Books read this month

I haven't been reading books this year, so I'm glad I managed to read 4 books this month. It isn't as easy as it used to be, this reading thing, but I've found that watching less tv makes it easier.

The first book I read was The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Hightower which I really enjoyed. I remember watching and enjoying the film adaptation some years back and so I thought I'd give the book a try. I found I like her style and her imagery is so vivid, I'd really like to read more books in the Ripley series. I was also excited that it appears as one of the 1001 books to read before you die. Its always fun for me when I find I've read a book on that list.

Where's the chicken is a short book that asks the reader and society at large to think about what the unseen problem in a crime situation is. It also asks (and gives suggestions) about what we can do to promote peace and reduce or avoid crime in order to create a safer society. It gives examples of the sorts of solutions people come up with when they ask these kinds of questions and suggests that even a perfect police force is not enough to create safety and security.

Ja No Man by Richard Poplak is an autobiography by the subject on growing up as a white boy under Apartheid.

How to be an Intellectual is a funny read by Nick Kolakowski on maxims to employ to become an intellectual. I love list books and this one is a lovely one.
I'm curious about what else he has written, he comes across as a fun conversationalist. I just might read a classic after reading this book, he recommends a few that he made sound quite tempting.

SA politics unspun by Stephen Grootes

SA politics unspun by Stephen Grootes is the sort of book I have been hoping to find for a long time; a concise guide to contemporary South African politics.

It is a lovely, easy read. I say easy because it is so well-written, with a light humour and no airs about the subject that I couldn't help but enjoy it. It also helped me make sense of a lot of the seemingly nonsensical reports in the news about all kinds of issues I felt obliged to know about without really understanding how they fit into the bigger scheme of things. 

Grootes explains governing structures, political parties and political controversies and explains them all one by one, leader by leader as well as why they are important. He also has lovely timelines, explanation sidebars, graphs and pictures in the book which I enjoyed.

It really is a lovely book. 

Nelspruit Book Traders

In Nelspruit, on the R40 road on the way to Barberton there is a second hand bookshop called Nelspruit Book Traders. It has some nice books though I do wish their Africana section was richer. It is my favourite section but there is something colonial about that 'Africana' word that kind of disturbs me.

I like that it has a foreign language section, I like to have a few french books because I will read it one day and I'd rather have them around.

It also has a lovely classic section, English classics, of course, from which I got Henry James' The Europeans for R10 and The Way of the World by William Congreve which I am quite curious to read.

Don't judge this book by its cover by Gavin Tucker

This book is a collection of hilarious opinion pieces.  I guess it could be referred to as a book of essays and its becoming my favourite type of book to read because of the way it highlights different newsworthy events that went on at a particular time and how they affected the writer's perspective. 

This guy makes fun of people; from the uneducated in Limpopo to Lobola to people who drive Peugeots. He occasionally makes fun of himself, his drinking and judgemental attitude towards other people. But he's not apologetic, which seems to be a sought-after quality in opinion piece writing and co-incidentally the quality most likely to get its writers fired ... think David Bullard and Kuli Roberts (when is her book coming out, by the way?).

He is hilarious. I don't always agree with his opinions but he's a really funny guy and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I bought it from Exclusive Books in Nelspruit for R124.00. It is Published by Thomas Stein Publising.

Decoding reality by Vlatko Vedral

A month later I have finished reading Decoding Reality by Vlatko Vedral, an interesting, informative read I bought at Exclusive books at 30% off. I love book sales! I found this book in the science section, a section I admittedly never read from.

It took me a while to read because aside from taking many breaks I had to read a few bits over as it explains concepts that are new to me, like quantum information and things I'd forgotten like entropy.

I rather like this book and I'd read it again, mostly because it explains the complex scientific terms it uses in lay language. I'm no physicist but I think explained things pretty well.

He explains different theories of information, how it is created, stored, decoded in different disciplines and explains how these information theories help us organize information.

I'd recommend this book to someone who is interested in science but isn't a scientist, I think a scientist may have learned these things in class. It is a lovely way to browse through scientific theories though.


I bought it at 

Exclusive books
Nelspruit for 100.80. 
Its published by 
Oxford 
University 
Press.

Non fiction journey

Reading non-fiction is rewarding.  You get to know things you may not have known and make sense of other things you've seen in a new way or make new connections in information you have.

Unfortunately, as a reading exercise its a little difficult for me to review because I find non-fiction books difficult to finish.  Unlike fiction, with non-fiction books there is no desperation to know how the story ends, non-fiction writers just don't work cliff-hangers and plots like fiction writers do, it doesn't seem to be a requirement.

I am currently reading 4 non-fiction books, on and off, whenever the fancy hits me. Brandwashed by Martin Lindstrom, Killing Kebble by Mandy Wiener, Do not judge this book by its cover by Gavin Tucker and Decoding Reality by Vlatko Vedral.

To be fair Mandy Wiener's book is gripping in the story sense, it just turned out to be too long and it has too many people's names at some point so I'm stuck with no interest at page 295.  Before page 200 was a thrilling read though.

How to ensure you stay a smoker for the rest of your life

How to ensure that you stay a smoker for the rest of your life

1. The best start is with an addictive personality. The more in denial you are of your addictive personality the longer you will be comfortable with the idea that you could easily quit.

2. Believe that smoking is relaxing. Ignore that the reason it is calming you down is because you are taking deep breaths.

3. Look to nicotine as a savior and romanticize it whenever you can.

4. Believe to the roots of your soul that you look cool whilst you are smoking, blow seductively when you exhale, and look out of the corner of your eye, secure in the knowledge that you are captivating anyone who is looking at you. The more you believe this, the more defiance you will show anyone who disapproves of your habit.

5. See the cancer warnings on the box as decoration, as propaganda or you could block them out from your mind entirely. You could also choose to like them – pick a favourite and make fun of them as often as you can and laugh until you get out of breath – which will be easier for you since you regularly deprive yourself of oxygen.

6. Be terrified of doing nothing and or/being seen doing nothing and use a cigarette to keep yourself busy.

7. Hang around other smokers as much as possible

8. Roll your eyes at non-smokers when they tell you it’s bad for you

9. Have a mean look for people who try to stop you from smoking, it should be effective against any future ideas they might have for getting in your way. When your look is perfected all none-smokers should be too terrified to mention that your smoke is clogging up their lungs, making their voice scratchy, that it smells bad and that it’s unfairly making them pay for your habit.

10. Factor cancer in at the same possibility as a car accident

11. On that note include that people die every day and eat healthy and still suffer terrible illnesses

12. Refuse to feel guilty when you get bronchial illnesses and anything lung-related. See it as an occupational hazard or better still convince yourself that it is unrelated.

13. Insist that it is a habit (refuse to believe it is a bad one) or a hobby and not an addiction and that you can stop anytime you want

14. Do things that encourage you to smoke– sit in the smoking section, drink alcohol, go to UCT.. that sort of thing.

15. Believe that smokers are a society and you all look out for each other

16. Know the science of smoking and its effect so that when anyone tells you about it you can feel extra self-satisfied when you say, “I know”

by Gugu Mamba