April 2023 Reading List
Hi friends,
Last month was a good month for me reading-wise. I managed to read seven books, which I think is a personal record for the most books I’ve read in a month! Some were shorter than others so that made it easier, but I also set more time aside to read, which had an impact.
Just goes to show that if you prioritise reading, then you can read more than you think!
Breath - As someone who’s had ongoing issues with my sinuses for as long as I remember, this was an interesting book to read. It’s about breathing and details how breathing through your nose is better for you than breathing through your mouth. To illustrate this, the author stuck blocked his nose for a week with caps and only breathed through his mouth. After a week he developed sleep apnea and his blood pressure rose too. There are several interesting breathing techniques in the book, and I’ve tried a few, which have had an impact. If you’ve ever had issues with your sinuses, then I highly recommend checking this book out!
Returning To Reims – A memoir about returning to a place you left 30 years ago. It’s an interesting book that shows how delicate and temperamental families can be while discussing social and political change too. I enjoyed the book and feel it explains a lot about why once staunchly left-wing areas in industrial heartlands have turned to the right and even far right in a lot of cases.
There is No Point of No Return – This is part of the Penguin Green Ideas but it’s the weakest of the ones that I’ve read. I didn’t get much out of this and although it was interesting to read about the early history of the field of ecology, there wasn’t much in the book that was interesting.
Shutdown – The first Covid lockdown was only three years ago but it already feels like a lifetime ago. Those lockdowns were a unique situation, the shutdown of the global economy to stop the spread of a deadly virus. The economic fallout was huge and is still being felt today and that’s what the economic historian Adam Tooze looks at in this intriguing book. It’s a bit weird reading a history book about a topic that’s only three years old but given it was such a huge event, it’s well worth reading.
Death in Spring – The only fiction book I managed to read in April and this one is part of the Penguin European Writers series. It’s a haunting tale about life in a small village in rural Catalunya and how things change and don’t change as the years go on. It was written during the dictatorship of General Franco in Spain and a lot of themes in the book touch upon this.
The Premonitions Bureau – One of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read about a man who set up a bureau to record people’s premonitions about future events. I read this book in two sittings as the story was so captivating. I’m sceptical about premonitions but there were two people, in particular, in the book who seemed to have an uncanny knack for predicting events before they happened. I don’t want to spoil the book if you’re yet to read or want to read, but it’s a fascinating story that almost feels too weird to be true.
The World For Sale - Some of the wealthiest people and companies are those you’ve never heard of and a lot of them are in the commodities. That’s what The World For Sale looks at as it details how these people made a fortune trading commodities in often dodgy circumstances. Reading this book, it’s scary to see how much influence they had. The money from sales of oil by the Soviet Union to these traders kept the regime afloat for decades, while other traders were happy to support regimes such as Gaddafi’s Libya and turn a blind eye to human rights abuses. A book that shows money does indeed corrupt or reveal someone’s true character.
I hope you get around to reading a few of these selections. Whether you read them in the next month or year, I’m not bothered. The idea of my reading lists is to encourage you, the reader, to read more.
If more of us read, and read books outside of our comfort zone, the world would be a better place. You don’t know what you don’t know. Reading is one of the best ways to fill in those gaps in your knowledge.
If you have any comments about the books, maybe you’ve read one before. Or if you have some recommendations for me, I’m all ears. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Until next time,
Tom