Monthly Archives: August 2020

Adding to the list of books that have been influencers and shapers for me:

The Meaning of Everything – The story of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, ISBN 0-19-517500-X

The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein, ISBN 978-1-44340-496-9

Read 7 Pillars of Wisdom (TE Lawrence) and then read this

The Golden Warrior – Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia – Lawrence James – ISBN 0-34910673-8

Serpent of the Nile (Women and Dance of the Arab World, Wendy Buonaventura, ISBN 1-56656-117-5

The Travels of Marco Polo, ISBN 0-88029-135-4

6 volumes (Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Protestantism) Editor George Braziller but various authors to each volume

What you read, and at what point in your life you read it,  can be a huge influence on your outlook in the years to come.

Here are some of my biggest influencers – First Batch

Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz, ISBN 978-1-4165-8343-1

Unsuitable Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers, Jane Robinson, ISBN 0-19-282489-9

Tribes, Seth Godin, ISBN 978-1-59184-233-0

Stewardship, Peter Block, ISBN 1-881052-28-1

Freedom or Death, Nikos Kazantzakis, 

Bury Me Standing, Isabel Forseca, ISBN 0-679-73743-X

Grandmother’s Secrets, Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi, ISBN 1-56656-302-X

Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks, ISBN 978-0-676-97989-4

Rock Encyclopedia,  Lillian Roxon, Library of Congress 77-75342

One Year Later, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Library of Congress  79-81883

The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks, ISBN 978-0-330-50890-2

What’s on Your List?  Leave a comment

It’s a question that has been the topic of many a series. Who would you invite to dinner?  There are lots of common answers – from current pop stars to the usual movie stars.

I’ve added a little twist – Who would you want to sit next to? It gets very interesting when you move to more than two guests.

Adam and Eve

Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha

Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Ghenghis Khan and Attila the Hun

Mikhail Gorbachev and Winston Churchill

Marilyn Monroe, Olivia de Havilland and Lauren Bacall

Alex Zanardi, Stephen Hawkings, Terry Fox and Rick Hansen

Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench

Anne Frank and Albert Einstein

T E Lawerence,  Gertrude Bell, and Susan Travers

Orson Wells, Steve McQueen, and Humphrey Bogart

Tina Turner, Storm Large and Cher

Sterling Moss, Ayrton Senna and Juan Miguel Fangio

Love to hear who you would want to have to dinner and who you would want to sit next to.