For the last two and a half weeks I've been relaxing and reading - the best R and R. With a three week period between the end of my exams and the start of my new job I have spent most of my time reading. For the first time in three years I have no set reading that I have to complete, no pressure to dissect every paragraph and no panics over writing literature reviews. I can actually read for pleasure!
The first book that I read in my period of freedom was Michelle Tea's
How To Grow Up. I saw some people tweet about this book a few weeks ago but forgot about it until I came across it while scrolling through the Book Depository website. Seeing that I would soon be finishing uni and heading into the 'real world' I thought it would be an interesting book to read and it was. Tea's
How To Grow Up is a memoir that documents the writer's life from young alcoholic to successful author, poet . . . the list goes on. Although I could not totally relate to Tea's colourful early life, the lessons she learns on her way to adulthood could be applied to most areas of every individual's life. She discusses economic, social and political struggles that the majority of young people experience, like for example, how are you going to pay the rent this month, how to live with loud, messy and drunk housemates, how to strike the balance between work and play, how to make a living doing something you actually love and everything in between. Although it is not a book I will reach for again and again like others on my bookshelf, it was well worth the read and it shows you that if you work hard things will eventually come together.
Like many millions of people in the 21st century I buy books, a lot of them, even when I have a gazillion books on my shelf that have yet to be read. After the last order of books I told myself that I was not going to buy anymore until I had read the entirety of my bookshelf but alas I was/am weak when it comes to books. On what was supposed to be a short revision break I ended up buying 3 more books to add to my collection. But it's ok because they were 3 for £5 in a charity shop so they were basically free, right?! One of these books was
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
, a book that I have seen on the Amazon best sellers list for months, therefore I had high expectations.
The Rosie Project tracks the life of a middle-aged autistic professor of genetics, Don Tillman; a man who is on the hunt for a wife through the use of what he deems to be a fool proof questionnaire called 'The Wife Project'. However the importance of Tillman's questionnaire steadily reduces when he meets a no-nonsense woman named Rosie and starts another project named 'The Father Project'. Fast paced, funny, emotional and heartwarming, Simsion's novel did not disappoint. I read the book in a few days and loved every second of it and by the end I totally understood why it has been and continues to be on the bestsellers list months after its initial release. Don't get me wrong, it's not a life changing, gripping, edge of the seat read but its fun, simple and enjoyable and I would recommend it to everyone.
Being 9 years old and having been on the
New York Times Best Sellers List for 187 weeks you would have thought that I would have read
Eat, Pray, Love before now but I hadn't. Deal with it. However, I really wanted to watch the film but wanted to read the book first so I felt that now was the perfect time to get started on the book that women for almost a decade have passed to their best friends, mothers, daughters and sisters. The book follows the life of author Elizabeth Gilbert as she divorces her husband and goes travelling for a year, spending four months each in Rome, an ashram in India and Bali. It's a credit to Gilbert's writing that you can feel the genuine gilt, depression and anxiety she felt upon realising that she no longer wanted to be a wife to her husband and as she attempts to rebuild her life. The chapter where she discusses her time in Rome made me feel very, very hungry, the one concerning India made me want to practice more yoga and Gilbert's discussion of her time in Bali got me more interested in homeopathy. OK, I know that is a gross simplification of what is a very spiritual, deep and emotional book but I feel that a gazillion people have written about this book already and these are just my feelings regarding the book. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed reading it up to half way through her stay in the Ashram and then I was just reading for the sake of finishing it. It might be because I read it quite quickly and intensely but I was a bit disappointed in the second half of the book. However, like both of the other books mentioned, I would most definitely recommend this book to people as I feel it's an important book. Important in the way that it delves deep into human emotions and how it emphases the immense power of the mind. This might be a book I reach for again but not for a long while.
The first book that I read in my period of freedom was Michelle Tea's How To Grow Up. I saw some people tweet about this book a few weeks ago but forgot about it until I came across it while scrolling through the Book Depository website. Seeing that I would soon be finishing uni and heading into the 'real world' I thought it would be an interesting book to read and it was. Tea's How To Grow Up is a memoir that documents the writer's life from young alcoholic to successful author, poet . . . the list goes on. Although I could not totally relate to Tea's colourful early life, the lessons she learns on her way to adulthood could be applied to most areas of every individual's life. She discusses economic, social and political struggles that the majority of young people experience, like for example, how are you going to pay the rent this month, how to live with loud, messy and drunk housemates, how to strike the balance between work and play, how to make a living doing something you actually love and everything in between. Although it is not a book I will reach for again and again like others on my bookshelf, it was well worth the read and it shows you that if you work hard things will eventually come together. 
Like many millions of people in the 21st century I buy books, a lot of them, even when I have a gazillion books on my shelf that have yet to be read. After the last order of books I told myself that I was not going to buy anymore until I had read the entirety of my bookshelf but alas I was/am weak when it comes to books. On what was supposed to be a short revision break I ended up buying 3 more books to add to my collection. But it's ok because they were 3 for £5 in a charity shop so they were basically free, right?! One of these books was The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, a book that I have seen on the Amazon best sellers list for months, therefore I had high expectations. The Rosie Project tracks the life of a middle-aged autistic professor of genetics, Don Tillman; a man who is on the hunt for a wife through the use of what he deems to be a fool proof questionnaire called 'The Wife Project'. However the importance of Tillman's questionnaire steadily reduces when he meets a no-nonsense woman named Rosie and starts another project named 'The Father Project'. Fast paced, funny, emotional and heartwarming, Simsion's novel did not disappoint. I read the book in a few days and loved every second of it and by the end I totally understood why it has been and continues to be on the bestsellers list months after its initial release. Don't get me wrong, it's not a life changing, gripping, edge of the seat read but its fun, simple and enjoyable and I would recommend it to everyone. 
Being 9 years old and having been on the New York Times Best Sellers List for 187 weeks you would have thought that I would have read Eat, Pray, Love before now but I hadn't. Deal with it. However, I really wanted to watch the film but wanted to read the book first so I felt that now was the perfect time to get started on the book that women for almost a decade have passed to their best friends, mothers, daughters and sisters. The book follows the life of author Elizabeth Gilbert as she divorces her husband and goes travelling for a year, spending four months each in Rome, an ashram in India and Bali. It's a credit to Gilbert's writing that you can feel the genuine gilt, depression and anxiety she felt upon realising that she no longer wanted to be a wife to her husband and as she attempts to rebuild her life. The chapter where she discusses her time in Rome made me feel very, very hungry, the one concerning India made me want to practice more yoga and Gilbert's discussion of her time in Bali got me more interested in homeopathy. OK, I know that is a gross simplification of what is a very spiritual, deep and emotional book but I feel that a gazillion people have written about this book already and these are just my feelings regarding the book. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed reading it up to half way through her stay in the Ashram and then I was just reading for the sake of finishing it. It might be because I read it quite quickly and intensely but I was a bit disappointed in the second half of the book. However, like both of the other books mentioned, I would most definitely recommend this book to people as I feel it's an important book. Important in the way that it delves deep into human emotions and how it emphases the immense power of the mind. This might be a book I reach for again but not for a long while. 
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