Monday 19 November 2012

Thinking about leaving your current life in search of adventures?

What are you going to bargain your current life for?

It is what I was asking myself and so I decided to read this book:

The upgrade (A cautionary tale of a life without reservation)
By Paul Carr


From the first page I noticed how clever Paul Carr is: he is able to exploit his brain to analyse how is life, he is not crawling and wandering himself through the life as it is, he makes a (successful) effort to choose what he wants and what he wants to change.
Then I like so much the book because it is full of experience I'd never had the braveness to live, so by confronting myself and my life with his experiences I can understand better what I want from my life, how I want to live.
A reason more to read it is its funniness: I've read about anomalous situations where Paul was able to behave himself through thanks to clever and amusing and willing solutions, not a bunch of adventures of an idiot.
And even when he shows how stupid he was in some experiences and decisions, he points out quickly the reason of its mistakes. It's astonishingly well written, I could read it quickly because it is clear, every sentence deliver its meaning plainfully, wittingly, precisely.
What I don't like is that this book mainly teaches how to be a loser, not how to be a winner.
Then, few pages for the end, Paul reveals the secret to reach the success in everything you want to accomplish in life. Worth reading.
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Saturday 6 October 2012

Life abroad: what's like?

I suggest to read the book

Almost French
by Sarah Turnbull

Telling her experience, I could have a precise hindsight about:

  • how Paris is
  • how French people is
  • how Australian people is
  • how the expat life in a country where people doesn't speak English is
I suggest this book for the deep and touching descriptions of what does living abroad mean and which emotions it involves. It provides lots of concrete information about Paris and France, beyond that you can recognize how good the author was at expressing her feelings, her difficulties, her gleeful moments, which are very common among people living away from home. After having read the book, I can read a couple of sentences and I can remember what she was describing in that chapter, because the way the author is able to write makes easier to remember the situation.
Really, the human aspect of the experience is at the centre of the book, even if she is describing lots of everyday events aiming to describe Paris and France.
It's definitely a book who is helping me to understand my life experiences (I've been living away from my home city for 6 years now) and to find answers about where I want to live.

p.s. Plans to move to London? Spend 1 minute on successful move to london