"Without stories one would hardly know what world one was living in. It has to do with self-consciousness. Though I’m no believer, I find it interesting that self-consciousness is associated with the Fall. Nakedness and shame. Knowledge of ourselves a thing apart, and bound to die. Exile. We speak of self-consciousness as a burden or a problem, and so it is—the problem being how to use it to bring ourselves out of exile. Whereas our tendency is to love ourselves in the distance, wouldn’t you say? Lost in the distance. It’s a wonder we’re not all barking. And of course we would be if we hadn’t any way to use self-consciousness against itself, or rather against its worst inclinations—morbidity, narcissism, paranoia, grandiosity, that lot. We have somehow to turn a profit on it. Which is, I must say, exactly what that story of yours does. “Summer Dance.” A marvelous story! Pure magic. No—no—not magic. Alchemy. The dross of self-consciousness transformed into the gold of self-knowledge.”Book #49 = "Old School" by Tobias Wolff, 4/5 Stars
- Mr. Ramsey, Old School, Tobias Wolff
Book #48 = "Firmin" by Sam Savage, 3/5 Stars
Book #47 = "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #46 = "The Shack" by William P. Young, 3/5 Stars
GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!
Book #45 = "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #44 = "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1/5 Stars
Book #43 = "Highlighted in Yellow" by H. Jackson Brown, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #42 = "Warrior of the Light: A Manual" by Paulo Coelho, 5/5 Stars
Book #41 = "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, 1/5 Stars
Book #40 = "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong, 2/5 Stars
Book #39 = "Dragonfly" by K.R. Dwyer (Dean Koontz), 3/5 Stars
Book #38 = "Teaching a Stone to Talk" by Annie Dillard, 1/5 Stars
Book #37 = "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury, 5/5 Stars
Book #36 = "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury, 2/5 Stars
Book #35 = "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, 3/5 Stars
Book #34 = "Now & Forever" by Ray Bradbury, 4/5 Stars
Book #33 = "Coincidence" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars
Book #32 = "The Discreet Charm of Charlie Monk" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars
Book #31 = "Fish" by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, & Blanchard, 4/5 Stars
Book #30 = "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 3/5 Stars
Book #29 = "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars
Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars
