October Reading List
Hey friends,
I managed to read more than I thought this month. The primary reason for this was that I spent a week in Italy, during which I read four books.
I always take some books with me when I travel so I can read on the plane or the train. The three I took with me, I read in no time. I ended up buying another one so I had something to read on the flight back.
It’s amazing how getting out of your normal routine can lead to you reading much more than normal!
Here’s my reading list for October.
The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs – I love dinosaurs! So it was about time I read this book which had been sitting on my shelf for nearly a year. It was an interesting read and taught me a lot about the world of the dinosaurs. A surprising fact I learned is that at least one new dinosaur a week is discovered somewhere in the world. That blew my mind! If you want to learn more about dinosaurs, I can’t recommend this book enough.
This Is Not Propaganda – I read this book on the flight over to Italy. It deals with the world of propaganda, or ‘not propaganda’ as the title of the book states. It’s an interesting if uncomfortable read at times and goes some way to explaining why politics feels so distant and crazy at the moment.
Fahrenheit 451 – I bought this book at the train station on my last day in Italy so I could read it on the flight back to England. I remember a writer stating this book was better than Orwell’s 1984 a few years ago, so I was keen to see if this was the case. Both deal with dystopian futures, but 1984 is better in my opinion. Orwell is a master of the English language and his world is a lot more terrifying and easier to imagine than this one. Still, it’s a good book and an interesting read, but I was a bit let down considering how much this writer hyped it up.
The Last Tree on Easter Island – Part of the new Penguin Green Ideas collection, this book is by Jared Diamond and is essential reading if you’re worried about the climate crisis. Unfortunately, as you can probably tell from the title, it doesn’t make for pleasant reading. Whether we follow the same fate as the Easter Islanders is entirely up to us. But from reading this, I pray it doesn’t happen.
This Can’t Be Happening – Another one of the books from the Green Ideas collection. This one is a collection of essays from the environmentalist George Monbiot. It features some fascinating pieces and he doesn’t hold back in his criticisms of the inaction over climate change and the need to take action now. I’d supplement this with his fantastic book Feral, to get more of a sense of Monbiot’s passion for the natural world.
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