Recently Read Books

I gotta admit - I do love to read.  Almost anything about almost anything.  I don't care what the subject is or the genre...if you can capture my attention, I'll read your book.

Most recently read - Paths of Desire by Dominique Browning. 

Now I know there are those of you out there who need to pull your minds out of that smutty little gutter!  We'll wait while you do so.  That's because the subtitle of the book is 'The Passions of a Suburban Gardener' - concerning passionate gardening, not passions of the earthy kind (pun intended).

It's fun reading about the trials and tribulations of taking a large & largely neglected garden around a suburban home outside of New York & turning it into something lovely.  One fun term from the book is Helpful Men.  These are the guys in your community who know how to 'do stuff'.  People you really want to know when repairs need to be done around your house & you have no idea how to do them.

The second most recently read book is The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner - subtitled 'One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World'.  (A word of caution - Moldova is NOT one of those places.  Do not go to Moldova if you are already depressed or even if you're usually happy.  It is not a bliss-full place.)

The author travels to 9 different countries trying to find out what makes people happy.  (Money is only one factor & it's no guarantee.)  It's easy to read & is a bit of an eye-opener as to what people think of happiness & if they think they're happy.

One interesting quote:  "It's simply a matter of numbers.  Plant enough happiness seeds...and eventually the laws of exponential growth kick in.  A tipping point is reached, and happiness, I believe, will spread like a California brush fire.  So what to do in the meantime?  I suppose we continue planting seeds.  Besides, it is the planting that matters, not the harvest.  As many philosophers have noted, happiness is a by-product.  Happiness is, as Nathaniel Hawthorne observed, the butterfly that alights on our shoulder, unbidden."

Another fun quote involves the country of Qatar, something to keep in mind if you ever get a hankering to go there:  "I clear customs and step outside the terminal building.  I immediately run smack into a wall of heat.  Heat has velocity.  Anyone who managed to stay awake during high school physics knows that heated molecules move more quickly than cooler ones.  But Qatari heat also has mass.  It is a solid, a thing, that presses down on you.  Much like gravity, only not as pleasant."

Anyway - that's what I've read recently.  Try them & let me know what you think.

Papillon