Summer reading

The first stack of books that I intended to read this summer is read and contemplated (see image to the right under the section Books getting my attention right now). These are the insights I gained:

• Lovage and ruta graveolens keep the flies out. Could be a priceless trick, I have to try it out!
  
• The 50’s must have been a dream for every interior designer, I love Eero Saarinen’s furniture and Verner Panton’s heart shaped chair.
• I still haven’t read the autobiography of the man stating: “I would love to play the part of Jesus! I fit it perfectly because I am a comedian" (Charlie Chaplin). It’s tough to try to get to know someone, perhaps that’s why people go year in, year out to shrinks: they just don’t seem to really get to know the person staring back to them in the mirror? I guess I’m a bit afraid of the amount of attention needed to reading an autobiography. It feels as if the words gotta weigh double the usual weight as the image conveyed in the autobiography is exactly the one the writer wants the reader to have, it's no second-hand information and rumours and therefore it’s harder to just skim through the book, to dismiss thoughts or paragraphs with a shrug.
• I now have a much deeper understanding of the background to the current situation in Sudan, thanks to Scroggins’ biography on Emma McCune. It’s been a while since a book surprised me in this fashion. Judging from the cover, I expected to read about Ms Emma McCune’s life, her voluntary work and marriage with a guerilla leader. But the book was much more, among other things a history lesson and a story of the author’s, who’s also a journalist reporting from the country, own, professional relationship with Sudan. But what got me going the most was something not specifically written but something I noticed along the way; how one’s significant others influence you through life. How the way of life your parents lead affect you, how relative’s actions influence yours years and years after they occurred and sometimes also subconsciously.
  
• The comic paper I bought, combined with the manga series Ragnarök, awoke my latent desire to take up drawing. I’ve been practicing calligraphy for many years and I love photography but the drawing interest failed due to lack of realism. Man, portraits are tough! Thus, I’m hoping that learning the basics in drawing Valkyries and comic series dogs will be easier.