I often have the privilege of reading books that require re-reading, thinking passively about the book every now and then, and then re-open and rekindle the feelings of the first reading, thereby making it a layered experience. Every once in a while, I find myself in the extremely fortunate position of having read several such books at once or in close proximity, and though the next set of books are no less interesting to the brain, I am stuck re-reading sections of the ones I have read.
2018 was a year that started off on a promising note, and went on to delight and stretch my reading in all directions. In over 100 books, there are a few that I really did want to share. The links to the nourish-n-cherish articles in the brackets)
- Cosmos – By Carl Sagan (The Epic of Whalayana. Carl Sagan articles here: What better book than this one to start off a year?)
- Dune – by Frank Herbert (Fiction inspire non-fiction, Nicomachean Ethics, Hero Worship and Baloney Detection Kits)
- Lands of Lost Borders – by Kate Harris (The Domestic Explorer & Boarding the Flight of Fancy: I strongly recommend it 🙂 )
- The Wizard and the Prophet – By Charles E. Mann (A Planet of Wizards & Prophets)
- Woolly – The True Story of the Quest to Revive one of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures – by Ben Mezrich (Homo Incredulitas, Can Mammoths Stop Arctic Thawing?)
- Homo Deus, Sapiens – by Yuval Noah Harari (nourish n cherish article here)
- Night Diary – By Veera Hiranandani (Do We Belong on Earth?)
- Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons (Enchanted Forest essay) – By Gerald Durrell (Crocodiles in your bathtub? No problem!)
- What do you Care What Others Think (The Value of Science essay) by Richard Feynman (The Cranes of Hope)
While I enjoy all forms of reading , and happily wade through tomes, fiction and non-fiction alike, the ones that truly uplift my spirit are Children’s books. Whether it is the magnificent imagination at work, or the illustrations, or the simple act of making one think deeply with the minimum of words, I cannot tell, but I feel a soaring of spirit every time I pick up a children’s book. A few notable ones in 2018 that I would happily pick up again to read are:
- Louis I, King of Sheep – by Olivier Tallec
- Here we are – Oliver Jeffers
- Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes – Eleanor Coerr (The Cranes of Hope)
- One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll – Kathleen Krull and Julia Sarda (Zephyr Tales)
- Wangari Maathai – Green Belt Movement
- Counting on Katherine – By Helene Becker and Dow Phumiruk (To All Astrophiles)
- A Symphony of Whales – Steve Schuch
To enable all of this reading, one must have a frame of mind that works out the curious and whimsical muscle of the brain. So, of course, I had a healthy dose of P.G.Wodehouse, Miss Read, Gerald Durrell and R.K.Narayan mixed in to all of this.
Here is to another year of varied and marvelous reading.
Happy New Year!
Nourish-n-Cherish 