5 Things I Consumed Last Week (treasures from my bookshelf - pt. 2)

on the color purple, wabi sabi, rumi, oryx and the crake and big brother

Hello Nello!

Your weekend writer has become a weekday writer, only for this week (thanks to long weekends). I travelled to my home town this weekend after almost 6 months. There’s certainly a warmth of your own bed and study table that no other place can provide. I have a stack of books at home and it was fun revisiting a couple of them. I randomly picked a couple - books which reignite a lot of memories in my head.

Hope you’ll like them too. Let’s get started.

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The Color Purple | Alice Walker

The book is told in letters and includes an abundance of mature content -- explicit sex, rape, incest, sexism and violence toward women, and a lesbian relationship. The book vividly portrays the harsh life of rural, poor African Americans -- especially women.

The steel-strong bonds of family, the global importance of friendship, and the ever-mystical soul-defining actions of sisterhood are all immortal themes that are drawn in lush exquisite, sometimes brutal, hues (the purple of a field of violets, the purple of a deepening bruise).

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Wabi Sabi | Beth Kempton

This book (part book, part journal prompts) gives practical information and ideas on accepting imperfection, embracing nature, and lots of lovely tips to make you pause and appreciate things just the way they are. It's a delightful read.

I remember reading it one early morning while walking outside my house. It is full of personal anecdotes, gives illustrious tips for someone who is interested in home décor (the book cover is seducing enough) as well as some tips on decluttering.

It shows you how the moments of exquisite, evanescent beauty can remind us of the preciousness of life itself.

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Rumi: A New Translation | Farrukh Dhondy

This was my very first full poetry collection which I finished two years back and have gifted it to so many people after that. Loved reading the couplets and full length poems. Rumi's poems are like music to the soul, and even if they seem a little too casually handled, they still leave a mark on you, hit the nail, touch a nerve somewhere. This book will let you pause, ponder and participate in things which makes life worth living.

Moonlight stretches out against the skies
Your share of it depends upon the size
Of windows in your room.

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Oryx and Crake | Margaret Atwood

Once again, Atwood takes a current trend (this time it's bio/genetic engineering) and extrapolates it to an insane extent, creating a horrifying world of social disparity, violence, genetic hybrids, raging. It is a deeply philosophical book that raises numerous questions: is it wise to artificially alter something created and perfected by nature over millions of years?

Just like "The Handmaid's Tale," the ending is uncertain. There are no answers, and I am happy there aren't. This book is not intended to tell us what is right and what is wrong, rather it makes us think about what might be.

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1984 | George Orwell

1984 is the first dystopian novel I read and also the first book I wrote an annotation about, hence I couldn’t miss mentioning this one. We are controlled by our governments, and often in ways we are not consciously aware of. Advertisements, marketing campaigns and political events are all designed for us to elicit a certain response and think in a desired way.

1984 takes this to the extreme. Cultural brainwashing becomes the chief goal. Subjugation becomes normality.
Once you read Orwell’s work you’ll start to notice terms such as "Big Brother", “Thought crime”, "double think" and "newspeak" which have become part of everyday currency.

This book has a way of making you think you know exactly what you believe about everything and then turning you completely upside down and making you question whether or not you believe anything at all about anything. It's the strangest feeling.

That’s all for this time folks! See you next week.

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