1) The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. To make this completely honest, I actually began reading this book back in December. I got about 50 pages in and inconveniently got trapped in the whirlwind of school which lead to the book being shelved and forgotten about until around the end of May when my every day workload began to slow down a tiny bit. So, this book was...a lot to take in. Richard Dawkins is a famous atheist who writes about how it's impossible for God to exist by breaking down all of the beliefs/myths that people have about this supposed supreme being. One day in the lunch room at work, one of the guys said to me, "Oh you're reading Richard Dawkins. Does that mean you don't believe in God?". My first thought was, do people actually openly ask that question these days? I don't know this guy at all and decided that my beliefs were none of his concern and replied by telling him that people from every end of the spectrum, from extreme atheists to extreme God followers, can enjoy this book because it gives a point of view that a lot of people don't consider and can make one either fight for what they believe in or start to second guess what they choose to believe. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The first 50-100 pages were kind of slow but once I got to chapter 3 I really began to get into it and the pages were turning quickly. 
2) Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This book had me captivated by the end of the first chapter. Obviously I was drawn to the contents of this book because it is about the food industry and farming and where our food comes from. There were parts of this book that left me broken hearted when learning about how some (most) animals are treated at birth and all the way to slaughter. Once again I am happy that I do not eat beef. For some reason, the part where he explained why they cut the tails off pigs just left me feeling so saddened for these poor creatures. Probably because they have an IQ similar to that of a dog and my love for dogs is very well known. But then there were also parts which filled me with hope and fascination. When the reader learns about the most amazing self sufficient animal farm that Pollan visits for a week, it just left me believing that it is possible to have that way of life be the only way of life in terms of raising animals for human consumption. Now if only all those a-holes who own most of the food industry would open their eyes and forget about their bank accounts for a few minutes then we might begin to make some kind of progress on this whole matter. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know where their food is coming come so that they can make an educated decision when choosing and purchasing their food (especially meats). 
3) Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I borrowed this book from my friend Shawn well over a year ago and just never got the chance to read it. Well, I ended up reading it in a day and a half. I'm not going to lie. This was a fantastic book. It started off kind of slow and had some majorly obvious foreshadowing at some points, but as I read on, it became a really great read. By the last two chapters I was sitting on my forklift at work ignoring every sound and person around me, trying with all of my might to get to the end of the book because I just HAD to know how it ended. My heart was literally racing as my eyes ran down the pages as fast as they could. Does Ralph get away? Does he die? Are they rescued? Does he somehow screw them over? Do they all die? What happens on that crazy island?!?!? I won't give it away. This author described perfectly how man basically destroys everything that is good and that we will always fail if we were to try to govern ourselves. We're useless. 
4) An Imaginary Life by David Malouf. I picked this book off of Pam's bookshelf on my way to work this morning and I was able to read the entire thing in today's shift (I was training 2 new guys which meant I had to sit back and just make sure they didn't break anything). This book was....meh. Nothing special. He's fantastic at making the most beautiful points about life and growing and becoming your true self. It's about a first century poet who is banished from Rome and forced to live in this small tribal village out in the middle of nowhere. He eventually takes in this young boy who lives out in the wild (raised with the deer) and all kind of ill shit occurs. But overall, the book seemed really rushed and I mostly just read it as fast as I could so that I would be done with it and move onto another book. What will my next read be?? Who knows!
No comments:
Post a Comment