“When we release our dark side, it will completely overshadow the best in us.”
This book is very different from Paulo’s other books. This book was on my reading list for a long time but I didn’t read. Maybe its because I read some negative reviews about this book. However now I think people hate this book for its main character Linda, who has a perfect life, perfect husband, good career yet commits adultery to bring some excitement in her life.
It talks about life of married couples, how every day of their life is same, how sex which was once passionate becomes a duty. It states reasons why couples engage in extramarital affairs. It was interesting the way author Paulo Coelho dives in the soul of the characters of this book, strips them naked of emotions and presents you the very core of their existence.
This is a book which need the reader to do some hard thinking of their own lives and to be aware that restlessness and boredom can lead to constructive change or it can lead to destruction. Everyone has their own agenda and if you are using them, they may equally be using you. Thoughtful and thought provoking. This book may well repay a second or third reading.
“We are the ones who create messes in our heads. It does not come from outside.”
“If evil exists, it’s to be found in our fears.”
Why do they make it so hard for people to better themselves. So, growing up I never had a permanent house. As I grow older I’m learning to find stability in instabilities. I have moved around so much in my life I really do not have a place I can call home. Thus I have also learned to never attach to anything. I realized that home can be found in the people you surround yourself with and the memories and traditions that develop. Home is happiness and my happiness most times is with the people I love even if it is just myself at times. My own house. And I can’t wait to be there.
This poem by Ronald Chapman sums it up:
In the darkness of the night,
Away from all street lights,
Some drifters walk past.
A cold wind is blowing
Where are you going?
Please look at me.
Hopeless and desperate,
Hiding in the shadows,
Forgetting who I am.
Stubborn and silent.
Think of all the time
Wasted on our
Telepathic civil wars.
It has been so long,
I bet if we ever did
Open up our mouths
Cobwebs would pour out.
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good”.
Excerpt from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
I wonder why I don’t go to bed and go to sleep. But then it would be tomorrow, so I decide that no matter how tired I am, no matter how incoherent I am, I can skip one hour more of sleep and live.
Excerpt from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there’s no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing’s wrong.
Excerpt from Submarine by Joe Dunthorne
I began to draw an invisible boundary between me and other people. No matter who I was dealing with. I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the person’s attitude so that they wouldn’t get any closer. I didn’t easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music.
Excerpt from Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
