EmpathythroughBooks

Finished: 2/8/17

‘Tis about a man that has chosen a solitary existence in the woods, and recounts his past. A past that has made him the old man that he is today. Filled with regrets and memories held dear. 

This book took me through feelings of hardship. What it must have been like for a country boy in Europe during the war. A boy of fifteen forced to do a mans work, battling feelings of righteousness, betrayal, and loss. Then when he grows, all he desires is isolation.

This book makes me feel silly for craving isolation like I do. I long to be alone to recharge, but enjoy the company of a like minded person every now and again just like Trond (The protagonist). However, he has so much more reason to want to be left alone. His past was filled with heartbreak, the loss of those close to him, much due to the war. He has reason to try and close himself off. Towards the end of the book his daughter comes to see him and wishes he would move back to the city with the rest of the family that is left. An outside view would see a grumpy, stubborn old man set in his ways (much like how his daughter sees him). But an inside look affords me to realize he’s not at all stubborn, and he’s not doing this to hurt other people.

In some ways he’s finally facing his past. Actively relieving it. Perhaps moving from the city was his way to finally deal with things he’d been putting off. You can’t escape yourself, but you can drown it out with surrounding noise. In the countryside the only noise you’re left with is your own thoughts. 

This being said, I have to point out that Trond was interested in solitude even before anything of consequence had happened to him. He says “ All my life I have longed to be alone in a place like this. Even when everything was going well, as it often did. I can say that much. That it often did. I have been lucky. But even then, for instance in the middle of an embrace and someone whispering words in my ear I wanted to hear, I could suddenly get a longing to be in a place where there was only silence. Years might go by and I did not think about it, but that does not mean that I did not long to be there. And now I am here, and it is almost exactly as I had imagined it. “ 

Finished: 2/22/17

Let me start by saying that this book is an absolutely wonderful novel for young adults. While this didn’t entirely help my quest for empathy it still left me thinking days after reading. 

This book surrounds entirely around a ridiculous artifact that needs recovering and the complete change in the course of history due to a tiny insignificant event. Altogether a fun read that will stick with me for a while.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was that some events were small enough that fate/timewarp (whatever you wish to call it) would be fixed in time as a way of maintaining the course of history. So for example, if a time traveler saved someones life, they would just die later and no lasting or major consequences would become of this. This starts the argument of how much matters and how much doesn’t. Or say, how much is controlled by fate and how much isn’t?

Finished: 1/24/2017

 To me this book is a lot about finding ones place in the world, or becoming one with the “soul of the world” and becoming one with who you are and who you are meant to be and not relenting until you have your “treasure” so to speak. Even if the path takes a long time and has many temptations to lead you astray, you must make sure to return to that path before you lose sight of it completely. 

I suppose the frustrating thing about this novel for me was that I was reading it as a person whom doesn’t know what their dream is. In the novel the main character, Santiago, knows he has a bigger dream than what he is doing in that moment. This book also has large undertones of spirituality, faith and omens which guide him from time to time (unhelpful to me as spirituality/religion is not something I strongly identify with). Overall though, the message is clear that Santiago had dreams to follow. While following your dream is hard, I don’t think it’s half as hard as realizing what your dream actually is. In my opinion it doesn’t take Santiago very long to realize his dream, and to try and follow it. Something the book doesn’t touch on is just when this person is supposed to know their dream. It talks a lot about making sure you don’t miss it or lose it, but not much about when the realization of your dream comes- what age, what time in life? When you’re bored to death shepherding sheep and don’t want to follow in what your parents are telling you? That pretty much generalizes all high school seniors trying to find their place after graduation. I’d be pretty disappointed if realizing my “personal legend” was up to my 18 year old self, who was more concerned about boys than her future.