These are the books I've read.
1. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
"The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was again conversing with my wife, or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. In a last violent protest against imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious "Yes" in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose."
2. Light Years by James Salter. Salter's prose echoes like poetry in this novel about the married couple, Viri and Nedra, who live a complicated life. They end up divorcing each other, remain friends, and struggle to find some meaning in their lives even in their advanced years.
"The days were strewn about him, he was a drunkard of days. He had achieved nothing. He had this life—it was not worth much—not like a life that, though ended, had truly been something. If I had had courage, he thought, if I had had faith. We preserve ourselves as if that were important, and always at the expense of others . . . ."
3. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Oh, this one's fun. Give this to your kid or nephew or niece to start the love of reading. In a different world in a different time, twelve children are chosen to fight in the Hunger Games—and the game only ends when all the other children are killed and only one is left. The story may look simple, but it asks some very hard questions: what if one of the children was your friend? Would you kill him to survive?
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm a self-confessed Ishiguro fan. The books, An Artist of the Floating World and Remains of the Day, were just so good. This one, though, was different and altogether shocking. What was so special about that Hailsham school anyway? I didn't get the story until after the fifth—or was it the sixth?—chapter where everything fell into place.
"When I watched you dancing that day, I saw something else. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. very good. But a harsh, cruel world."
5. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. This non-fiction work of a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times columnist has made me understand the world today. His thesis is that the world is getting flatter, and what are we to do about it? If you're in I.T. or business or economics, this is a good investment.
6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
7. The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital by Samuel Shem
"Jo [a resident far-up in the hierarchy] shot off a lecture on the treatable causes of dementia, filled with obscure neuroanatomical references that brought back to me a story I'd heard about her and an anatomy exam at the BMS (Best Medical School). The exam had been impossible, the average score forty-two, and Jo had made ninety-nine. The one question she'd missed was to "identify the Circle of Polgi," which turned out to be a trick question, the said Circle being the traffic island situated just outside the front door of the BMS dorm. Jo's lecture on Abba [an old patient] was crisp, complete, coherent, and cohesive. She finished, looking as if she'd just had a satisfying bowel movement."
8. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
9. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
10. God Has a Wonderful Plan For Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message by Ray Comfort
11. Steig Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
12. A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. An American Yale drop-out and a lovely French girl fall in love. I longed for France while reading this.
13. Confessions by Augustine.
14. On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. I said I didn't read anything remotely academic; I just learned that this is required reading for some Psychiatry residents. The true-to-life accounts of dying patients under Dr. Ross' care made me understand and relate to death more. Not only medical students can benefit from this excellent work.
"We would think that our great emancipation, our knowledge of science and of man, had given us better ways and means to prepare ourselves and our families for this inevitable happening. Instead days are gone when a man was allowed to die in peace and dignity in his own home. The more we are achieving advances in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death. How is this possible? We use euphemisms, we make the dead look as if they were asleep, we ship the children off to protect them from the anxiety and turmoil around the house if the patient is fortunate enough to die at home . . . ."
15. The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
16. Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. He wrote this in reply to criticisms about his previous work, Heretics. This is essentially an account of how he, a former atheist, came to believe in Christianity.
"Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual . . . He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something . . . He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the temple, and asked men how the expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something . . . There was one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth."
17. Saving Faith by A.W. Pink
"Faith is the principal saving grace, and unbelief is the chief damning sin. The law which threatens death for every sin has already passed sentence of condemnation upon all, because all have sinned. This sentence is so peremptory that it admits of but one exception—all shall be executed if they believe not."
These are the films I've seen.
1. Tangled (2010)
2. Source Code (2011). The theme: repetition. Things get repeated so much so that you unconsciously memorize the lines along the way.
3. A Few Good Men (1992). One of those movies that make you want to be a lawyer.
3. Hop (2011). My brother, Sean, forced me into watching this. I regret coming with him to the cinema. It's all nonsense—unless rabbits fascinate you so much.
4. 3 Idiots (2009). All izz well.
5. Miss Ever's Boys (1997). Miss Ever is a nurse who worked in the Tuskeegee Experiment. The film is marked by excellent acting. A serious medical student should watch this.
6. No Reservations (2007)
7. The Bucket List (2007). Two dying men do things they've never done before.
8. Never Let Me Go (2010). The movie faithfully captured the emotions I saw in the book.
9. Capuccino zu Dritt (2003). A German investor renovates a hotel in an Italian seaside town.
10. Wizard of Oz (1938). "Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high."
11. A History of Violence (2005)
12. X-Men: First Class (2011). Professor X and Magneto for the win!
13. Kolya (1996)
14. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
15. Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)
16. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
17. Conspiracy (2001). The movie is all talk,
18. Diary of a Country Priest (1951). The priest drinks only bread and wine, that's why he looks sickly.
I am so impressed.
ReplyDeleteNo reason to be impressed, Kuya. Haha. Just had a lot of time in my hands, that's all.
ReplyDelete