Thirty books everyone should read before they turn 30

1. Siddhartha by
   Hermann Hesse – A powerful story about the importance of life
   experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality
   and attaining enlightenment.
2. 1984
   by George Orwell – 1984 still holds chief significance nearly 60 years
   after it was written in 1949.  It is widely acclaimed for its haunting
   vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive, 24/7
   surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
   by Harper Lee – The story surveys the controversial issues of race and
   economic class in the 1930’s Deep South via a court case of a black man
   charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl.  It’s a moving
   tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and
   against prejudice.
4. A Clockwork Orange
   by Anthony Burgess – A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that
   depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed
   adolescent.  This novel will blow you away… leaving you breathless,
   livid, thrilled, and concerned.
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway – A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.
6. War and Peace
   by Leo Tolstoy – This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it
   couldn’t be described as a standard novel.  The storyline takes place in
   Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of
   Andrei, Pierre and Natasha… and the tragic and unanticipated way in
   which their lives interconnect.
7. The Rights of Man
   by Tom Paine – Written during the era of the French Revolution, this
   book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from
   the standpoint of democracy.
8. The Social Contract
   by Jean-Jacques Rousseau – A famous quote from the book states that
   “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”  This accurately
   summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of individual
   human rights within society.
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude
   by Gabriel García Márquez – This novel does not have a plot in the
   conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a
   clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural
   history.
10. The Origin of Species
    by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the
    way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.
11. The Wisdom of the Desert
    by Thomas Merton – A collection of thoughts, meditations and
    reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and
    purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.
12. The Tipping Point
    by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product
    concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. 
    Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change
    becomes unstoppable.”
13. The Wind in the Willows
    by Kenneth Graham – Arguably one of the best children’s books ever
    written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures
    in life.  It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism,
    adventure, morality, and camaraderie.
14. The Art of War
    by Sun Tzu – One of the oldest books on military strategy in the
    world.  It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of
    general strategy and business tactics.
15. The Lord of the Rings
    by J.R.R. Tolkien – One of the greatest fictional stories ever told,
    and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in
    20th-century literature.  Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read
    them all.
16. David Copperfield
    by Charles Dickens – This is a tale that lingers on the topic of
    attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s
    emotional and moral life.  Dickens states that we must learn to go
    against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”
17. Four Quartets
    by T.S. Eliot – Probably the wisest poetic prose of modern times.  It
    was written during World War II, and is still entirely relevant today…
    here’s an excerpt: “The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of
    incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from
    sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre
    or pyre–/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this
    torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The
    intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only
    live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire.”
18. Catch-22
    by Joseph Heller – This book coined the self-titled term “catch-22”
    that is widely used in modern-day dialogue.  As for the story, its
    message is clear: What’s commonly held to be good, may be bad… what is
    sensible, is nonsense.  Its one of the greatest literary works of the
    20th century.  Read it.
19. The Great Gatsby
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Set in the Jazz Age of the roaring 20’s, this
    book unravels a cautionary tale of the American dream.  Specifically,
    the reader learns that a few good friends are far more important that a
    zillion acquaintances, and the drive created from the desire to have
    something is more valuable than actually having it.
20. The Catcher in the Rye
    by J.D. Salinger – This novel firmly stands as an icon for accurately
    representing the ups and downs of teen angst, defiance and rebellion. 
    If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of the unpredictable teenage
    mindset.
21. Crime and Punishment
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – A smooth-flowing, captivating novel of a young
    man living in poverty who criminally succumbs to the desire for money,
    and the hefty phychological impact this has on him and the people
    closest to him.
22. The Prince
    by Niccolo Machiavelli – This book does a great job at describing
    situations of power and statesmanship.  From political and corporate
    power struggles to attaining advancement, influence and authority over
    others, Machiavelli’s observations apply.
23. Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau – Thoreau spent two years, two months and two
    days writing this book in a secluded cabin near the banks of Walden Pond
    in Concord, Massachusetts.  This is a story about being truly free from
    the pressures of society.  The book can speak for itself:  “I went to
    the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the
    essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to
    teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
24. The Republic
    by Plato – A gripping and enduring work of philosophy on how life
    should be lived, justice should be served, and leaders should lead.  It
    also gives the reader a fundamental understanding of western political
    theory.
25. Lolita
    – This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to
    conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption… and at times makes
    you deeply question your own perceptions of each.  The story is as
    devious as it is beautiful.
26. Getting Things Done by David Allen – The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done.  Nuff said.
27. How To Win Friends and Influence People
    by Dale Carnegie – This is the granddaddy of all self-improvement
    books.  It is a comprehensive, easy to read guide for winning people
    over to your way of thinking in both business and personal
    relationships.
28. Lord of the Flies
    by William Golding – A powerful and alarming look at the possibilities
    for savagery in a lawless environment, where compassionate human
    reasoning is replaced by anarchistic, animal instinct.
29. The Grapes of Wrath
    by John Steinbeck – Steinbeck’s deeply touching tale about the survival
    of displaced families desperately searching for work in a nation stuck
    by depression will never cease to be relevant.
30. The Master and Margarita
    by Mikhail Bulgakov – This anticommunist masterpiece is a multifaceted
    novel about the clash between good and evil.  It dives head first into
    the topics of greed, corruption and deception as they relate to human
    nature.
31. BONUS:  How To Cook Everything
    by Mark Bittman – 900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook
    everything you could ever dream of eating.  Pretty much the greatest
    cookbook ever written.  Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll
    be a master chef by the time you’re 30.
32. BONUS:  Honeymoon with My Brother
    by Franz Wisner – Franz Wisner had it all… a great job and a beautiful
    fiancée.  Life was good.  But then his fiancée dumped him days before
    their wedding, and his boss basically fired him.  So he dragged his
    younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and
    they never turned back… around the world they went for two full years. 
    This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and
    self discovery.

I want to be beautiful

I want them to look at me with love in their eyes.
Look at me like they want me, want to be me.
Look at me as if they can't live without me, breathless.
I want you to look at me with lust in your eyes,
look at me like I am the only person alive who understands your pain.
look at me like I am the only person you could ever want,
like I am the last man on earth and you are the last woman.
Look at me like we have to rebuild civilization, like it's all you've ever wanted.
Like I am all you've ever wanted.
I want you to look at me with desire, with need, hunger, longing...
Look at me like the world is a cold oasis and I am the fire to keep you warm.
Like you're stranded on a sea of darkness and I am the Sun to bring you light.
Look at me like I look at you, for just a moment, and we'll fall in love.

Hi

Your words have their way with me.
I feel the flow fall from your soft subtle lips
Licking in my ears with their seductive tendrils
causing synapses sending signs to light fires
and the flames heat my skin flushing me red with lust
charging me electrically turning everything white and blue
with light my eyes lose focus, straining gazes at your face
smiling pretty knowing your lyrically spoken songs of
conversation take me completely and leave me
wanting more and more, kneeding and pleading from within
to reach out my unpleasantly begrimed hands so calloused
with the labors and undeserving to brush against your
heavenly ambrosial robe of skin. My deliciously flaunting Nymph
My Aphrodite, my Magdalena. So perfect a disaster
my heart crumbles in sadness and sorrow should so much as
a frown steal across your unfathomably fantastic face, If so much
as a solitary hateful tear should fall from your exquisitely radiant
eyes. Eyes so perceptive and piercing they cut through the darkest
walls to bring light, to find meaning, to bring mercy. I ask is it time to breath,
as every syllable spoken by you begs my breath to halt. Steals the wind from my lungs and freezes my heart should the beating be too loud and overcome the sweet sounds that emanate so eloquently from the verve of your breast. Lungless and heart-stilled I await your permission to continue my inner function to live another moment if only for you to bless me again with another short bout of dying just to be blessed with your idiom.

I don't believe I could ever survive, if in passing me, you rumored more than "Hi"

"lyrics" Ive got the time, I'll wait to see

Show me all your secrets and I'll tell you all my lies
Because from you, well I've got nothing left to hide.
I don't have much money but I can save my dimes
You know, for you, oh there is nothing I won't buy.

So will you come with me and be happy
Or will you keep walking the line
Oh girl, for you Ive got time
So will you come with me and be happy
Or are you just playing with me
Oh girl, for you I'll wait and see

If I kiss you on your lips would it offend you?
Because I'd love to give it a try
And if I tell you that Im in love with you
Will you walk away or stare in my eyes

While I sing
So will you come with me and be happy
Or will you keep walking the line
Hey girl, for you Ive got time
So will you come with me and be happy
Or are you just playing with me
Well girl, for you I'll wait to see




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone robot Igor. Me: "say hello Igor" Igor: "hebbdjbndkmjbs..."

Bandaids and Burn Cream

And in these dark times I feel the light consume me and bring forth an angel of destiny. Unfortunately however, my destiny seems to be forged in the fires of Insur Mount Abooldapreshon which lies between the Mountain ranges Aghorl Datilnever Lykeu Range and the Yugotta Bekiddonme Stretch. I've become So deft in embracing my lack of awareness that I continue to stick around long after the fires of chance and circumstance have burned out. Leaving me a humble but accountable friend. And recently I have been thinking a about it and I have come to the conclusion that I am not in love with the "girl" but with the feelings and joy that would come from the romance. I miss the feelings of wonder and excitement when I got to go home to someone waiting for me. When I had someone that soaked up my love and was happy in it. I want to be the world again. For a while, I was the entire universe and "She" was the sun that kissed me with light and warmth. She was the burning of desire and love. Now that she burnt out I am left overfilled with love and and overwhelming need to share it but there isn't another sun in sight and these matches keep burning my fingers.

Lose it or let it go...

I'm about to lose it, I can feel myself slipping. Like a wet rope in in a waterfall, it's about as good as nothing. I can't help myself from falling. I can't keep myself from sliding. Everything keeps getting to me and for too long it's just been piling. I can feel the tears as they well up behind my stone cold stubborn eyes. I can feel the garish shaking working in among my bones. I can sense the eyes upon wondering "what's wrong with that man?". And I know my time is coming, feel the pressure on my chest. I'm in a tree a mile up on branches far too thin to hold me, and I'm daring life to break it though the drop is long and daunting. And here she's haunting me, my spectre. My sweet serpent of the night. Lashing tongue so wicked cunning, almost convincing me to leap. All for not if her prescious treasure, her darling puppet shouldn't fall. So I'm standing tall defiant, hoping any end at all. Inside, the breaking. Hear a cracking in my lungs. And my breath becoming shallow in the mountain air so cold. I'm getting tired, slowing failing at my stand against the dark. And when I see her stand before me, arms spread out, I want her love. I want her holding, touching on me. I want her kisses on my lips. I want to give up every ounce of the person I once was. Lie and cheat myself to slavery, sell myself to her dirt cheap. But in the back of my mind I'm flailing grabbing abything to break this state. And I'm back to being lonely, feeling worthless, cold and lost. Can't somebody save me from my downward spiral spin? Can't someone stop the pain inside my clammy sweat filled skin? Is someone out there strong enough to help me find my way, or am I destined for the darkness constantly pulling me from within?!

I'll be here tomorrow, I won't give up. But I'm not strong enough to face this on my own and I need to hold a hand. I need love, trust, understanding and direction in my soul. Cause I'm affraid of waking up one day full of misery and old.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone robot Igor. Me: "say hello Igor" Igor: "hebbdjbndkmjbs..."

Of Feeling not Fleeting

This Is Still In progress:

I got a girlfriend and sometimes she will hang out with me.
I got a girlfriend that fell in love with me in a week.
I got a girlfriend that stole my heart with only a kiss.
I got a girlfriend then suddenly it turned in to this.
I had a girlfriend, but my girlfriend didn't seem to believe.
I had a girlfriend in a hurry just to get rid of me.
I had a girlfriend that said she loved me but it just wasn't true.
I had a girlfriend, for a minute there I thought it was you.

I can't believe your lies, my life became a manuscript. A movie that was written and directed by your politics. A story filled with nothing but the scraps from someone elses bullshit. Now everytime I think about you baby it just makes me sick. And never have I ever for a second thought I'd be this prick. A guy that sticks around and deals with all of someone elses shit. And when he doesn't get a damn thing in return for it, he sticks around and holds the hand of the bitch that started it.