My all time favourite reads (I keep going back to)
Hello everyone!
I hope you're doing well!
At times when I'm down, stressed or just need something to lift me up and I struggle to focus with my current reads, I go back to my favourites. Something about going back to those familiar worlds and letting yourself completely be absorbed by characters and text you know inside out is comforting. It's like going back to one's happy place, but created by someone else than you. You just love to be in it. It might remind you of the place you first read it at or a certain part of your life - or neither of those - and all the story does is make you feel at ease. In this post I want to introduce you to five of my comfort reads (in no particular order, apart from the first two ;) ) Are any of these on your go-to list?
(All photos from various tumblr sites)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
I remember when this book got assigned for me to read for our literature class in Finland when I was about 16 or 17 years old. At first glance I was like 'oh jeez, this is gonna be so boring!' but after about five or so pages in, I was sold. Since then it has claimed it's place as my all time favourite book. The language is absolutely fantastic, the plot... There are so many things that makes it phenomenal! The way Lord Henry Wotton is sassy about everything in life and constantly contradicts himself. The underlying tone of gay romance. The luxury. The vanity. I'm not surprised the film adaptations never seem to work. The story is something so special I doubt anyone could manage to adapt it on screen without losing Wilde's language and his presence. It's one of those books that after you've read it, you can open it from any bit and just be completely swept by it! Love, love, love!
“When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
This short story is so close to my heart that if I could only read one story for the rest of my life, it would be this one. Sometimes I just sit at home and read it out loud because the text is so fantastic; almost like music! I have never read a more gripping description of someone so obsessed to kill a person, and yet fully convincing themselves they are not mad. I have read it dozens of times and it still keeps me on my toes. I am planning to adapt the story on stage as my third year performance... Wait and see...
“True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.” Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
This is the only book that has kept with me since my early teens. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a collection of linked short stories with the same characters and it follows the life of Jane Rosenal from the age of 14 to adulthood. Love, sex and family issues are the main themes in these stories and they are approached with a comical and witty tone. Yet again, the language is what I keep going back to. I have never read any other book with a similar writing style and I adore it. The text is full of realisations and statements, and in some way are very similar to Oscar Wilde's style. The style of writing and the statements also add fuel to the fire of things I don't want to hear but need to hear in life. I guess I'll keep re-reading it, hoping one day it'll sink in!
"But then you hear that he can't hear you, you see that he can't see you. You are not here--and you haven't even died yet. You see yourself through his eyes, as The Generic Woman, the skirted symbol on the ladies' room door.” - Melissa Bank, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Now, this is a book I read after I had seen the film by Baz Luhrmann and completely fell head over heels in love with the 1920's. I remember as soon as I bought the book I read it in one day! The Great Gatsby describes the jazz age perfectly with its endless partying - yet the story is full of sadness. The text is poetic, yearning to repeat the past only realising in a heartbreaking way that one has no other choice but to move on and not cling to something that is impossible to bring back. A perfect summer read.
“Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Buddhist Boot Camp by Timber Hawkeye
This book is different to all the other ones. Buddhist Boot Camp is not fiction, it's a collection of teachings and mindfulness techniques written by Timber Hawkeye, a stripper-turned-paralegal-turned-spiritualist. He is 'faithfully religionless' and instead of preaching according to a certain religion, he hosts a podcast with the same name as the book in which he encourages people to be better and do better in their everyday lives. I used to victimise myself, get annoyed at everything and everyone thinking I was in the right and was just completely stuck in a toxic lifestyle filled with bitter thoughts... Until a few years ago when I stumbled across his podcast and, eventually, book. It has changed my life. If you struggle with mental health or feel you are stuck in the same spot in your life or need motivation to change or anything at all - Timber will help you. Let him. Namaste!
“We cannot control what anyone else is up to; we can only be mindful of what we can each do individually, and do it well.”
"“Sometimes life isn’t about anything new that we have to learn, but about what we have to UNlearn instead.”
“Isn’t it refreshing to know that just because we’ve always been a certain way, it doesn’t mean we have to stay that way forever?” - All three quotes by Timber Hawkeye, Buddhist Boot Camp (2012)
I hope you're doing well!
At times when I'm down, stressed or just need something to lift me up and I struggle to focus with my current reads, I go back to my favourites. Something about going back to those familiar worlds and letting yourself completely be absorbed by characters and text you know inside out is comforting. It's like going back to one's happy place, but created by someone else than you. You just love to be in it. It might remind you of the place you first read it at or a certain part of your life - or neither of those - and all the story does is make you feel at ease. In this post I want to introduce you to five of my comfort reads (in no particular order, apart from the first two ;) ) Are any of these on your go-to list?
(All photos from various tumblr sites)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
I remember when this book got assigned for me to read for our literature class in Finland when I was about 16 or 17 years old. At first glance I was like 'oh jeez, this is gonna be so boring!' but after about five or so pages in, I was sold. Since then it has claimed it's place as my all time favourite book. The language is absolutely fantastic, the plot... There are so many things that makes it phenomenal! The way Lord Henry Wotton is sassy about everything in life and constantly contradicts himself. The underlying tone of gay romance. The luxury. The vanity. I'm not surprised the film adaptations never seem to work. The story is something so special I doubt anyone could manage to adapt it on screen without losing Wilde's language and his presence. It's one of those books that after you've read it, you can open it from any bit and just be completely swept by it! Love, love, love!
“When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
This short story is so close to my heart that if I could only read one story for the rest of my life, it would be this one. Sometimes I just sit at home and read it out loud because the text is so fantastic; almost like music! I have never read a more gripping description of someone so obsessed to kill a person, and yet fully convincing themselves they are not mad. I have read it dozens of times and it still keeps me on my toes. I am planning to adapt the story on stage as my third year performance... Wait and see...
“True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.” Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
This is the only book that has kept with me since my early teens. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a collection of linked short stories with the same characters and it follows the life of Jane Rosenal from the age of 14 to adulthood. Love, sex and family issues are the main themes in these stories and they are approached with a comical and witty tone. Yet again, the language is what I keep going back to. I have never read any other book with a similar writing style and I adore it. The text is full of realisations and statements, and in some way are very similar to Oscar Wilde's style. The style of writing and the statements also add fuel to the fire of things I don't want to hear but need to hear in life. I guess I'll keep re-reading it, hoping one day it'll sink in!
"But then you hear that he can't hear you, you see that he can't see you. You are not here--and you haven't even died yet. You see yourself through his eyes, as The Generic Woman, the skirted symbol on the ladies' room door.” - Melissa Bank, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Now, this is a book I read after I had seen the film by Baz Luhrmann and completely fell head over heels in love with the 1920's. I remember as soon as I bought the book I read it in one day! The Great Gatsby describes the jazz age perfectly with its endless partying - yet the story is full of sadness. The text is poetic, yearning to repeat the past only realising in a heartbreaking way that one has no other choice but to move on and not cling to something that is impossible to bring back. A perfect summer read.
“Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Buddhist Boot Camp by Timber Hawkeye
This book is different to all the other ones. Buddhist Boot Camp is not fiction, it's a collection of teachings and mindfulness techniques written by Timber Hawkeye, a stripper-turned-paralegal-turned-spiritualist. He is 'faithfully religionless' and instead of preaching according to a certain religion, he hosts a podcast with the same name as the book in which he encourages people to be better and do better in their everyday lives. I used to victimise myself, get annoyed at everything and everyone thinking I was in the right and was just completely stuck in a toxic lifestyle filled with bitter thoughts... Until a few years ago when I stumbled across his podcast and, eventually, book. It has changed my life. If you struggle with mental health or feel you are stuck in the same spot in your life or need motivation to change or anything at all - Timber will help you. Let him. Namaste!
“We cannot control what anyone else is up to; we can only be mindful of what we can each do individually, and do it well.”
"“Sometimes life isn’t about anything new that we have to learn, but about what we have to UNlearn instead.”
“Isn’t it refreshing to know that just because we’ve always been a certain way, it doesn’t mean we have to stay that way forever?” - All three quotes by Timber Hawkeye, Buddhist Boot Camp (2012)
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