Why We Sleep

First of all, a huge thank you to my friend Chris for giving this book to me as my birthday present! I think part of the reason why Chris might have given me this book is that I once told him that I wake up at 4:00 a.m. to exercise, and he wanted me to know how important sleep was. For some reason I feel like I have always known, at least through folklore, that sleep is important, but I am glad to have learnt more about the scientific reasons behind this belief, and more about sleep and dreams, in general.

  Yes, I highly recommend reading this book to anyone because I do believe that having a better sleep will dramatically improve our health, and will make us have a better life, in all aspects. Of course, as very well pointed out by the author himself: "Just as describing the scientific dangers of how eating junk food leads to obesity rarely ends up with people choosing broccoli over a cookie, knowledge alone is not enough" (Walker, M. Why We Sleep. p. 329. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Penguin Books, 2018).

  Indeed changing one's habits can be incredibly difficult. Fortunately for me, I think I have been trying much more consciously to change some of my habits, and I think it has gone well so far! I would like to believe that this book has helped me improve the quality of my sleep, and I think it can help many other people too.

  Despite my favourable opinion of this book, I must say I am still a bit skeptical about some of the results of the experiments that are described in the book. The results almost always seem to adhere very closely to the author's conjectures, and I wished I could see more of the statistical analyses that were done, as currently one might think that they might be too good to be true.

His Dark Materials

A very long time ago my father gave me the first book of this trilogy, in Spanish. I remember reading the first page and dedicing that it was too boring for me. Indeed I did not read the book for many, many years; certainly more than 15 years. But then there were several independent instances through the years where I heard people expressing high praise for these books. Finally, when Aidan told me he really liked the universe of these books, I made the executive decision of buying all of them in one volume and read them.

  I am happy that I made that decision, as the narrative is entertaining and the books are well-written. Without knowing anything about Phillip Pullman, I knew just by reading the book that it had to had been written by an English author since the writing is characteristically polite and elegant. Which made the scenes of violence surprising in a way that I had not read before. And I think the writing alone is the reason I would recommend reading His Dark Materials.

  The rest of the book —the universe that Pullman created, and the storyline— is pretty much just the excuse Pullman had to show to the world how beautiful his writing is. In fact, the rest of the book is standardly simple. Though I do appreciate that the author offers young readers an introduction to the debate on right and wrong, and to humanity's fraught relationship with Christianity.

  I am left with mixed feelings. Though, I think Michael Torpey would be of the opinion that if a book makes you think about things, and makes you feel feelings, then it is probably a good book.

The Invention of Nature

Oh, what a book! I am not sure if I hated it. This is a biography of Alexander von Humboldt, and I really like him. I have very fond childhood memories of going to the Museum of San Ildefonso to see an extremely beautiful exhibition of his life and work. But this book!
  I find it extremely repetitive in the most banal way. This novel could have most certainly been reduced to a short story without losing any of the main things that were said in it. The main point of the novel should definitely be restated here: it would be cool if more people knew about Alexander von Humboldt. I am actually not sure if that was the main point of the novel, but that is what I would like more people to know.
  Also, I really did not appreciate the many vague insinuations that Alexander von Humboldt was not heterosexual. I think that if that is what the author wanted to say, she should have said it explicitly. In conversation with my friend Jo, she pointed out that maybe nobody knows, and because he lived so long ago there might not be many records in that regard. Is that what the author wanted to convey? Who knows!

How to Win Friends and Influence People

First of all, thank you Chris for my wonderful birthday present. It took me a while to read this book, mainly because I have been lazy and I have not been reading as much as I would have liked.
  I did like this book. It very much reminded me of John Bridge's How To Be a Gentleman. Except this book goes more into the theory of dealing with other people, gives example scenarios, and strategies to solve particular problems. Overall, they are good advice. An issue I found with several of those strategies, however, is that they can be severely optimistic in what they are trying to achieve. The book does tend to be somehow repetitive, which makes me think that maybe the book would have benefited from being a little shorter.
  Certainly, I recommend this book to whomever wants a reminder on how to be a nice person. I was many times surprised by how often the book made me aware of my rude manners. I will try to be better.

The Man in the High Castle

The first few chapters of the book were not only promising, but the praise that the author received ("The most brilliant science fiction mind on any planet", Rolling Stone) helped convince me that this was going to be an excellent novel. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the second half of the book and my final opinion is that one can skip this book altogether.
  I suppose it is to be expected that certain science fiction books start looking odd when the future they were imagining starts diverging from what actually happened in the future. Yes, this book tries to conceive a world with an alternative history but I am sure that even if Germany and Japan had won the Second World War, certain technological advances, such as being able to read the newspaper on your smartphone instead of having to wait for physical copies to be delivered, would come first than the ability to colonise other planets. Even though these discrepancies in the history of technological advances are fairly common in the novel, they are not enough to invalidate the whole story. Yet, certain aspects of the book, specifically the racist comments against white people and the anti-semitic remarks, seemed to me quite gratuitous.
  Trying to imagine a world where Germany and Japan won the Second World War is indeed a difficult thing to do, but I think this book does a bad job in its attempt.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

According to Oscar Wilde, books are either well written or badly written; that is all. Ever since I have been aware of that sentiment, I have tried to judge books with that in mind. But I have found that, sometimes, that is a very difficult thing for me to do. Thus, what I will say is the following: this book is well structured. I really enjoyed the story and the ideas that were put into this book. Especially that of conceding that people who think differently from us, that see the world in a different way, even when we might think them bad, precisely because of their alternative point of view, may be able to solve problems that we have not been able to solve, whose solution benefits all of society.

  The thing I absolutely abhorred was the protagonist, April May. I understand that the story relies on her acting recklessly and immature. It was just extremely frustrating to read how preposterous were virtually all of her decisions. All of her friends, though, were great, and made the story great. One just had to pray for a lot of grace to tolerate April's tantrums.

  I also enjoyed the suspense, and how the story towards the end recovers ideas from the beginning, making it seem like everything was part of a well crafted plan. Though, most importantly, I really liked some of the sentences, because I felt like I could relate some of my experiences to the ideas that were being expressed. A particular example is: "I understood it, but there was no acceptance in that understanding, only bitterness, terror, frustration, and hatred piled on top of the pain." (Green, H. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. p. 323. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Trapeze, 2018). Taking that quote severely out of context, and applying it to my unrequited love life: yes, I understand that only because I am in love with someone, that does not mean the other person is meant to feel the same way about me—yet, understanding this did not lessen my heartache.

  Yes, I recommend this book. Yes, I think it is a great story, that in addition to being good fiction, lets you into the circle of what it feels to be YouTube famous. Go read this book, I promise you will have a nice time.

The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde must have felt about The Picture of Dorian Gray the same way Basil Hallward felt about his portrait of Dorian Gray when he said: "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. If I live, I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray." (Wilde, O. The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray. p. 68. United States of America: Harvard University Press, 2012). It felt like it was Oscar Wilde saying those words, not Basil Hallward. Maybe Oscar Wilde at some point thought people would see too much of him in his novel, as they (perhaps incorrectly) in fact do.

  This original version of the novel is immensely more beautiful than the 1891 version I had previously read. Mainly because Basil's romance for Dorian Gray becomes crystal clear, and Dorian's bisexual promiscuity becomes more crude. The story becomes more honest. But also because the novel is excised of dull and banal chapters and characters. Like James Vane, and the uninteresting chapter about his improbable death. In fact, I was extremely happy to see that the things I did not adore of the 1891 version of the novel were not in fact part of the original typescript. The result of going back to the original version is a more compact and more powerful narrative, short enough to be effortlessly read in just one day.

  I feel so grateful to be living in an age where The Picture of Dorian Gray has been published as Oscar Wilde wanted it in the first place. I will go as far as to say that now that we have this version widely available, no one should ever read neither the 1890 Lippincot's version, nor the 1891 version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. They are a completely different story that lost perfection the moment they tainted it with their censorship.

  So, if Oscar Wilde did feel what Basil Hallward felt upon finishing his portrait, why did he end up publishing the novel? Perhaps we can find the answer in Basil Hallward once again, when he later changes his mind and says: "[I]t seemed to me that I had been foolish in imagining that I had said anything in it, more than that you were extremely good-looking and that I could paint. Even now I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour, that is all." (Wilde, O. The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray. p. 145. United States of America: Harvard University Press, 2012).