In 1910, Arnold Bennett wrote a small volume of non-fiction titled How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. It is probably his best-known work among dozens of books that he wrote. I listed this as my book of this week. I would be cheating if I do not inform you upfront that I … Continue reading How to live on 24 hours a day
Category: Books
Reading Like A Writer
Prose introduces her book as “the book that follows represents an effort to recall my own education as a novelist and to help the passionate reader and would-be writer understand how a writer reads.” Reading Like A Writer talks about close reading, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraphing, plots, creating characters and so on, … Continue reading Reading Like A Writer
Rubicon – the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
My book of this week is Rubicon - the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland. Rubicon tells the stories of the rise and fall of the Roman Republic, from the time when Lucius Tarquinius Superbus’ reign of Rome was demolished in a palace coup in 509 BC, the subsequent establishment of … Continue reading Rubicon – the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
My Life in Advertising
My book of the week is an autobiography by Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising, written in 1927. Walter Weir once praised this book: There are few pages in My Life in Advertising which do not repay careful study - and which do not merit rereading. Before your eyes, a successful advertising life is … Continue reading My Life in Advertising
Why I Write (Part II) – Politics and the English Language
Orwell wrote the essay Politics and the English Language in 1946. He argued that English language then was in a bad way: It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. He questioned the common assumption that we cannot … Continue reading Why I Write (Part II) – Politics and the English Language
Why I Write (Part I)
This week I read a book by George Orwell titled Why I Write. It consists of four essays: Why I Write The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius A Hanging Politics and the English language. Although the book is named after the first essay, the largest part of the volume is actually … Continue reading Why I Write (Part I)
When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air is written by Dr. Paul Kalanithi. There is a good summary about this book on his website. There are also a lot of reviews that you can find online about this book as well. Here I share with you a couple of my own thoughts on reading When Breath Becomes Air. … Continue reading When Breath Becomes Air
The Human Machine
The Human Machine, a small volume, was written by Arnold Bennett in 1908. A free e-version is available through the Project Gutenberg. However, for me, the pleasure of reading e-documents is not comparable with touching and turning each page of a physical book. This book can come across as challenging to read for some people … Continue reading The Human Machine
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Part Two)
To continue the part one on private victory, the latter half of this book focuses on paradigms of interdependence covering the second set of three habits for public victory followed by the 7th habit of sharpen the saw. However, it is important to note that private victory precedes public victory, self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of … Continue reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Part Two)
Dictator
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history? Cicero, 46 BC I enjoy reading history and biographies tremendously. However, never was I able to … Continue reading Dictator