Last day at the office.
TO DO:
Set-up an auto reply for your work e-mails. ✓
Check your garden sprinkler system. ✓
Empty the fridge: chicks won’t hatch out of eggs in a month, but the eggs will become nuclear weapons! ✓
Pack your bag. ✓
Turn off the gas. ✓
Go to the bookshop.
Yes, it’s time to stick to your good intentions. You promised yourself you´d read at least ten books this year, but all you´ve had time for is reading the horoscope in the newspaper and the assembly instructions for your new dresser.
You’ll finally have time for some holiday reading, now all you need to do is choose which books.
Here are some recommendations:
- Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (2003). Somewhere between an autobiography and a novel, a travelogue and a philosophy essay, Shantaram is not just the story of an Australian bank robber who escapes from prison and flees to India and then to Afghanistan. It’s also a book that becomes a real and unforgettable travel companion. It’s soon to become a movie produced by Johnny Depp.
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (2017). Having proved a hit on bestseller lists within a few months of its release in spring 2017, it’s about a woman who seeks refuge in a routine made up of simple, safe things, set apart from the reality of having a mother in prison, too much trauma and a huge amount of loneliness. But she’s fine, completely fine.
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (2010). A thick novel that portrays our time through a cross-section of good neighbours, urban gentrification, organic food and the bitter need to make compromises.
- The Rugged Road by Theresa Wallach (2014). It’s the 1930s. Two women and a motorcycle set off from London headed for Cape Town. A tale of travel, adventure and friendship through the desert, and prejudices about what used to be known as the “weaker sex”.
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007). A post-apocalyptic world. A father and a son. The only thing left is their hope of surviving by carrying all their worldly possessions in a supermarket trolley. A tough, no holds barred novel about the beauty and ugliness of primordial human instincts.
Happy reading!
