Inspiration
Inspiration from Books
‘Underworld’- Don DeLillo, 1997
- Probably one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years. A sprawling novel starting from a famous US base ball game in 1951 and continuing through the ‘Cold War’ years. It is a magnificent trawl through one of America’s most significant parts of the twentieth century.
‘The Lord of the Rings’- JRR Tolkien, 1954-55
- A fabulous adventure with a wealth of characters and a fairly complex storyline. This is one I’ve recently reread prior to the films by Peter Jackson; the films, by the way, were a brilliant triumph and a great adaptation from print to screen.
‘Oryx and Crake’- Margaret Atwood, 2003
- A really concerning book set in the near future and covering the devisive subject of genetic engineering. Similar to a lot of Atwood’s work, notably ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ 1985, this is concerning in its potential closeness to reality.
‘We’- Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1924
- The first twentieth century dystopian novel, written in 1924, 25 years before George Orwell’s ‘1984′. A fascinating and frightening book about the loss of individual identity to the power of ‘One State’.
‘On the Road’- Jack Kerouac, 1955
- A great novel about travel and adventure across 50’s America as part of the ‘Beatnik’ generation.
‘The Little World of Don Camillo’- Giovanni Guareschi, 1951
- A lovely book set in rural Italy about a priest and his trials and tribulations with the local communist mayor. Guareschi wrote a number of books about Don Camillo and all are a delightful read. They are especially great for cheering yourself up or when you’re ill. Sadly, they are now out of print, but I’ve managed to pick up a few copies in secondhand book shops and you may find them on Amazon.
‘No Logo’- Naomi Klein, 2000
- A fascinating book about globalization, the rise of corporate power and its overwhelming influence on everyone’s lives. This book has been very well researched and has helped to underpin the current backlash against our suffocation by trans-national corporations.
