OK. I know what you might be thinking. But I thought of sharing with you this fantastic gem of a book I found in Singapore in one of their fantastic bookshops a while ago. Please forgive me for digressing, but I am starving for a good bookshop here in Al Ain. We have a small pretend-bookshop in one of the malls. Dubai now has a few brilliant bookshops - especially in the Dubai Mall and Mirdif Mall, but I'm afraid my one-horse-town hasn't yet caught up! Yes, I know one can order anything from Amazon, but how does that compare to browsing through the bookshelves in a brilliant bookshops where all the titles are shouting at at you: "Read me, read me..."The crisp new pages, still a bit stiff for want of caressing fingers to page through them with so much appreciation…
In any case, back to my little “Loo” book. This is the ultimate condensed book of need-to-know things. Really, if you want a brief overview of literary classics, and don’t have the time to read the Steinbecs and the Ibsens, the Austens and the Hemingways, the H.G. Wells’ and the Edgar Allan Poe classics, this is the book for you. Even categorised into themes such as symbolic characterization and thought, reflective realism, science fiction masterpieces etc. And summarised so well that you would, after a particularly satisfactory session in the loo, at least be able to converse with your intellectual colleagues with astonishing breadth of literary knowledge.(I definitely refrained from saying “depth”).
There is also a lovely section on quotes and anecdotes. I particularly liked the different section headings: Yes, you can; Working it out; It’s a beautiful life; Having it all. And forgive me, but since I love quotes, here is a particularly good one:
” The art of being yourself at your best is the art of unfolding your personality into the man you want to be…Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others”…Wilfred Peterson.
How about this one (and it fits so perfectly into my NLP philosophy…) Seneca said,
“It is part of the cure wo want to be cured”.
O and I LOVE this one by an unknown person: “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
The next section contains biographies of famous scientists, inventors and innovators, leaders of the spirit, political leaders, artists and philosophers and classic memoirs. Wow. It would take you ages to read - and let’s face it, we all HAVE to visit the loo a few times daily…
I just loved the section titled “The Best of Business and Leadership - A Classic Collection”. Now let me tell you, this is the ultimate self-help and megatrend section. (Oprah, eat your heart out…) Listen to a few titles: A Passion for Excellence; Swim With the Sharks; How To Talk So People Can Listen…And the best of it all is, most of these books can be summarised in a two-page sitting. O yes, don’t forget the “Classics in Personal effectiveness” with all the books everyone else seems to have read (and now you can also join the club)…things like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (and yes, I have the book, but really struggled to reach mid-way), The Road Less Travelled; and the list continues.
There is a bonus section on word power (vocab, foreign words and phrases and even speech writing and presenting); grammar; Health and fitness advice and even a section on sports and trivia. So, all in all, after reading the 606 pages in this book, you could perhaps sound very educated. I call it a good investment of time (not often that we get to double the results of time spent already on something else…if you know what I mean.)
Please excuse me…got to run…have to visit the loo…
Passing Time In The Loo Volume 1
www.scarabbbooks.com
ISBN: 0-9537357-1-0
(724 Words)
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