I'm a task-setter, goal-oriented individual with a need for a deadline. I know this is probably unhealthy. In fact, I'm sure it is. When my life is deadline-free, and therefore, stress-free, I look for ways to impose further due dates on myself. Surprisingly this is alleviating. Perhaps it inflicts a sort of order and routine which I find oddly relaxing. Anyway, the goal of the moment is to read great novels of all time. This is by no means a new idea, nor an immature desire; I've been trying to get a comprehensive list down and have gotten nowhere! But finally, tonight, or this morning, depending on when I actually finish this post, I'll have gotten at least ten titles set in stone, more or less. Here goes, in no particular order:
1. Animal Farm by George Orwell*
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
3. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald *?
6. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf*?
7. 1984 by George Orwell
8. On the Road by Jack Kerouac*
9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*
10. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain*
11. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee*
12. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens*
13. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
14. 100 Years of Solitude by GGM
15. Persuasion by Jane Austen
16. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
17. Fountainhead by Ayn Rand ?
18. Don Quixote by Cervantes ?
19. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley *?
20. The Odyssey by Homer*
21. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*
22. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad *?
Ok so I ended up with more than ten but then after looking up all these great books, much to my satisfaction, I realized that I had read many of them and so rather than deleting them from the list I put stars (*) next to those I had already read and question marks (?) next to those I'm not quite done reading or that I would like to read again. In the end my reading list came down to fourteen books. And so I set off on my current passion.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
a shift in perspectives
until i come up with a better title, this will have to do.
initially a stab at potential architecture readers, i've decided to expand my blog to include whatever comes to mind and drives my passions. it is ridiculous to assume that only one thing, one character, one idea, can consume us and motivate us. like kahn once said, we are all victims of circumstance. i presume to take it further: what drives us to push forward and excel, to want to stand out, to produce, is circumspect to what we love. as i could not decide which passion to focus my blog on, i feel it only fair to let what is motivating me at the moment characterize my postings. who knows? perhaps it will be Architecture most of the time; or perhaps not. i am a proud claimant to this great city of New York and as such, i must confess my polyfaceted-ness... is that even a word? who knows! what i'm trying to say here is that living in this great city exposes you to so many different ideas, passions, arts, people, and other unnamed wonders that you simply cannot love only one thing about it. slowly, that creeps into your whole system. at least with me it did, and it manifested itself in a variety of passions. and so, my blog will strive to be a reflection of these.
in an attempt to do all my loves justice i will write about all of them... eventually. like my children, i shall pay them each loving attention, but only as much as each necessitates at any given moment... or at my personal whim (not like children... the analogy ends here)! i apologize to myself, to my poor little blog, and to phantom readers out there since i have been quite reluctant to switch from analog to digital and have quite neglected this little piece of web that i own. i much prefer the romanticized notion of writing in a journal all of one's thoughts, ideas, accomplishments and failures, preferably in a wonderful ink fountain pen. but, to be absolutely truthful, even my love for leather-bound journals hasn't been enough to provoke consistency in my entries. blogging, however, imposes a sort of responsibility to the public, and so i feel i might be more diligent in putting my thoughts onto paper... or computer... or 0's and 1's... whatever this is.
so begins a new era for me and my blog. i think i'm also hoping this will help unglue me from television as i would place it below my responsibilities but above my guilty pleasures. let's see what comes of it.
initially a stab at potential architecture readers, i've decided to expand my blog to include whatever comes to mind and drives my passions. it is ridiculous to assume that only one thing, one character, one idea, can consume us and motivate us. like kahn once said, we are all victims of circumstance. i presume to take it further: what drives us to push forward and excel, to want to stand out, to produce, is circumspect to what we love. as i could not decide which passion to focus my blog on, i feel it only fair to let what is motivating me at the moment characterize my postings. who knows? perhaps it will be Architecture most of the time; or perhaps not. i am a proud claimant to this great city of New York and as such, i must confess my polyfaceted-ness... is that even a word? who knows! what i'm trying to say here is that living in this great city exposes you to so many different ideas, passions, arts, people, and other unnamed wonders that you simply cannot love only one thing about it. slowly, that creeps into your whole system. at least with me it did, and it manifested itself in a variety of passions. and so, my blog will strive to be a reflection of these.
in an attempt to do all my loves justice i will write about all of them... eventually. like my children, i shall pay them each loving attention, but only as much as each necessitates at any given moment... or at my personal whim (not like children... the analogy ends here)! i apologize to myself, to my poor little blog, and to phantom readers out there since i have been quite reluctant to switch from analog to digital and have quite neglected this little piece of web that i own. i much prefer the romanticized notion of writing in a journal all of one's thoughts, ideas, accomplishments and failures, preferably in a wonderful ink fountain pen. but, to be absolutely truthful, even my love for leather-bound journals hasn't been enough to provoke consistency in my entries. blogging, however, imposes a sort of responsibility to the public, and so i feel i might be more diligent in putting my thoughts onto paper... or computer... or 0's and 1's... whatever this is.
so begins a new era for me and my blog. i think i'm also hoping this will help unglue me from television as i would place it below my responsibilities but above my guilty pleasures. let's see what comes of it.
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