroad.
Punctuation
The exclamation mark that strikes through my passionate heart in excitement, like a piercing, dotted arrow!
The floating raindrop apostrophe that always hangs above my mind’s cloudy sky.
The sealing lips of the brackets that quietly whisper my secrets (that are no longer my secrets).
The unobtrusive comma that allows me to pause, rethink, scratch my thoughts, and continue.
The magical @ that converts my words into invisible messages disappearing with no return.
The inverted commas that allow...
April 29, 2017
Book release: Surgery On The Shoulders Of Giants
Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants is a heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting collection of letters written during the medical travels of Saqib Noor, a surgeon in training and a doctor passionate about healthcare in impoverished areas of the world.
Saqib qualified from Nottingham Medical School in 2004 and subsequently has embarked on a career in orthopaedic surgery. The events in the book are described in real time, beginning in South Africa with a series of personal and vivid letters, an...
March 7, 2017
The Lost, Last Words
The Lost (Last) Words is dedicated to all those that have lost loved ones in the past and to all those that will lose someone, some day in the present and future, such is the only certainty of life.
He wrote of words he wished he had said. He wrote the words he now could no longer say. He wrote all the difficult words that were now far too easy. He wrote the easy words that had now become so difficult. He wrote fluently. He wrote passionately. He wrote furiously. He described in perfect deta...
February 12, 2017
The Secret Whispers Of The Library
A library is a dusty collection of books, lovingly treasured over a period of time whilst being haphazardly stacked and sorted in various categories and genres. It is a mystical space with a sacred aura, defined by the boundaries of dizzying shelves of varying sizes, with hidden corners and secret spots where forgotten books are kept, in hopeful anticipation of being discovered once again.
Libraries are the temples and cemeteries of the authors before us, where their innermost desires, wishfu...
