A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Today has been a challenging blogging day for me dear readers. I'm on day seven of practically no sleep, I have a headache that's been with me for the last six hours, and I had more work related stuff to do today than usual. So, what would possess me to decide to read a book that's almost 400 pages in the middle of all of that? Your guess is as good as mine. The best I can offer is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. But I probably should stop falling back on that since it's the same justification I use for the orange sweater that I bought for reasons which are still unclear to me, and for my decision to watch season one of The Real Housewives of Orange County despite it being filled with people who are completely repulsive. Live and learn . . . or in my case, live and don't learn. Whatever.

Today's book, "Tired of half-hearted attempts to effect change in the world, Isabel Losada decides to walk the talk and embarks on a journey that takes her from protests in the streets of London to India and back again."

Life-changing thoughts (but not really because I'm too shallow for that):

  • I picked today's book because it was in my to-read stacks (it's not a thoughtful reason, but it's real) and it was in my to-read stack in the first place because I liked the cover - it reminds me of cartoons and, as you all know, I'm a huge fan of anything that reminds me of TV. I know, I know, I said about a week ago that I wasn't going to pick out books based on the cover anymore - and technically I haven't, because I didn't pick the book based on the cover, I only bought it for that reason in the first place. Are you feeling lied to dear readers? Do you think I'm shifty? Have I broken the blogger-reader trust? Am I being too dramatic again? Valid questions all the way around. I've decided that I'm going to have to work around that "No more books that I picked based on the cover" rule that I have set for myself because the only alternative is to throw out my entire to-read stack (which consists of about 220 books) and start over. And I can't live without my to-read stack. It makes me happy just looking at it (no seriously, I often look at it throughout the day and think to myself, Isn't it beautiful.)

  • Favorite sentence, "When the day came, I found myself wondering what you wear to demonstrate." - The author then goes on to assure us that she was thinking in practical terms and not being shallow. To that I say, there is nothing wrong with being shallow while improving the world. We live in a multi-tasking kind of world - I see no reason why I couldn't do both. Although there are those who would disagree, and give me some sort of lecture about how I should be focusing on more important things. My response to these kind of lectures is always the same, "Explain to me how I would be a better person if I was wearing ugly clothes right now." I have yet to hear a valid reason.

  • Favorite passage, "I read somewhere, 'If you want to know something, don't read a book. Ask someone who knows.' This works very well for me. It's not that I don't enjoy reading books, but when you're reading a book you can't ask stupid questions." - Point taken Ms. Author, it is important to be able to ask stupid questions (and I even have a list of "Questions I Should Already Know the Answer to By Now, But For Some Reason Don't.) However, I cannot tolerate you talking smack about books like that. Books are the answer to everything. Well, no that's actually not true - TV is my answer to everything. TV is always right. TV fixes everything. TV is perfection. But, books come a close second. Asking people stupid questions is third. Ms. Author needs to get her priorities in order.