Three Books That Will Profoundly Change The Way
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Books can capture your mind and utterly enthral you in a way that television simply cannot. That is because your imagination, combined with all the infinite little details that an author has taken the time to record in print, can bring to life a story in a way that a director’s interpretation of the same novel simply cannot. Whilst they are constrained by a budget, by the limitations of an actor’s imagination, by the time they are allowed to be in the studio or by their editor’s interpretation of the story, our minds are constrained by nothing. An author’s words can feed our soul when they capture our minds and what better way to prove this than by pointing out three books that will profoundly change the way you look at the world and the way you see life within it? From the playful, to the scientific, to the heart felt, these three books can set your mind free.
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The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
You always learn more than you realise when you are having fun. This playful, fantastical book will entertain, excite and make you think twice about what you were taught about the world ever since you were a child that believed in Father Christmas. In the Disc World series novel, the Hogfather is a character reminiscent of this childhood favourite, and he has the Assassin’s Guild on his tail endeavouring to remove him from the universe. Death (yes that is a character in the book and one that only speaks in capital letters) must take the reins of his sleigh to ensure that the belief in the Hogfather is kept alive on Hogswatch. The essence of this highly inventive tale is about the nature of belief and all those things we as humans see as eternal: friendship, compassion, love, mercy, truth, duty, the list goes on. We take comfort in our beliefs in an effort to make the world make sense. As Death explains, if we do not believe in the little lies like the Hogfather, we will not be able to believe in the big ones, such as justice, which hold our society together. In the infamous explanation within the book: “Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point“ MY POINT EXACTLY. The image of the Hogfather’s flying boars in this story are not a step too far from the notion of flying pigs in all the lunacy that the author conjures between the pages of this book. But in this, there is a message so profound, I defy any reader to not take time to consider that Terry Pratchett may possibly be the wisest man on earth once they put the book down. The combination of magic and firm reality can open up and enlighten any reader’s mind about the human condition. |
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Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha
This book challenges every conception we hold about family, about marriage and about sexual desire in our lives. By illuminating the prehistoric origins of relationships and aspects of the human anatomy, authors Ryan and Jetha deconstruct our belief in the monogamous relationship and instead, demonstrate why that is such a challenge to couples today. They liken sexual behaviour to shared resources such as food and shelter in hunter gatherer societies which, rather than causing jealousy, strengthened the connection within the group. They blame the church and the modern societies which developed around these belief systems, for the ingrained monogamy in our civilisation, and claim that our everyday lives demonstrate how this standard narrative of evolutionary psychology is wrong. Married, middle-aged men chase younger women, women have flings with other men and the divorce rate in most countries is higher than 50%. According to the authors, we have the advent of agriculture to blame for all this. Jetha and Ryan argue that communities changed so considerably with agriculture that our relationships are now an uncomfortable fit today. Despite the scientific theory in this book not being entirely bullet-proof, it challenged conventional belief enough to appear on the New York Times Best Seller’s list only one month after its publication. Whilst the scholarly community has criticised the authors of “cherry picking” evidence to support their conclusions, sex advice columnists such as Dan Savage, have hailed it as the single most important book on human sexuality to come out of the past 60 years. This book is a scandal on so many levels, that you will find yourself applying the ideas contained within it to almost everything you observe thereafter. |
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The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
A bitter-sweet book that will break your heart, yet give you hope. It is a light in a dark place and a comfort when all seems bleak. Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science and human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One month before he gave his ‘Last Lecture’, a model whereby a series of top academics were asked to give a lecture on what deeply matters to them, Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His talk was titled “Really achieving your childhood dreams” and features witty and heart-warming recounts of his childhood dreams and the importance of dreaming. The lecture, which you can find recorded by the university, was delivered to 400 colleagues and rounds of loud applause. The book builds and adds to the lecture by explaining things Pausch desired that his children understand about him and lessons he learned that he wished to pass on to them after the pancreatic cancer had claimed his life. With quotes such as “Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer,” Pausch imparts pearls of wisdom which we can apply to our own lives when things are at their most difficult. His frank and light writing style remind all of us that there is always a way to be happy and that is something that we must pursue at all costs. Pausch died on July 25th 2008, just under a year after he delivered his famous, final lecture. But his words: “Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think,” survive in such a way to make you want to jump up from your seat and get out there to really start living life. The tears this book will induce are worth it because, with every turn of the page, the last words of a dying man will profoundly change the way you see reality. Article written for NEWS(igned)BOOKS by: Jennifer Dale - @jukeboxlollypop February 2015 |
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