Constantin

???I can't really justify my love of Murakami. As far as I'm concerned, he writes novels specifically for me to read them. It would probably save us both a lot of time and trouble if he'd skip the publishing process and just slip his finished manuscripts under my door. So I'm biased, you could say.???

Felt a bit surreal reading a book that describes very vividly a bloody war and half-way through it an actual bloody fucking war starts. The book itself is interesting, but I guess there was nothing new in it. It was the same as reading the 7th book about Holocaust. After a point, you've already read about all there is to know.

A most entertaining biography and a very interesting life, filled with a lot of grief and happiness. I was surprised to find out how many important figures at the time where either friends or good acquaintances with Charlie Chaplin, as well as how many things haven't changed since nearly a century ago. One could say he wasn't born at the right time, that in our time he would've accomplished more, without the censorship and the limitations of cinematography back in the day, but I think that exactly because of those he was able to create so many masterpieces and become the genius we all know. He would also, most definitely, suffer from some #MeToo backlash, given his numerous flings and relationships.

Tara Westover's “Educated” meets J.D. Vance's “Hillbilly Elegy”. I actually quite enjoyed it, although I was expecting that it would make me sick to read about another fucked up life because of idiot parents. It's a story about how someone's beliefs makes them stand out and also, despite the cost of their beliefs, they're willing to keep them until they die.

After reading a few pages I was thinking that this book is far too good to read when you sufffer from insomnia and desperately need a good night's sleep. Turns out I was wrong. The beggining was a bit misleading. Closer to the middle of the book it actually got quite intriguing and kept me awake till the end.
Here are two short quotes that I liked. I would attribute them to Plato, but I'm not sure I would be right in doing so, since after all this piece is Plato's version of the speech Socrates delivered in his defense.
“For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that a man knows what he does not know? And in this respect only I believe myself to differ from men in general, and perhaps claim to be wiser than they are; that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know.”
“For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person. But if any one says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth.”

I cannot understand how I managed to get through it, just because it was so infuriating at times. I would've preferred to have read the memoir of some more interesting spares like Princess Margaret, but alas they have decided to take their secrets to the grave. This spare in particular is a spoiled brat, completely oblivious of all the great things in his life and how lucky he is compared to the rest of the world. What is annoying is that none of this is his fault. He was born into it.
What Harry succeeds with this book is convincing people that the monarchy is a thing of the past and no longer required.

Strongly advise parents with young children or soon-to-be parents to give this one a miss. It's very sad and the humour is so dark that it follows you for a while after finishing the book. There are lessons to be learned if you're grieving, but the main takeaway is probably to never assume you can fully comprehend what others are going through.

Reading this book you'd think that a typical day for Bono looks like this:
- Wake up
- Have breakfast with the Pope in the Vatican, get commended for his philanthropy work, exchanging gifts
- Quick lunch with Mandela, exchanging wisdom and share plans of fighting for some common cause
- Fly over to the Obamas for an early dinner. Get a call from Gates & Buffet letting him know they'll send over a few tens of billions to his fund. Getting to the Obamas, where Barack drinks him under the table, have a quick nap and fly back to Ireland. Paul McCartney picks him up from the airport and shares with him some fond memories from the Beatles' early days.
- Have a night cap with Cillian Murphy in their local pub in south Dublin.
- Go to bed.

There is just too much name dropping and not enough storytelling or life lessons. It's one of those books that I wish it was much more, but it just didn't deliver.

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.
This is real freedom.
The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.”

I ??can write the saddest lines tonight.??

Write for example: ???The night is fractured??
and they shiver, blue, those stars, in the distance?????

The night wind turns in the sky and sings.??
I can write the saddest lines tonight.??
I loved her, sometimes she loved me too.??

On nights like these I held her in my arms.??
I kissed her greatly under the infinite sky.??

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.??
How could I not have loved her huge, still eyes.??

I can write the saddest lines tonight.??
To think I don???t have her, to feel I have lost her.??

Hear the vast night, vaster without her.??
Lines fall on the soul like dew on the grass.??

What does it matter that I couldn???t keep her.??
The night is fractured and she is not with me.??

That is all. Someone sings far off. Far off,??
my soul is not content to have lost her.??

As though to reach her, my sight looks for her.??
My heart looks for her: she is not with me??


The same night whitens, in the same branches.??
We, from that time, we are not the same.??

I don???t love her, that???s certain, but how I loved her.??
My voice tried to find the breeze to reach her.??

Another???s kisses on her, like my kisses.??
Her voice, her bright body, infinite eyes.??

I don???t love her, that???s certain, but perhaps I love her.??
Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.??

Since, on these nights, I held her in my arms,??
my soul is not content to have lost her.??

Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer,??
and these are the last lines I will write for her.

Good entertainer, as always. I found it was rather too light in the beginning, like Paulo Coelho's Alchemist being his first book and him being so overwhelmed by it..
It got better. To a point where he shares some quite deep reflections and discoveries towards the end.
As with other good biographies, it doesn't lack authenticity or good humour.

Mi-a l??sat un gust dulce-amar cartea, dar ??in s??-i mul??umesc lui Dinu pentru c?? a pus pe foaie lucruri demult uitate. C??t m?? bucur c?? acele timpuri au r??mas ??n urm?? ??i c?? genera??iile care au urmat n-au trecut prin aceste experien??e idioate.
Eram cu 2 ani t??n??r ca protagoni??tii acestei c??r??i, dar am fost cumva mereu ??n anturajul unora din ei.
Un aspect important de men??ionat este c?? pentru cei mai mici, ei erau un soi de model de urmat. Cum trebuie s?? fii c??nd ajungi mare. Toni era un exemplu oarecum bun de urmat, ??ns?? mul??i au preferat s??-l urmeze pe Mafiotu Zaicik, din p??cate.
Toni a fost cel care m-a motivat s?? m?? apuc de box ca s?? m?? pot ap??ra. Tot el mi-a dat primul kastet (pumnal) ??i tot el m-a sc??pat de o b??taie sor?? cu moartea c??nd un alt pui de mafiot venise la strelk?? (b??taie organizat??) acompaniat de gorilele proaspat ie??ite din pu??c??rie care lucrau pentru agen??ia de securitate a lui tat'su. Gorilele venise s?? bat?? ni??te muco??i de-a 10-a. Faine vremuri, cum ziceam.
Vlada era sora-mea de pe mIRC. Cea care m?? f??cea s?? m?? simt c?? apar??in unui grup, c?? degeaba sunt complexat de tenul meu ??i c?? fetele mai mari nu ??in cont de asta. Datorit?? (par??ial) ei, am avut parte de o adolescen???? mai ok dec??t ar fi fost dac?? ??mi petreceam timpul doar cu cei de v??rsta mea.
Ce ??ine de carte, mi-au pl??cut c??teva aspecte ??n mod deosebit: paginile din autobiografia Dariei care-mi aduc aminte de gradina de sticl?? a Tatianei ??ibuleac. Apoi fragmentul ??n care autorul este acuzat c?? este f????arnic ??i scrie cartea pentru a se da bine la rom??ni. Recunosc c?? e un g??nd care mi-a trecut ??i mie prin cap la ??nceputul acestei lecturi.
??i Dinu, pluralul pentru poneatie este poneatii, nu poniate

2.5*
This is the last thing ever I read from Jordan Peterson. I still don't know what made me give him another chance in the first place.
While it has some good ideas, it also has lots of idiotic mumble jumble and his preaching tone is getting on your nerves from time to time.
This man has been through a lot of suffering, but his life lessons are not for me. The only good ones are about being a good person and finding gratefulness despite adversity.

The book is more of a journal with notes that are useful for people in a depression or coming out of one. It's well-written and it's full of good tips on how to take care of yourself, maybe except for some ‘recipes' that would not only increase your happiness levels, but also your BMI.

If you have a friend or a loved one suffering of depression, this book can be a good gift.