Welcome to my book shelf
Here is a glimpse of my current reads, some of my favourite literature that influences me & will forever be on my shelf.
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
The plot of what is said to be the greatest work of literature centres on an extramarital affair between Anna Karenina & dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg. Forcing the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness. Returning to Russia, their lives further unravel. The novel deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, & rural vs. city life.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
A classic novel Hugo wrote in an attempt to save the Gothic architecture in Paris. (This has been one of my favourites since childhood)
An Acrobat of The Heart
In An Acrobat of the Heart, teacher-director-playwright Stephen Wangh reveals how Jerzy Grotowski's physical exercises can open a pathway to the actor's inner creativity. Drawing on Grotowski's insights and on the work of Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, and others, Wangh bridges the gap between rigorous physical training and practical scene and character technique. Wangh's students give candid descriptions of their struggles and breakthroughs, demonstrating how to transform these remarkable lessons into a personal journey of artistic growth.
Sapiens
Homo sapiens rules the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money and human rights. Starting from this provocative idea, Sapiens goes on to retell the history of our species from a completely fresh perspective. It explains that money is the most pluralistic system of mutual trust ever devised; that capitalism is the most successful religion ever invented; that the treatment of animals in modern agriculture is probably the worst crime in history; and that even though we are far more powerful than our ancient ancestors, we aren’t much happier.
The Artist’s Way Workbook
A workbook and companion to the international bestseller The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity is a self-help book by American author Julia Cameron. The book was written to help people with artistic creative recovery, which teaches techniques and exercises to assist people in gaining self-confidence in harnessing their creative talents and skills.
Although Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 2,000 poems, only a handful were ever published in her lifetime, and those anonymously. Today, she is recognized as one of the most important American poets of the nineteenth century, one whose unconventional use of language and rhyme anticipated the break with tradition of much modern poetry written after it.
The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson collects more than 150 of Dickinson's brief but memorable poems. Bursting with insights about life, love, nature, death, and immortality, these poems are among the best loved and most reprinted in English literature.