So far, I cannot say that I think of photographers as the most intellectual bunch I’ve ever encountered in my life. It has to be expected to some extent, but for me, who has done doctoral studies, I find that community to sometimes be coming a bit short of my expectations in that way. (Not sure why I needed to say this, since it has not much to do with the subject of this post…)
But anyway, as I am feeling more intellectual right now than photographic, I felt like I would take up the ‘challenge’ or activity of some people on the web that I’ve seen post book covers of book covers on Facebook, without comment or otherwise. I felt like I’d do something similar, but take it a bit of a step further, and actually share some thoughts about each book, what it made me think about or reflect on, and why in general I think people should read it/them. Though I would present those thoughts as reasons for which you should read the books, these are by no means reviews in any sense of the word.
So, without further ado, from top to bottom of the pile (yes, there are only nine):
La femme à venir de Christian Bobin: Beyond its entrancing story, this book made realize that ‘writing well’ really should not be equated with using long sentences, lots of commas, or really-big-words.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton: Much better than the movie, like just about all adaptations, I read the book as principally a reflection on the potential ills of unregulated science, which is, beyond all appearances, still a community made of flawed individuals with an agenda.
Noise by Russell Smith: In the great style of the author, rants about the tendency of society to be short on musical (or frankly any other kind of) literacy beyond what is considered ‘productive’. (And I’m not even getting started on the author being Canadian here!)
World War Z by Max Brooks: A thoughtful piece (yes!) about government and policy, both sarcastic, ironic (sometimes not deliberately?), but always incisive. Could also possibly be a handbook to the post-COVID-19 world?
Во власти женщины by Эрленд Лу: So I’m staying true to the fact that I read the Russian translation of this Norwegian novel and that I’m lazy (could this also be the big takeaway? I mean, if I were not, I’d have photographed each novel separately…). But seriously, this is a great but, riffing off of Christian Bobin, simply written novel about relationships.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: Ok, you’ve probably all heard of this novel by now. A pandemic wipes out human civilization as we know it. Grim enough to make COVID-19 look almost good by comparison? I’m not sure, but it is a piece whereby the author makes us reflect on how we cut corners in everyday communications (thx, lol and all that), for reasons that we cannot seem to really explain. (It is really about appreciating the people next to you… it is also about hope. I certainly need some of that right now!)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I read this in 2010 when I studied in Istanbul. Any book would have been good after the one I’d read before (I won’t bore you with the details here), and it made the bus ride to the university much more enjoyable. (It also made me miss class.) I already knew back then that this would be made into a movie, which I still have not watched since I do not want to ruin my idea of the book.
Wizard of the Crow by Ngûgî wa Thiong’o: Touches on so many themes that I cannot remember all of them. All around great humour in exploring the lives of people in an unnamed fictional African country. Its references to international development challenges (mostly corruption) just invariably makes me think of how my own career started.
NW by Zadie Smith: I am at a loss for words to describe the novel, frankly. In many ways, an anglophone counterpart to La femme à venir, also extolling the virtue of simple words and sentences in telling a complex and rich story.
There are so many other books that I could have mentioned here, such as War & Peace, A Star Called Henry, The Cairo Trilogy… but there is almost no way that most of you even read all the way to here, so I’m going to finish this post right now anyway.
What are some of your favorites?