After reading half-a-dozen or so novels I feel that I am beginning to be able to see differences between them and to see what makes them unique. For example one book that I have read (The Swimming Pool Library) sort of presented the gay man's fantasy... but with...
Thomas Burnside
680 Hours
Lately I have been reading and exercising more and it's been cutting into my meditation time a little bit. So maybe I meditate 4 times per week now instead of 6 or 7. Overall though I would say that my life has been better doing a lot more exercise and reading and...
The Mill on the Floss
At 25 hours (700 pages), this was the longest novel I have read since starting this lifelong challenge. This book was written by George Eliot and was originally published in 1860. It is centred around the Tulliver family who owns a mill in a small town called St Oggs...
The Life of Pi
This book is about a young man (named Pi) from India whose family owns a zoo. They decide to pick up and leave to Canada for better opportunities - and bring many of their animals along with them. They all travel across the Pacific from India to Canada on a...
The Trial by Franz Kafka
I got about halfway through this book and thought "I don't even know what this protagonist is going to trial about... maybe I missed something". So I asked ChatGPT what he had been arrested for. ChatGPT said that the book never reveals the reason he is facing trial....
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
This book was about the homosexual experience at a certain time and place in history (England in the mid-twentieth century). This book is brimming with gay lust and I found reading it triggering at first. The main character was a mid-twenties gay aristocrat in England...
649 Hours
Sometimes in life you do something and think "why didn't I do that sooner?". For me that happened when I decided to use a meditation app. I went with Waking Up by Sam Harris because the marketing emails worked on me. It seemed like an app that was investing in guest...
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
I found this book very worthwhile precisely because it showed me what some of my triggers were. I've always thought if I had a girlfriend and she cheated on me I would kill the both of them. Such was how taboo I found adultery. But in this book (where the protagonist...
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This book really grabbed my attention although though I found it triggering at times. I found the portrayal of the small-town south quite charming. It showed me a perspective on what life was like in another country at certain time in history and I liked it. It...
603 Hours
I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it. It seems that (very slowly) my mind has improved in its ability to focus on something. The analogy of turning around a big ship is apt. Is the estimation that it takes about 10,000 hours to master meditation also...