A Girl in the World

books

Book Review: Love London by Barbara Chandler

September 3, 2011

It’s a hot September Saturday in the “capital of the world” and in just a few days, I’ll be bidding farewell and boarding a plane back stateside. Every time I leave London, a little piece of my heart breaks. I love and loathe this place like an ex-boyfriend that will forever haunt me in my sleep. Too many epic memories to cherish, one too many differences left unresolved. It’s the city of dreams and possibility, heartache and loneliness, the too-beautiful lover that captivates you the way delicate young women can drive old men mad. London is a city that cannot be tamed. It will never be mine.

Friends, relatives, writers and poets have attempted to capture the essence of this place and every time they do, I learn something new. A chance encounter with a new-found friend today had us talking about London’s amazing ability to give the gift of appreciation. In the absence of open spaces and quiet corners, you somehow find a gratitude for these exact things that you took for granted back home. Abundance from the void.

Barbara Chandler’s Love London is a visual account of the city captured through a series of film photographs and a collection of quotes. I’ve perused it now for over a week and each time I do, I am captivated not only by her ability to present this city in its rawest form (grimy, beautiful, crowded and grande), but also by the places she chose to feature in her collection.  She’s presenting a London that is quintessentially hers but also a city that I feel can be mine, yours, theirs, everyones.  I recognize the monuments, the bridges, the murals, the buildings in her book and instantly feel a kinship with her, the photographer behind the lens.  It is not a tour guide, nor is it a travel book.  Neither is it a collection of pretty postcard photographs that you find at the train station or the airport.  Actually, at first glance, the images are not stunningly impressive nor conventionally beautiful.  But look closer and you’ll find the book’s voice.  Love London is a Londoner’s testimony. It’s an attempt to vindicate the roughness and softness of this city we’ve called home.

How delighted I was to see Barbara’s perspective of the SCARY mural that I stumbled upon in East London just a few weeks ago, her photograph somehow validating my need to take mine.  Her London vindicating my London.

SCARY mural East London

But perhaps what enamors me most of all is the collection of quotes included in the book: so eerily relatable, they give me pause.

“You may be alone and in Company at the same time.” – Henry Fielding (p. 164)

” [In London] love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.” – Henry Fielding (p. 142)

“The parks are the lungs of London.” – William Pitt (p.120)

“London is far more difficult to see properly than any other place.” – G.K. Chesterton (p. 116)

“She [London] is just like a vast ocean where sardines as well as whales are living together.” – Yoshio Markino (p. 101)

“…it was a good place for getting lost in, a city no-one ever knew.” – V.S. Naipul (p. 92)

“This melancholy London – I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost … walk through its streets perpetually.” – W.B. Yeats (p. 71)

Page after page, a feeling of nostalgia hits me.  The grain in her images, the out-of-focus portraits, the ugly beauty of the not-so-glamorous corners of this town.  All of it presents a London that is real. Unpolished, grey, chaotic, hard. Just like mad blind love can be.

Suddenly, my London experience doesn’t feel so existential.  Love London vindicates my complicated love for this city of dreams.

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Book recommendations

March 22, 2010

Because of Hulu and other such nightly distractions, I’ve seriously lagged when it comes to getting through my reading list.  I’ve stalled a half-dozen books since I’ve been home and am ordering new ones via Amazon left, right and center (the one-click purchase feature is eeeevil!).

I’ve found that the best books I’ve ever read have been those recommended by friends.  The Poisonwood Bible, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?… just to name a few from my adolescent years.  And the bestest best books are always those that you feel sad about finishing, like The Da Vinci Code and Shantaram (if you have not read Shantaram, stop, drop and roll out of your seat right now and pick it up from the bookstore or order it on eeeevil Amazon.  It will turn you into an Indiaphilia and then you’ll have to go and book yourself a vacation to quench your craziness and then tada! you’ve got yourself a great new holiday planned!).  Sadly, amazing books like these are rare, so I’m not going to pretend to have a list of life-changing books for you to read.  Sometimes books change your life, but most of the time, they do have the power to transport you to an alternate universe for a few hours each night before you go to sleep.  And for me, that’s good enough.

So, here’s to a bit of escapism, some inspiration, some intellectual stimulation.  Some are oldies but goodies, and others are new treasures that I’ve recently stumbled across.

What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World

This book is written by a professor at Stanford and from the first few pages, is a very engaging read.  It focuses on entrepreneurship, living your passion and creativity.  I haven’t finished it yet and was prompted to get a copy after signing up for an evening event with the author this week (which I’ll write more about in the next few days).  So far, it’s great.  (And, might I add, what a brilliant title!  If you saw this on the shelf as a twenty year-old, you’d definitely be interested.  As a twenty seven year-old, like me, you’d be in a slight panic that you didn’t read it 7 years ago.  It’s like oh my gosh what have I been missing?! Way to garner interest!).

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

This book seems too good to be true.  It uses scientific research to show how you can manipulate behaviours like purchasing decisions and romantic choices through very simple tactics.  It suggests that our choices aren’t really based on logic alone.  Fascinating read.

Eleven Minutes: A Novel (P.S.)

I bought this book because it’s by Paulo Coehlo (he’s one of my favourite authors).  What I didn’t realize was how sexually graphic it is.  It’s about erotic love.  I was horrified when I found it sitting on my Mom’s night table one evening while I was visiting home from London.  She usually grabs books lying around in my room knowing that whatever I’m reading, it may well be interesting enough for her to read.  Well, I stole this book away right then and there because I knew exactly what was in it!  I don’t exactly want to be sitting at a book club meeting sipping coffee with my Mom talking about S&M and the spirituality of tantric sex.  You get my drift?  Is that enough info to get you interested?

Eat, Pray, Love

Don’t laugh.  I’ve been told I’m obsessed with this book.  Well, I am not.  But I like to recommend it to any female who hasn’t read it before.  It’s fun, it’s witty, it’s brutally honest.  A half hour with this book will feel like a pow-wow with your closest girl friends.

The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters

I was introduced to William Dalrymple by my good friend JS.  William’s travel writing is exquisite.  UK born, he has spent over half of his life traveling through India and writing about it.  It’s a book that will get you excited about far away places.

Fugitive Pieces: A Novel

One of the most beautiful novels I’ve ever read, this was recommended by my high school English teacher.  It’s poetry and prose and music.

The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life

I came upon this book through an unlikely encounter.  My girl friends and I were on our way back from Mykonos on the ferry to Athens.  We met two guys from London and one of them was reading a philosophy book.  He and I got to talking, made arrangements to meet up a few weeks later and tada, he brought me a copy of this book at the Courtauld Gallery in London .  It’s a collection of short essays on topics like Betrayal, Fear, Nationalism, Love, Friendship.  It’s a great mind bender on your way to and from places, and a great conversation starter at dinner parties  (Thank you DU for sharing).

The Little Prince

A classic that will turn your current perspective of the world on its head.  Get the illustrated version.  It’s beautiful.

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Fantasy travel trips that you can do now

March 19, 2010

If you haven’t already read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris, I highly recommend you do.  Though parts of it can sound unrealistic at times, it will change the way you think about work, play and everything in between.  Among other ideas, Tim talks about the highly affordable lifestyle of taking mini-retirements while you’re still young, able and energetic enough to enjoy them (like, right now).  No matter what age or background, you don’t need a million dollars to spend a month in Thailand learning muay thai. You can do it for a fraction of what it’s costing you to rent your current apartment in your current city.  As long as you’re smart about exchange rates and differences in cost of living, hanging out for a few months in a new country is totally do-able.  I know this for a fact.

Fun with mirrors in Luca

After I got over the very difficult process of leaving my cushy job and severing ties to things like a lease, a phone plan and a gym membership, the ability to spend 2 months abroad (like in Argentina) became a reality.  I’m no millionaire.  And yes, income is and will become more and more important as the months stretch on but I know that taking time off now is a much easier thing to pull off compared with a few years from now when I might be married,  I might be thinking about kids, I might be committed to another job/business/venture.

Wanna learn to speak Argentinian castellano?  Or write kanji in Japan?  Or make home made pasta in Italy?  Don’t wait your whole life to experience things that you’ve always wondered about doing.  Life is a long journey and sometimes saving our dreams for later means they may not come at all, so while that desire is in your heart and while you’ve got the resources to do it, stop making excuses and just go! Go, go, go!

Imagine…

… renting a villa in Tuscany for a three month lazy summer.  Take fashion classes, learn art history, speak Italian.  On the weekends, take the train to Sienna and eat gelato in the middle of Il Campo, the square where the palio takes place.  Wander the streets of Florence and bargain for beautiful Florentine jewelry.  Discover wine.  Lots of it.

… a solo trip through Bali’s lush, tropical inland villages.  Take cooking classes, ride bikes down volcano valleys and spoil yourself with a $5 massage every single day.  And if you’re feeling up for it, hang out on the coast for a few days and learn to surf off Kuta’s famous shores.

… winter in New York City.  Harsh, beautiful, an urban wild.  Ice skate in Rockefeller Centre, explore the Guggenhiem, make snow men in Central Park.  Light a fire in an old flat in the East Village and relish the fact that the winter is only playtime for you, not forever.  Sometimes a new twist on a familiar season will help you see things in a completely different way.

… December in Brazil.  Hot, humid, sexy.  Milder than scorching January, it’s a great time to sample a tropical Christmas.  Learn forro.  Brave a Brazilian bikini wax before hitting the beaches of Rio.  And when you’re tired of the street dancing, hire a guide and rough it through the Amazon.  Come back a toasty, delicious golden brown.

… a life with no boundaries, with no rules, with endless possibility.  No lifestyle has to be forever and sometimes, change is good.  It helps us to figure out what’s important and eventually, after all of the running around, we realize that place is just place.  What matters is who you’re with, what you’re learning and how you’re changing along the way.

Go!  Now!  Make it happen.

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Book Review: Life of Pi

October 20, 2009

Wow.  What a great story.  I am breathless and dizzy.  The last few chapters concluded with such force that I feel winded.

Yann Martel is an absolute genius (and he’s Canadian! woot, woot!).  This book is layered with such symbolism and allegory that it would take me another two or three read-throughs to properly decipher it all.  I understand now why it’s included in English Lit reading lists.  I had planned on talking about it in more detail but I feel it would ruin the experience for someone who hasn’t yet read it.  It would suffice to say that this story wrought is with imagination and magic and is the type of read that will make you believe in fairy tales.  It reminds me a lot of Shantaram, in its ability to steal me from this reality for a while and transport me to a time and place that I’ve never seen with my own eyes.  Good books are like that.  They open your mind to a completely different life and make you believe that you can fly, that tigers do talk, that thousand year old vampires can really sweep you off your feet.

Some interesting points to consider:

  • There are many religious undertones in this book but the story itself is also a symbol about Faith.
  • I love how Martel incorporates the psychology of fear throughout.
  • I was convinced this story was true.  This is how gullible I am.
  • The first 50 pages nearly bored me to death.  I’d have to say that the pain was worth it.
  • Did you know that sloths have no natural predators because they are so slow that no one cares to think they are even alive?

I’ve collected a few of my favorite new quotes – prose put together so beautifully that I can’t help but share:

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.  This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt.  Without it, no species would survive.

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

I must say a word about fear.  It is life’s only true opponent.  Only fear can defeat life.  It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know it.  It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy.  It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease.  It begins in your mind, always.  One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy.  Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy.  Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out.  But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier.  Doubt does away with it with little trouble.  You become anxious.  Reason comes to battle for you.  You are reassured.  Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology.  But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low.  You feel yourself weakening, wavering.  Your anxiety becomes dread … The matter is difficult to put into words.  For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it.  So you must fight hard to express it.  You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it.  Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

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The art of multi-tasking

October 15, 2009

Supposedly I’m the kind of person that can’t sit still with just one task, one goal, one book, one something.  I don’t do ones.  I do manys.  Many books, many tasks, many goals, many ideas, many places.  There’s just lots left to learn.  I decided, however, that doing many things at once may have diminishing returns.  So I’m taking inventory and re-allocating my precious time and mind-space to get things done and get them done well.

First thing’s first – I’m going to cut my reading list.  To ONE book at a time.

Currently on my bedside table:

All Marketers are Liars – Seth Godin

The Paradox of Choice – Seth Godin [ha. do you see the irony here?]

The Life of Pi – Yan Martel

New Moon – Stephanie Meyer

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera

Teach Yourself CSS – Russ Weakley

I’ve basically got my hand in seven different cookie jars at once and (as a good friend has emphasized) at this rate, I will not have the chance to enjoy the true taste of cookie joy if I can’t just LET GO.  LET GO Denise.  Let go.

So…which book wins?

*drum roll please*

The Life of Pi.

Pour que you ask?  Well, first, it was highly recommended by a good friend (friend recommended books have never disappointed me).  Second, it’s supposed to make you believe in God.  Third, I’ve read through the first 30 pages and they are so so so so so dry and boring that I can’t bear to read them again at a later time.  There were 10 something pages dedicated to the natural behaviors of sloths.  Supposedly it gets better.  We’ll see about that.

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The tease of The Travel Bookshop

March 1, 2009

One of the best things about living in Notting Hill is the fact that on any given Sunday morning, I can walk ten minutes down the road and enter the treasure trove called The Travel Bookshop.  This is the same Travel Bookshop that is featured in Notting Hill, the movie.  It’s the type of place that I have to approach with caution.  It creates a strange pain in my heart because every time I enter, a sick feeling of wanderlust enters me and for a few days afterwards, I am dizzy with longing.  It’s a form of self inflicted masochism.

I woke up today knowing that I would make the trek to this little shop. And I knew that it would do my head in – to read the “Best places to go before you die” type of picture books, to soak up all the amazing photography books, to wander the shelves as if wandering the world.  It all made me want to drop everything and wander the globe.  The store is sectioned off into continents and countries.  For an hour and a half I wandered Asia and Africa and South America.  I read bits of Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair in both Spanish and English.  I browsed Lonely Planet’s Festivals guide and vowed to myself that this year, we are going to attend La Tomatina in Valencia Spain.  I touched African hiking maps and Japanese phrase books and War Photography compilations.  And it took every bit of self control to not purchase 100 pounds worth of these things to take home with me.  

As always, I left feeling breathless – antsy for more travel, inspired to plan another great adventure, caged for being here and not there (somewhere, everywhere).  Psychologists have said that sometimes, success can be limiting.  It provides us with a sense of stability and accomplishment but prevents us from taking big risks.  It makes us afraid to fail. And many times, I’ve wondered how true this is for my own life.  As thankful and blessed as I am in the wonderful amazing journey that I am living, I have always known that there is something bigger, different, more life changing than this.  I just know within myself that I am meant to be doing something different.  And lately, I haven’t been able to shake the very strong feeling of wanting to discover what that calling really is.  My best friends say that I’m the type of person who sees the possibilities, always the possibilities.  These days, a giant cliff of the black unknown has been staring me straight in the face, teasing me with the possibilities, egging me to take that leap of faith where reason and passion collide to bring about real change.

It takes a leap of faith to become great.

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