Kiva Friends and the Books They Love

[Guest]

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[Jill]

         Sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by the books they love. 
Other times, almost all the time, if you're a book lover,
you can simply derive terrific pleasure
in the mere thinking about and sharing of the joy of the books that have enhanced your life.

     This thread is for us to share some of the books we've loved:
                      Favorites of Our Childhood or
                      Books that Have Affected or Influenced Us Greatly or
                      All-Time Favorites, Fiction and Non-Fiction or
                      Books We've Been Reading Lately

          If this thread "takes off," I'll come back later and list some of the 233 trillion books that I have loved. 
In the meantime,
I'll share with you some quotes about books
that I have hanging on the wall in my library,
which quotes make me smile inside, thinking about them, 
just as my books do.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
                                Jorge Luis Borges

"Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired (by passionate devotion to them)
produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can peradventure read
is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity.....
we cherish books even if unread,
their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access, reassurance."
                                                               A.E. Newton

“When I get a little money, I buy books;
and, if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”
                           Erasmus

"A book reads the better, which is our own, and has been so long known to us,
that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and
can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins."
                                                            Charles Lamb

“I cannot imagine a pleasanter old age than one spent
in the not too remote country where I could reread and
annotate my favorite books.”
                                Andre Maurois

“Evening, page by page, I
hum beneath my quilt.”
                         Yu Hsuan-Chi

[wind5001]

Jill,

FINALLY I have a thread for my other passion (besides Kiva and Kivafriends)...BOOKS! THX!!! 

I'll start with one of my all time favourites:

Jules Verne: Around the World in 80 Days. I first read the book when I was about 12 or so and I LOVED it. The thrill of foreign countries, adventures, the accuracy and unemotional behaviour of Phileas Fogg (which gets broken eventually). WOW! I just finished re-reading it a couple of months ago in a new translation to German (a linen book-lovers edition with silhouettes) and still am amazed by the pace and frenzy of the story. Guess it instilled a sense of WANTING to travel everywhere.

And here's one that I just finished reading a week ago:
Roméo Dallaire: Shake Hands with the Devil. It is the eyewitness account of the UN general that led the UN Peace Keeping troops to Rwanda in 1993/94. His tale of cold-hearted desertion of this small nation by the Western countries, the deliberate stalling of aid by the US and France, the shameful pullout of the former colonial power Belgium, the horrible (because expired) food rations for the troops donated by the German government...it is a sad and very angrying tale. It broke my heart more than once and it made me rage against what our governments let happen back then and what is still happening today in Darfur and elsewhere. What amazed me is that Dallaire does not paint anything black or white. A very interesting person (he was retired because he could not cope with his post traumatic stress disorder, which he acquired in Rwanda). For anyone interested in how our nations assist in genocide, this is the book to go for.

There's loads more, but I did not want to fill this thread right away.

Thanks for starting it, Jill.

Oli

[Peter S]

If I was told I could keep only one book, the choice for me would be supremely easy, as I have read it many times, and know I will read it many times more...
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius preferably in the translation by Maxwell Staniforth, but there are newer ones.

A Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, writing a sort of moral and philosophical diary in Greek, over 1800 years ago - but his great rationalist mind lives on in every word.   He would probably have approved of Kiva: Book 11, 4: "Have I done an unselfish thing? Well then, I have my reward.  Keep this thought ever present, and persevere."    Astonishing really to think that as Emperor he was the most powerful man in the world  - how times have changed...

[Kay]

Peter,

I agree with you about how times have changed.


Oli,

Those are both great choices.  The latter is one of those "never again" books--but it always seems there is an "again," as now in Darfur, as you have pointed out.


Jill,

Those are great quotes, and since you mentioned it in another thread, I always look forward to Book TV!  (Just hope they someday convert to high definition!)

[Ramón]

General: big MVLL fan (for those that aren't in the know... that's Mario Vargas Llosa).

Currently reading:
- La Historia de Mayta (MVLL)
- The Mystery of Capital (Hernando de Soto)

Recently read:
- Travesuras de una niña mala (MVLL)
- La ciudad y los perros (MVLL)
- La fiesta del Chivo (MVLL)
- Tia Julia y el escribidor (MVLL)
- El otro sendero (Hernando de Soto)

Also read in between:
- several Tom Clancy novels

--Ramón

[Jill]

           I'm not going to hit you with all my favorites at once.
Truth is, I don't think there's enough room on this Forum for me to talk about all the books I've loved in my life.
So, I'm going to take it slow.

           I'll start with one of my all-time favorites.
If you think I'm kidding about it, you'll be absolutely wrong.
It's called, Frog in Love.

          It's one of the dearest love stories I have ever read, and I have bought so many copies of it to share.... with people of all ages.... I'd be embarrassed to tell you just how many.  It is RIGHT for people of every age.
If there is anybody in your life that you really love,
I really don't see how you can think that doing anything else is more important than
going out (or going to Amazon) and ordering a copy of that book for that person/those people,
Right Now.

          It isn't a poem, but it, too, is Best When Read Aloud,
especially to the object of your love.
Candlelight wouldn't hurt.

That's Frog in Love.
Money Back Guarantee!

[Odette]

As a child I loved Madeline,about a little French convent girl, TinTin, Rupert the Bear and Babar the Elephant books, too.

Just finished reading Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden about two natives from Northern Canada who enlist as snipers in World War l.  It is based on a true story and is a real page turner. This is a really well written and thought out book.

My favourite author is Robertson Davies.  He wrote numerous books but my favourite is the Deptford Trilogy (best read in order: Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders.  Not only does he write a good story but his vocabulary and love of the English language is awesome.

Although I prefer to read novels, books by Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great and Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, are thought provoking and interesting.

The list goes on and on and on..........

[Stephanie]

There is a "gardening" series by Beverley Nichols.  His descriptions of his gardens, neighbors etc. are filled with the wry kind of humor that I love.  Another bonus for me is that he is a cat lover:)
I collect old children's books, the more used the better.  I try to stay with those printed in the 1940's or before.  It is such a treat to find an old library book with the check-out card still in it.  I imagine all the children from 60 years ago handling and loving the book.  All of the Lois Lenski books are great.  Also Flicka, Ricka and Dicka...Snipp, Snapp and Snurr.  For fiction anything by Edith Wharton or John Cheever.  For non-fiction any first person account of life in countries or areas about which my knowledge is limited.

[Stephanie]

I put a hold at the library on "Frog in Love".  All the reviews on Amazon were good.  Jill, I may end up buying it for my children's book collection even though it does not qualify as an "old" book.

[Jill]

      A few to start....
       It's a shame that probably none of you will rush out
       to go get a hold of some of these,
       because, for me,
       they are true GIFTS!
 
(I have a section in my library.... and yes, I do have a library,
that I've named, "Books of Infinite Pleasure."
The following are a few of the books that can be found there,
and they are not in order of my loving them).

Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder
Subtitle: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
One of The Most Inspirational, Thought-Provoking, Mind-Expanding books I have ever read.
Glenda loved it, too.

3 Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson
Subtitle: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School At a Time
Quite amazing story-- easy and engaging to read.

Brainwash, by Dominic Streatfield
A phantasmagoria of captivatingly-connected stories about the CIA, Abu Ghraib, Heavy Metal record albums, Social Psychology, Subliminal Advertising, and just about everything else related to the mind and the manipulation of same,
written by an Englishman with a wonderfully dry sense of humor

The Price of a Dream, by David Bornstein
A book about Mohammad Yunus's Grameen Bank, maybe even more interesting for me than was Yunus' own book, the reading of which has made the Kiva Experience so very much more meaningful for me

Down in My Heart, by William Stafford
Peace activist, poet, conscientious objector, university professor wrote of his time and reflections as a Conscientious Objector during World War 2-- eerily topical

White Like Me, by Tim Wise
I mentioned this in the White Privilege thread.  It ain't preachy or pontificating.
It, too, is wonderfully horizons-expanding and thought-provoking but you have to want to learn about this kind of thing to make it enjoyable.

Almost any book by Anne Lamott
She's one of the funniest, brightest, most entertaining writers I've read,
and the fact that she feels the same way I do about "W" probably didn't hurt my  feelings for her books. 
But she's so very much funnier when she talks about it....

Beautiful Joe, by Marshall Saunders--
My favorite kids' book of all time about a mutt puppy dog
who had its ears and tail axed off by the cruel, non-pasteurizing milkman, Jenkins,
which dog, narrating his own story like the horse did in Black Beauty,
went on to live with the dearest, funniest, most compassionate family, etc. etc. etc.


Ordinary Resurrections;Children in the Years of Hope, by Jonathan Kozol ***

Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

many many books on Greek Mythology

The Tracker by Tom Brown

Freedom's Children;Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories, by Ellen Levine

Alive, by Piers Paul Read

A Season For Justice; The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer, Morris Dees,
by Morris Dees co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Circle of Life, Rituals From the Human Family Album -- David Cohen

The Power to Heal; Ancient Arts and Modern Medicine, by Rick Smolan

You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train by Howard Zinn

***  I may come back another time,
either to add more to the list and/or to write descriptions, "editorial commentary"
on some of the ones I didn't describe only
because I have other things to do and I ran out of energy....

     I'm telling you, though, THESE ARE GEMS.
    (my opinion).

EDIT: I'd suggest you do what Steff did with Frog in Love, and
what I did, too, to check out some of Ramón's choices, which is to
punch in the titles at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sv_b_0/104-7049051-9963161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=241582011
and read the descriptions and commentaries by some of the other people who read these books.

EDIT *****:  I came back, a couple of days ago, and turned most of the book titles I'm recommending to you into "hyper-links."
         So, if you see that one of my book titles is in green, try clicking on it, and it should take you to an Amazon site
         where you can read a description, usually, of the book in addition to critiques by various readers who have read it.