Monday, February 20, 2012

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


Calvin suggested I read this book because I was complaining about what a tough time I was having getting through "Crime and Punishment". It was the perfect "palette cleanser" of a book in between some heavy reads. It is light and quick and poetic. The book was authored by a man completely paralyzed who had learned to communicate by blinking his eye. He wrote the memoir with assistance by blinking each letter to form each word and sentence.

One of the strangest things about the copy of the book I have is that it is second hand and full of pencil notes in the margins. The notes are banal and inane. After a paragraph describing how torturous Sundays are to him in the hospital, she writes "Sun- no one comes to read him books." The scribbler writes down the most obvious insights. The scribbler also censored three words. The sentence "She bit nurses, seized male orderlies by their genitals" had the last three words furiously penciled out.

Loved the book.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Arbinger Institute

So my friend Jessee told me about the Arbinger Institute (a consulting firm) and I was so impressed with this video that I found on their website:



So on Saturday morning I went to the library and checked out their book "Leadership and Self Deception". It was so insightful and I can't think of another book I would recommend more right now.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Reading Goal 01/2012

I finished the Quiet American



and The Great Divorce


Enjoyed both books. Both were very quick and easy reads but have deep messages that require reflection. I liked Greene's ability to show the complexity of war, the complexity of the human experience. I liked Lewis' allegory for the after life.