8 Martin Suter - The dark side of the moon

The plot is quickly summarized: Successfull lawyer does shrooms, has a bad trip and gets weird. So this book just starts completely out of my comfort zone. Usually literature about drugs seems very forced to me. It's forcably spacy and weird and even tends to glorify drugs. And that just doesn't go over well with me.

The book starts exactly as I imagined it: Our lawyer is called Urs Blank and he is partnered with an important law firm, drives a fast car and is kind of a dick. He meets a young incense stick selling girl (that's a real job!) and cheats on his wife with her because she's younger and more fun and all that jazz. And his wife just let's it happen because that's what wives of really rich dudes do. So at this point I'm already over this book.

The only thing that kept me reading was the writing style. This books comes in paragraphs in which the point of view usually switches to another person's and that makes this novel really easy and fast to read. It feels really dynamic and gives the reader complete insight on what everyone is thinking in certain situations. It picks up the pace in all the right places and never feels too drawn out. I was impressed and continued and luckily I got rewarded for my patience:

Martin Suter describes the peronality changes Urs Blank goes through after his bad trip so well and not in a glorifying way at all. It feels real and raw. Blank and everyone around him react to this situation exactly as I would in real life which is not something I can often say and really makes for some good writing.

Also, it's very well researched. You can really tell a lot of time went into this. Also, I researchd the author and he looks exactly as I imagined Urs Blank. Here's a link to Martin Suter.

*SPOILER*

Dude starts killing people. That's when this book took a turn for the better, at least for me. And I'm not sure what that says about me.
But if you're looking for something easy yet something impressive (as in Martin Suter can write!) to read, I can recommend this. I'll rate this book 78 out of 90 shrooms.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish reading Martin Suter's "The dark side of the moon" and get a new book delivered. Both are more contemporary literature, in fact the book I'm receiving tomorrow from my trusted delivery man has just recently come out and had really promising reviews. It's called "Woman No 17" by Eden Lepucki and I already got to read an excerpt that left me wanting more.

Print is dead?

I was trying to sell an Ostrich feather duster the other day (yes, it seems very random but I will literally sell anything of yours if my hourly wage is decent) and there are a few things I like to mention and do to sell it. For example, I let people touch the feather duster because it's so soft, people will just buy it for its softness and never actually use it. That usually works like a charm. 

But some customers need a little more work; so did this woman that came in two weeks ago. She was not completly convinced, so I started listing all the great things you can clean with a feather duster (I make cleaning sound like a lot of fun, if you ever need motivation to clean, hit me up). I told her it's the easiest way to dust off bookshelves and books. The woman just looked me dead in the eye and said: Well, who reads books anymore, let's be serious.

What.

Luckily, my colleague swooped in, knowing that this was a touchy subject and I was about to yell at this woman to get her uneducated ass out of the store, throwing a heavy copy of 'Jane Eyre' after her.

Print is not dead, bitch.

7 Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha

I love that I'm catching up on all the classics in my twenties. And since I am also somewhat on a journey to self-discovery, Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is a very fitting book choice.

The story follows a young man named Siddhartha (and I thought I had a weird name) on his path to find the true meaning of life which he believes is enlightenment. He and his friend Govinda join a religious group, then follow a true Buddha, but Siddhartha grows frustrated as he seems unable to find what he's looking for. So he goes a different path in his pursuit for happiness, one of sexuality and greed. But oh wonder, this isn't really what he's looking for either (men and their mid-life crisis) and so he decides to continue on his old path to enlightenment. He comes to a river where he hears a noise that ultimately signals the beginning of his new life.

I must admit I struggled a bit through the first half. It didn't capture me right away. I think Hermann Hesse is a brilliant writer though. You can feel that Hesse himself was looking for said enlightenment and when I did some research, I found out that the second half of the book took long to write because Hesse "had not experienced that transcendental state of unity to which Siddhartha aspires". So he lived in seclusion from society and got totally emerged in the Hindu and Buddhist teachings. 

The book was a good read but unlike a lot of reviews that I read, it didn't inspire anything in me. So I'm just stuck with a weird name and no enlightenment.

I love discovering random new books and getting book recommendations. So I tried out this site called cratejoy.com that offers subscription boxes (for different categories such as books, fitness and food, etc.).

I obviously ordered a book subscription box, it's called "Bookishly's Tea and Book Club". It offers a vintage book and an assortment of teas (in my case coffee though, thank you for that option). I will review it in about two weeks. The theme this month is "Alice in Wonderland" which had very beautiful vintage editions, so I'm excited. I love a good monthly suprise! 

Cancelling your subscriptions is really easy and I like that you can try out the boxes for a month only. Next I will try out "BookVoyage", a country-themed box with a book and food/drink items from a certain country (the latest boxes were from South Africa and the Netherlands). 

There are more boxes for paper lovers though: there are also stationary sub boxes. But I'm trying to stay strong since I know I would hate whatever I received because I'm so particular about my paper.

Last but not least, I have to let you know about some great finds on cratejoy.com:

1. A monthly period subscription box! It sends you tampons and pads, candy and other fun treats. It's called "MyLadyBug". I don't hate the idea and the reviews were pretty good. But I found it in the "fitness and outdoors" category which suprised me. Because that's about the opposite of my special time of the month!

2. "Shaker & Spoon", a monthly cocktail box with bar worthy recipes and everything you need to make them. I think that would make for a good present, too.

3. Since I often feel like I'm going to end up as a crazy dog person and/or crazy cat lady, I already looked at both "CatLadyBox" and "The Dapper Dog Box" with surprises for you and your pet. You know I would order these.

If you want to know what I'm reading currently, you're not going to get a better summary:

PSA

Ginger tea for mild headaches! Do it!

Reality TV confession

First off, I hate reality tv.

There is usually so much screaming and fighting and it's already hard enough to avoid that in real life. So I don't watch these dating/singing/dancing/reality tv shows. I just don't.
There is one though that I really have come to love: The Challenge!

A bunch of young adults are pitted against each other to win money in the end. Sounds like a lot of fighting? It is! But seeing these people engage in numorous mental and physical challenges really makes me want to do more sports and get better at everything. To be on "The Challenge" you need to be fearless and athletic, both of which I'm definitely not. But I would like to be and this show really inspires me to push some boundaries.
And it's super addicting. I've become so much better at not binge watching shows and only watching 1-2 episodes (max level will power) but I literally watch 3 seasons of "The Challenge" in one sitting. Oh well. I  guess that's also a form of pushing boundaries.

Besides, I've realized that I could hardly do one push up. So I've decided to practice them and I'm up to five now (WHY IS NO ONE IMPRESSED?!?!).

What show weirdly inspires you to get better at something? What reality tv show do you enjoy (secretly of course!)?

Classic literature by women

I love classic literature, especially by women. You can learn a lot about the times (my favorite are books from the 19th century) and the role of women in those times. The only reason I was skipping "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte was its length. I don't mind reasing 600+ pages but if you try to read a book every two weeks then that kind of pagecount is definitely discouraging.

I started reading it a few days ago though and I love it. I love to know how we as a gender have progressed (or not) in terms of education, politics and in society. On one hand I get to appreciate how lucky I am and to be grateful for the opportunities I'm getting. On the other hand it makes me more critical of current issues (which I'm trying to get more involved in).

I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this book in two weeks. I just have a lot of other work to do and I need to socialize because I won't see my grandparents very often. 

But I would love for you to recommend me a classical lit book if you were really impressed by one. 

I wonder if some of you wonder why I even have this blog. If you don't, you won't enjoy this post.

The main reason I started this blog is to keep myself accountable for my reading goal (that worked soooo well, I'm not behind on anything AT ALL!). And that has really helped me through some slumps when I really didn't feel like reading and wanted to give up on this goal entirely. By the way, this is generally good advice if you have a goal. Tell someone about it. You instantly are more likely to meet your goal because you don't just secretly fail. I literally have never reached a goal if I didn't tell anyone about it. I always needed that external pressure and someone who motivated me other than me (even though I am my best cheerleader, I'm glad facebook can't read minds yet).

On the other hand, I'm documenting my thoughts and interests. I love it when after 5-10 years I dig up a diary and I can read what I thought at the time and compare it to how I feel about situations right now. And I know that in ten years I will look back at this blog and probably be embarassed but that's just part of the fun to be honest.

Of course I would love a steady viewership, simply because it's more fun when you know someone's interessted or joining the conversation. But I would be writing this even if no one was watching.