Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ...R. Persig

The pile of books on my nightstand is overflowing. I have given myself a month to work through it. The real reason is that the new Bas Bleu catalogue just came the other day, thus adding about 8 more books to my "want" list. However, I absolutely MUST get through a few more before I allow myself to order...

Books are my obsession and always have been. As much as I go on and on about clothes and fashion, coming from a middle-class household, there is only so much money that I will ever allow myself to spend on these things. It wouldn't matter what my income was, there is an innate voice in me that not only budgets my clothes allowance, but shames me when I exceed it. Not so on books. If you set me loose in a bookstore, any bookstore, I can outspend anyone. It is a flaw and I know it, but I have never been able to overcome it. There was a brief period when I was painting a few years ago when I was more disciplined about it. I had read a book that suggested that in order to be artistically creative, one needed to do less reading and more creating. This period was short-lived, because I am not happy when I am not reading.


So today, the subject is books...or more specifically, books I like or love for some reason. A few are recent reads, but some are oldies but goodies...Oscar Wilde said "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." I love this quote. I guess I love it more after I read something I consider to me meaningful than after I read a People magazine. I suppose the below list defines who I am in some way.....


1) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Robert M. Persig. This is an interesting book, albeit painfully long, with slow passages that will tempt you to give up. If you can hang in there, you will come away with some very brilliant insights. In order to give a recap that does this book justice, , I am going to refer to a blog called "Emergent Dharma: Young Buddhist Blog". This is not only a very interesting blog, but the writer gives a perfect summation of this book. There are 2 quotes in the book that really sum up the subject matter:


And what is good, Phaedrus
And what is not good-
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things- Plato


and then:


I haven't been carrying him at all
He's been carrying me


The book discusses both of these concepts, while also intertwining views on the "humanist approach to technology" and 'what quality is". It is both inspiring and depressing at the same time. But as I said, if you can just leave it on your bedside table and take it a few pages at a time, you will walk away with some brilliant insights.


2)The Life You Imagine. Derek Jeter. Ok, this is not an intellectual endeavor here. But I am only halfway through this book, and I am really enjoying it. The Boy has decided he wants to be a major league baseball player, so I feel it is my job to see how this can be accomplished. With apologies to my brother-in-law, I feel Jeter is one of the all-time great players of our time...so who better to examine? He steps through his childhood and how his parents raised him to have a good work ethic. He talks about being a team player and having a positive attitude. He talks about personal arrogance and confidence. It's nothing that hasn't been discussed before, but this is from a guy who has walked the walk and talked the talk. I will make The Boy read it after I am finished.


3) Speaking For Myself. Cherie Blair. If you have any interest in politics, this is a fascinating book. Cherie is the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. I am a huge fan of his...and in fact, I will take this opportunity to suggest a great website...www.tonyblairoffice.org....if you want to keep up with all he has done since leaving office. I think he has been one of the best leaders of our generation. I wish there was some way to give him honorary US citizenship and elect him President. Now talk about the "change" I could get behind... He is the perfect, charismatic mixture of conservatism, with a dose of "bleeding heart liberal" in social areas thrown in. My kind of guy....But back to the book. Cherie Blair is a force on her own. She is a lawyer, judge, mother of 5...in addition to being Blair's wife. Their marriage is a very interesting balance of chemistry, respect and history. Even if politics bore you, this is a good read.

4) The Little Prince. Saint-Exupery. One of my all time favorites. I read it for the first time in french class in college and I have been re-reading it in French and English ever since. "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." My all time favorite quote. Besides "Do unto others", maybe the one closest to my heart.

5) The One Hundred. Nina Garcia. Ok, I am a little embarrassed to include this one, but I have to be honest in my list. Garcia is the former editor of Elle magazine and a judge on Project Runway. This book is a list of the most stylish items that a woman should have in her wardrobe. Her first book, "The Little Black Book" was great and this one is even better. It is like a compelation of Vogue, Bazaar and Elle...plus the illustrations are adorable. In fact, I'll have to take 10 minutes right now and peruse it just for fun....

Ok, that's it for today. Until tomorrow, when we will continue the book list....unless of course something more interesting happens....