What I learned from reading: The Wonderful Life by Hesba Stretton.

The Wonderful Life
By Hesba Stretton

And the last book on the Christmas Collections I was reading was The Wonderful Life by Hesba Stretton, which turned out to be a very biblical and religious book, in which is narrated the life of Jesus. 

And I think it was a pretty nice book to read, because it compiled in a chronological order the life of Jesus from his childhood to even after his death; which is something that even the Bible fails to do, since it only give us scraps of Jesus life told by the different apostles in a no order whatsoever.

Although, The Wonderful life doesn’t tell us much more about Jesus’ Life than what is already told in the Bible, it just puts everything in order and narrates it in a more romanticized way that portrait Jesus in a more humanly manner. 

But what did I learn from reading it?

Well, I learned that no one who passes thru this mortal realm is exempt from pain, sorrow, confusion and sadness, not even G—d’s Son. 

Because as this book shows a version of Jesus in which he is troubled and confused about life, and not like  He is usually portrait in the religion that is taught by most churches as a calmed, enlightened and kinda of a Superman man, it gave me a completely different perspective of what I thought of Him. 

So this book made me reflect much about my life, because if Jesus too felt pain, darkness and trouble in His heart by the path G—d sent him to walk on this earth, why should I expect to have it easier than him? 

Although I do too consider myself a Son of Man, Jesus had a more direct lineage to G—d, so he should have had it easier. But I guess that’s a question that only G—d knows the answer, and it might be even a proof of the love he has for us. 

So, if you are a religious person or are interested in Jesus’ life, you should read this book because it put the biblical knowledge in a chronological order that could help you see Jesus with another eyes and as a fellow brother in flesh and blood. 

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What I learned from reading The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglass Wiggin

The Birds’ Christmas Carol
By Kate Douglass Wiggin

The penultimate book on the Christmas Collection I am reading is The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglass, and it was really nice to read  another Christmas Story after reading the Wind in the Willows which I think it has nothing to with Christmas. 

This story is a very short one, and it is a very cute one that I really enjoyed reading, because it was simple,  the vocabulary was easy, the narrative was simple and easy to follow, so this was a very nice book to read, although I gotta say that I didn’t love it, but it was entertaining to read. 

But what did I learn from it? 

Well, I learned that sometimes, some people are just here for a purpose, and even tho not all of us might have a purpose, some people do and it is not until they accomplish that purpose that they can move on to the afterlife. 

Since this book left me reflecting on that, because it tells the story of a little girl called Carol Bird, who was born on a Christmas Day, and whose purpose was to bring her wealthy family with their poor neighbors together . 

So this book brings a beautiful message and although it is a little sad, it was fun to read, I would have liked it to be longer and probably have an epilogue or something that could tell more of what happened after, but it was nice anyways because as I already said the message it brings is that everyone has a purpose in this life that has to complete before we die. 

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What I learned from reading Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Wind in the Willows
By Kenneth Grahame

Next on the Christmas Compilation Stories I am reading I found another not Christmas related book, and it was Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. 

And I am going to be honest about this book… I found it to be the most illogical, irrational, boring and nonsensical book I’ve ever read, I only liked the first two chapters of it, afterwards it became a pain to keep reading, I would fall sleep, switch books, only read one page a day and get bored, etc, etc, etc. 

But no matter how boring the book was, I kept on reading and I finished, because I have this OCD of finishing every book that I start reading, so read the whole book despite boring me to almost death. 

But what did I learn from Wind in the Willows? 

Well, despite everything, I think that what I learn from it was that there’s a whole new world outside of our own little world, because in a way this book reflects about stepping out of our comfort zone and the wonders we could find when we just step out of it. 

Because the whole book is about a Mole who came out of his habitat to live with a Water Rat by a river, and from there they meet other animals and go into adventures with them. But then again, the book is very confusing as sometimes they portrait the animals talking with humans and interacting or acting like them too without any logical thought. 

But I am really glad I could made the best out of it and took a lesson out of it, because otherwise it would have been a complete waste of my time. 

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What I learned from reading The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

The Romance of a Christmas Card
by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

Next on my compilation of Christmas Stories I stumbled upon this light novel, which really honors its title, because the whole book is the romanticization of a Christmas Card.

It was really cool because it showed the whole process of the Christmas Card indeed and it was very interesting and entertaining to read, so I enjoyed a lot reading this light novel, because it made me feel Christmas even tho we are in July. 

But what did I learn from reading The Romance of a Christmas Card?

Well, this book taught me about the huge impact the small things can have in our life, because this book is about how something as simple as a Christmas Card developed a chain of actions that were never expected by the creator of the Christmas Card indeed. 

So this book had me thinking about how we take or do so many things without thinking or considering the impact that things can have in our life, so it kinda reminds me of the butterfly effect, therefore this book helped me bring awareness of my actions, even of the smallest one, and the consequences (positives or negatives) they can bring in my life. 

And I think it’s amazing how this little book brought so awareness to me, and it proves that great lessons doesn’t need a thousand of pages. 

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What I learned from reading: At The Back of the North Wind by George Macdonald.

At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald

Next on the big Compilation of Christmas Stories I found ‘At the Back of the North Wind’ by George Macdonald, and that made me happy because I actually had this book on my To-Read list, so it felt like killing two birds with one stone. 

I have read George before, I read The Princess and Goblin and the Light Princess, and I loved both stories, because of the way he mixed his occultism and esoteric knowledge and transform it into children stories, so every time I come across with one of his books, I get pretty eager to read them. 

And so was the case with this one, At The Back of the North Wind, was such a lovely read, although in my opinion the narration style was a little different from the the two previous books I have read of him, but in a good sense, it was a little bit more complex, I found myself re reading a few paragraphs over and over to be able to understand better what was happening on the story, specially in the first two chapters, but then I got the hold of it, and the reading was more smooth and pleasant. 

Other than that, I’ve got nothing to bad to say about it, the language was easy, the story lovely, and messages and lessons clear and strong! Which leads me to the question:

But what did I learn from reading At The Back of the North Wind?

Well, I think that the main lesson on this books is that spirituality can come to us in any form, that it’s different from person to person and that it makes unique or different from others. 

Because this book tells the story of Little Diamond, a rather poor kid son of a coach man, and the adventures he has with the North Wind, which is the spirit (if we can call it like that) that control the wind that comes from the north. 

Hence in the story North Wind come visit Little Diamond in her many different forms during the night and would take him with her as a companion to do her duties, which sometimes are good and some other bad, but both needed for her to teach Little Diamond great lessons about life and spirituality in general. 

And these lessons impact Little Diamond’s perspective of life and his way of acting, hence his spirituality makes him different from everyone else, but moreover it made him special, and I think that’s the objective of spirituality: to make us better and to make us unique. 

So this book has great lessons on it, and I gotta say that George did it again because, in my opinion,  At The Back of The North Wind is a book about Astral Projecting, so he managed to take again his knowledge of occultism and esoteric and enhance it and transform it into this beautiful book, that stole some tears from me at the very end. 

(Which is unusual from me, I think the last time I cried with a book was with Little Women) 

Anyhow, I think this is a must read for people who is developing their spirituality because of the way it is subtle portrayed during the whole story, (you would have to over think a little bit tho to fully comprehend it tho) so if you’d like to read it, you can get this book for free on iTunes by clicking here. 

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What I learned from reading: The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown.

The Christmas Angel
By Abbie Farwell Brown

The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown was next in line on the Collection of Christmas Stories I am currently reading, and this one was indeed a Christmas story, unlike other books that I’ve read on that collection, which I’d say that it’s half good classical books, and half Christmas stories. 

And this book was indeed just a story, so it wasn’t a long novel, which I think was pretty good, and I could felt the Christmas spirit in it, which was the main motive why I chose to read that whole collection, I wanted to feel Christmas through the year because I love Christmas. 

But what did I learned from reading it? 

Well, the lesson from this book is very explicit and I didn’t have to dig deeper or over-analyze it to pull it, because I learned that we cannot judge people for what we see or the little that we know about them, because everyone has a back story and motives to act they way they do, so we shouldn’t never really have a thought or a saying on other people actions without having know their entire story or haven’t been on their shoes. 

Because the plot of this books is all about it, since it tells the story of a old lady who makes a social experiment to prove herself that the Christmas spirit didn’t exist. But *** Spoilers*** at the end she gets a visit from the Christmas spirit whom proves her wrong and shows her the other side of coin (the how and why people acted the way they do). 

And although this was not something that I really learned from this book, because I’ve learned that years ago from life itself, it was a good reminder to read a book that express this lesson so greatly. 

Because besides being a fun and entertaining story it carries this great message about stop being judgmental that I think everyone should read, because if there’s something that we have by tons in the planet is judgemental people. 

So if you have the time to read this story, check it out because it’s short, good and a pretty good read! 

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What I learned from reading: Christmas with Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley

Christmas with Grandma Elsie,
By Martha Finley

Next in the Collection of Christmas Stories was Christmas with Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley, and I gotta be honest with you, this book was the combo breaker of this great compilation of Christmas Novels, since, so far, all the books that It contained I enjoyed them and had a good time with them. 

But Christmas with Grandma Elsie marked the difference in a really bad way for me, I found this book dull and it was really annoying to read, and I don’t know if it was due to the narrative, the empty characters or the intense and continuous religious messages this novel try to shovel down your throat.

For me I found this book boring from the very beginning because it doesn’t have a plot and almost nothing happens in it, but I kept reading it with the hopes that something would happen in the end that would make it worth reading, but nope, nothing, boring from the beginning to end. 

And now that I finished it I googled it and I discovered this was the 14th book of the series of Elsies book, so probably this was a just fan service book for the people who looked forward to the saga. Maybe the first books were good, but that’s not something I want to discover, because I really dislike this book. 

So what did I learn from reading Christmas with Grandma Elsie?

Well, I learned that books have to have a plot to be interesting and engaging, because this book is just a slice of life of a happy and rich family that is always lucky to avoid anything bad happening to them. So I found myself pretty bored and annoyed while reading how perfect and happy they were. 

But I think it was because I just found it very unrealistic, life cannot be that perfect or happy. Judging for my experience life is all about the ups and downs, enjoying the top and suffering the bottom, and this book just didn’t portrait a real sense of life to me, but more like the desire or dream of a never lasting happiness. 

So I don’t recommend it at all, and if you ever found yourself with a huge compilation of novels and find this book on the list, just skip it because it is not worth reading. 

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What I learned from reading: Little Lord Fauntleroy by F. H. Burnett

Little Lord Fauntleroy 
By Frances Hodgson Burnett

Continuing with the Collection of Christmas Stories I’m reading, I found Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnet next in line, and I got the chills, because I read “The secret Garden” from her a couple of years ago and I loved that book so much that I couldn’t help to get my expectations high with another of her novels. 

And I am very glad to say that my expectations were met and that I enjoyed reading this book so much, despite being a little bit disappointed in the beginning, because it took me a while to adapt to the narrative style of it, but after that I enjoyed and loved each and every word of this book. 

Although, I really don’t know why Little Lord Fauntleroy was in this Christmas Collection, because it doesn’t have a Christmas related theme, but I’m really glad it was there, and now I that looked at the Wikipedia article of this book, I found out that it was published before The Secret Garden, and if we compare both books we can notice that Frances grew as a writer and occultist and improved her art and teachings thru the years. 

But what did I learn from Little Lord Fauntleroy? 

Well, despite many could say that the main lesson of this book it’s all about love and how it can help us  change to become a better person (and I do agree with this), I rather think that this book teachings go beyond love and touches the grounds of how important and how our behavior can be affected by the perspectives others have of us. Therefore I learned from this book that’s it’s the perception other people have of us that it’s going to define our way to act towards them. 

In the book Cedric (Lord Fauntleroy) managed to change the old nasty ways his grandfather used to have, just by believing he was a good person and by having a innocent pure perception of the man that everyone disliked. So to match the boys believes and don’t disappoint him, Cedric’s Grandfather becomes a good person, thanks to the love and good perception his grandchildren had of him. 

Because sometimes all it takes for you to actually start acting and getting better, it’s to have someone believe that you are better than what you think you are. Since we humans care too much about what other people think of us and the perspectives and expectation they have for us and that can influence our life really drastically, because it’s the mind that create and construct reality, so others people mind can transform our own reality. 

Since we act accordingly to those perception or expectations other people has for us, therefore if someone thinks that you are a nasty person and you know that they think like that about you, you won’t act nicely to prove them wrong, no, you’d probably reject that person because of what it believes of you and act your naughtiest so they really know how nasty you can be. 

So the power of others people perception or thoughts about us can really define our behavior and that’s why it’s important for us to surround ourselves with people that think high of us, so we can keep up acting accordingly to these believes and actually improve our life to match the perception or expectations they have of us. And if this good perceptions come along with love, their power over us exponentially increase and can magically transform us entirely. 

Although nothing of that is expressed directly on the book, I’m pretty sure that it was what Frances wanted to teach us with Little Lord Fauntleroy, so if you’d like to get the whole lesson, you should really give it a try and read it, because it is a beautiful children book with a lot of occult knowledge. 

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What I learned from reading: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol 
By Charles Dickens

As I kept scrolling down on the huge Christmas Stories Compilation Book I am reading, I found Heidi next in line but I have already read it (Here’s my review of it), then Peter Pan and Wendy but I read it like 10 years ago, after that Little Women which I had read too (here’s my review but it’s in Spanish), then The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which I read too (all 13 books like 3 years ago), and then I found the A Christmas Carol. 

And I got excited, because the only piece I’ve read from Charles Dickens was Great Expectations, which I actually read twice, once in my early twenties and another time on my late twenties, so reading another book from Charles was exciting, and if we add the fact that A Christmas Carol is super popular and that I’ve seen several movies adaptations of it, then the hype increased.

So I enjoyed a lot reading A Christmas Carol but I have to note that it was a completely different experience from reading Great Expectations, and not in a very pleasant way, because I don’t know if it was due to the style, how the story was written or the structure of it that I had some hard times reading it, often I found myself having to reread sentences and entire paragraphs because I just didn’t get it or I couldn’t picture in my mind what was being expressed. 

Therefore it was not a smooth read, but having watched the different movies adaptations of it helped a lot, and I also have to say that the movies don’t miss anything from the book, so I guess I can say that it’s the same to read the book or watch the movie, because nothing is left out. 

But what did I learn from reading a Christmas Carol? 

Well, if you ask that to a commoner they would tell you that ‘the main lesson of this story is to be kind and to share your wealth with the people in need to win they their love and appreciation’ which I think it’s a really bad lesson, first because it implies some communism ideals, and secondly because it’s basically buying people love and good grace with money and gifts which is bad too. 

So the main lesson that I, Sir Helder Amos (with my auto-imposed self title of Sir), learned from reading a Christmas Story is that it’s never to late to change our life and fix our way so we can find our path to be happy in life. 

Sine one thing that is certain in the book is that Old Scrooge didn’t fully enjoy his life in the beginning, he lived a greedy gray life, but after the visit of the three spirits he gives his life a 360° 180° Change to find joy and happiness by sharing with others his wealth, and it’s in this change of life where I focus the lesson of this book.

Because if it were the case he could have found joy in traveling, in studying, or in dedicating himself to a craft; since happiness can be found in many different ways and not only in sharing one’s wealth by helping others; which I don’t criticize, but I want that the message that you can change your life for the better prevails more, since not everyone with a gray life have a fortune to share. 

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What I learned from reading: The Little City of Hope by F. Marion

The Little City of Hope
By Francis Marion Crawford 

As I said on my last post, I downloaded this huge compilation of Christmas Stories on iBooks and the next book on the list was this one: The Little City of Hope by Francis Marion, which I actually finished reading a couple of weeks ago. 

And just from reading the title it got me excited, because I’m an optimistic and positive person, so it build my expectations. 

But before jumping into the lessons I learn from this book, I want to share with you that it was my first time reading this author, and that oddly enough “The Little City of Hope” doesn’t have a Wikipedia Page, so all the information I could gather about it was that it was published on 1907. 

Parentheses: Why is it that all the great books and writers are all from the same era (late 1800 early 1900)?

The plot of this book is very simple, as it narrates the story and struggles of an inventor trying to make his failed invention work, and since all the events take place during the Christmas time, of course it was called a Christmas story. 

But what I learned from it? 

This might sound a little cheesy, but the main lesson this book brings it’s that of never losing hope and stick to our dreams, because wether we believe it or not, when we stay true to our dreams and ideals, the universe will provide with the answers or resources we need to make them happen! 

So, I really enjoyed reading this book and I’m happy to say that my expectation were met! Because I love positive books that program my brain to believe in myself and that my dreams can come true if I stay hopeful and true to myself, and despite the fact that I know that this was a fiction book, I also know that reality is never too far from fiction! 

Therefore I rather to believe in my dreams and the magic of life than to let reality crush all hopes and dreams! And this book was perfect to reinforce that thought! So if you like positive books with happy endings, you should give it a try to The Little City of Hope, because it’s a beautiful story than I’m sure will put a small on your face!  

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What I learned from reading Christmas-Tree Land by Mary Louisa Molesworth

Christmas-Tree Land
by Mary Louisa Molesworth

Another book I finished a couple of weeks ago is Christmas-Tree Land by Mary Louisa Molesworth, and this was a very interesting reading because I’ve never heard or read anything about Mary Louisa before in my life, so I had my doubts as wether to read this or not, because as you might have noticed I like reading classical and well known authors.

But since the version I downloaded of the Life & Adventures of Santa Claus for free in iBooks, was actually a compilation of several Christmas Novels / Stories, I decided to just keep reading and check the other books in there too, so expect that the upcoming reviews of this year are going to be mostly about Christmas Books, because that compilation have like 15 or 20 books in it (although there are some that I’ve already read, so I’ll skip those ones).

Now, back to Mary Louisa Novel: Christmas-Tree Land, it is a fantastic children book, it is really entertaining and full of magic and unbelievable events, which made me really happy to read, as I love everything Magic and Fantastic, so I enjoyed this book a lot. 

And since it’s a children book it’s pretty easy to read and it’s not that long, so then again it was a perfect reading for me; although if there’s something I could say that I didn’t like about this book is that probably it was too structured, it seemed as if this book followed the basic children book script so it felt very generic, but then again I enjoyed it and it was good altogether. 

But what I learned from it? 

I learned from this book that spirituality is something that is planted within us from our childhood,  because if we don’t believe in magic or fantasy when we are kids, it’s really hard that we can develop any spirituality when we grow up and even more unlikely that we can teach or pass anything related to it to our kids or children around us. 

And I learned this over analyzing the characters and the plot of this book, so don’t expect to find any lines or comments about spirituality in it! But for me every book that has fairies and magic in it, it’s a spiritual book, because to be able to write about fairies, one has to have at least some basic knowledge about them and occultism, and the way Mary Louisa talks about fairies and nature in this novel, makes me believe that she was initiated into the occult knowledge (another reason why I enjoyed this book so much). 

So if you are into occultism and children books like I am you should give it a try to Christmas-Tree Land, even when it’s not Christmas time, because it is a really enjoyable read! 

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What I Learned From Reading: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus 
By L. Frank Baum

This is another book that I read on December but I didn’t have the time to analyze and digest, because of all the work and time I was putting to my Tarot Readings project / branding www.weeklytarot.com but since I don’t have any customers tonight’s I figured it would be great to catch up with my reviews. 

For starters, I want to let you know that I’ve read all 13 Books of The Land of Oz and The Sea Fairies, so this was not my first time with L. Frank Baum so I kinda had expectations about this book, knowing his style and amazing creativity and imagination, and I’m really glad to say that all my expectations were met! 

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is an amazing, magical and entertaining children book, that serves as a biography of our beloved Santa, and even though it was made up by Frank, I took it as the cannon story of Santa, because despite being all fiction, it makes sense and goes accordingly with the occult knowledge of the actual universe. 

So it is a brilliant book that was majestic put together, I loved it! And it really blew my mind when I searched the Wikipedia article of it and found out that Frank wrote and published this book way BEFORE the Land of Oz series, because I thought this book was published after them! So it’s even more amazing how Frank kept and stay true to his style and fantasy world he created on his mind.

But what did I learn from it? 

Well, as it’s usual with Frank’s novels, this book has a lot of moral lessons and A LOT of occult knowledge, but the lesson that sticks the more to me from the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is that of how consistency and hard work can lead you to greatness, and that even the biggest public figures start from the bottom.

In this book, Frank tells the story of how Santa made his first toy carving it out of wood, and then he keept doing one by one before actually getting any help, so he started from the bottom, and it was his consistency and hard work that brought him the fame he has nowadays, and even though he is a fictional character, life does not part too long from fiction.

So that’s the great lesson I learned from it! Which at the same time motivates me to keep going until I finally make it! 

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What I learned from reading The Caste of Otranto by Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto

I am a little behind with the books that I’ve read recently, because I’ve so focused in working in my new project www.weeklytarot.com and in the branding of it and all the tarot readings that I am doing every day that I didn’t have much time for blogging about the books I’ve read. 

But now re taking the reviews and the lessons or knowledge I learn from the books I’ve read, I finished this book, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, back in December, and I honestly wasn’t sure of wether to post of having read this book or not. 

Because after reading it, I felt that I didn’t learn anything new besides all that you can find in the Wikipedia article of it, since from my point of view this book is purely entertainment, of course you find some ironies of life in it about relationship and love, but I didn’t think it was something new or relevant to me (although it probably was back in the time it was published). 

Although I cannot deny that the story was very interesting, specially since it’s about apparitions, prophecies, love and power, so it’s a very complete book plot-wise talking. 

Also this book is considered the first Gothic Book that open the path for so many gothic writers that emerge after The Castle of Otranto was published, so I think it’s a must read. Since it represents the beginning of an era. 

And now that I’ve been writing this post and thinking about this book, I think that I can say that best lesson or knowledge I can pull out of it it’s that sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time can change your life. 

So, always be aware of where you are and pay attentions of your surroundings. 

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What I learned from reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The turn of the screw is a paranormal novel written by Henry James, and despite the fact that I found it a little bit boring to read, because I didn’t like the narration style, it touches a very interesting subject about the paranormal and the craziness. 

Speculating about the title, I think it comes from the saying of “having a screw loose” which refers to being crazy, so in a way I felt that this novel is about being crazy and reassuring the craziness. Since the screw refers to being crazy, and turning the screw is like adjusting it into the mind, who knows? it is really hard to explain, because the way this novel was written was too brilliant and putting into words the concept is really giving me headache, because it’s one of this books that one understand but that cannot explain. 

So in a way, I learned from this novel that we all assume that our perception is the same that everyone else have, which is totally incorrect, since we all are different so we all have different perceptions so one should never assume one is always correct. Because in the book the main Character saw some apparitions than despite only she was able to see, she assumed the kids she was in charge with could see them too, and it’s about this that the book is about, how she misunderstood all the situation with these ghosts she was seeing around the house. 

Nevertheless, Henry James, never confirmed in the book if the apparitions she saw were real ghosts or just tricks that her eyes / mind played on her, so the reader never really know, and this is what led me to overthink the title of the book, because if the apparitions were not real, and the main character was crazy, she just turned the screw she had loosen and plug all the craziness into her life. 

And I better stop writing because I feel like I can be like a dog chasing it’s tail trying to explain this book, and instead try to give it a read, as always you can find it for free on iBooks because it is a classic and it’s public domain. 

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Review of Joseph Conrad’s novel: The Secret Agent.

The Secret Agent is a highly politicized novel written by Jose Conrad and was first published in 1907, about the anarchism and somehow the terrorist attacks that were having place in the U.K. And the U.S. back at the time. 

Now, I only learned that after reading the Wikipedia article of the novel, because as I always do, I just picked to read this book because the title ‘called me’, since This time I wanted to read an adventure book. And apparently Joseph Conrad wrote this novel inspired by an actually terrorist attack that took place in Greenwich in 1894.

Nerveless, despite the novel gives you what the title promises, a book about a Secret Agent, it was not delivered in the way I expected. Because I wanted to read something like... I don’t know... a Secret Agent like James Bond or something, fooling everyone and making stunts. But instead I got a book extremely boring (at least the first half of it) filled with politics and anarchism. 

Fortunately for me, I really got to enjoy the second half of the book, mostly because it’s where the action happens, and all the extensive narrative that I felt unnecessary and boring, took a turn of events. 

And let me repeated in case it’s not clear, I disliked the narrative of this book so bad. Joseph Conrad took too many words to describe his characters and situations that (for me) were unnecessary and boring. 

Now, from a creative point of view, the idea was very good and controversial, so with a different narrative it would have been a great book, and it actually was, since for what I read on the Wikipedia article, he then created a play version of this book which was successful and that even a Television Series was created based on it. 

Back to the story to talk a little about the plot, this book narrates the tale of Mr. Verloc, a Secret Agent, who apparently had left his espionage behind and settled down with his wife, mother in law and special brother in law, in a small shop. But his bubble pops when he is called back to take action or lose his job and salary as a Secret Agent, which he always retained. So the book revolves around about the anxiety and stress of Mr. Verloc having to accomplish the mission that was delegated to him. 

To conclude, I gotta say that I have mixed feelings about this book, because as it was annoying to read, but the idea and the plot were good and in a way it exposed secret agents in a more realistic way, so I cannot say I disliked the whole book, yet I can’t say I like it entirely neither. So It is really a mixed feeling, because I cannot state that the book was good nor bad without disagreeing with myself. 

So if you wanna read it and try to get your own opinion for this book, you can find it and get it in iBooks for free or download from any public domain library. 

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Analysis of the Meditations of Emperor or Rome Marcus Aurelius

Meditations of Emperor of Rome
Marcus Aurelius

As I mentioned in my last review, I was reading this philosophy book, Meditations of Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius, and this is the second oldest books that I’ve read, being the Bible number one, because Marcus wrote this meditations during a period of his life from around 120 to 180 AD, so yeah, it’s pretty old.

But despite being more than 1800 years old, this book shows that mankind is still the same. As that it doesn’t matter how many years pass we will always be same. We will have the same thoughts, the same opinions, the same troubles and the same character, since we are humans.

Just as cats remain being cats after thousands of years, so are we. So what I reaffirmed when I read this book (because I’ve realized that a long time ago) is that life and humans are the same sh!t but during a different era. One just have to substitute one old problem for new another. People before got anxious because they couldn’t get a goat, nowadays we get anxious because we cannot get the latest iPhone.

Back to the book, it's name is in point, because that’s what you get, Marco Aurelius’ Meditations, the book is a compilation of short statements Marco Aurelius wrote, during the before mentioned period of life. And every statement is an opinion about life, death, religion, politics, family, nature, the universe, law. Literally there’s an statement for everything. And the best part, is that ALL THIS STATEMENTS CAN STILL BE RELATED TO TODAY. Which I found very amusing an interesting, mostly because I’ve meditated that before, so I agreed with A LOT of those statements, like, I literally almost highlighted the whole book, because I was like: “lol, same” or “I know, right!” every time I found a quote that matches my philosophy.

Could it be that I am a reincarnation of Marcus Aurelius? 

So, every night that I lay myself to read, I felt like I was talking and changing opinions with the Emperor of Rome, because, the book are just his thoughts and opinions. And they feel so sincere and honest since the beginning, that you don’t feel the pressure one feels when readying other philosophy books (because most of philosophers just want that the whole world adhere to their philosophy). The book is literally, “This is what I think and what I feel, you don’t have to agree, but this is what I have in my mind and heart”. So I found it extremely pleasant to read.

But despite the fact of being pleasant, the book was heavy, it had too much content, it has statements that although being just a few paragraphs long had they were so dense with what he wanted to express, that it made the reading tiring. So that’s why I started reading Heidi on the other hand.

To conclude because I otherwise I could start going one by one of the 12 books/section this book contains, I wanna say, that despite I don’t know Marcus Aurelius, what he did in life, how old was he when he wrote it, or how he governed Rome, I loved the book, I enjoyed it from beginning to end, as I agreed with most of the content, so maybe I should be the next Emperor of Rome.

Quote from Meditations of Marcus Aurelius 

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