Monthly Archive for August, 2007Page 2 of 13

The Devil and Miss Prym

As I revamped my Around the World in 52 Countries challenge to better fit with the 1001 Books list, the Paulo Coelho book that came off was The Zahir, which was replaced by his The Devil and Miss Prym simply to kill two goals with one stone. More parable than novel, The Devil and Miss Prym was intended to be the Brazil stop in my reading around the world, but as it’s set in a small, mountainous French village named Viscos, it again proves the point that so many of my books are not set in the countries where the author themselves was born, and don’t really tell me a whole bunch about life in his or her original setting… 

This article was written by Ragdoll. Please, visit the site My Tragic Right Hip to continue to read the article.

Quite Studious

Teetering precariously on 3 inch heels I shift the books from my right to left arm and grab a hold of the handrail as I make my way down the stairs. I am finding today’s library selections to be completely cumbersome. Strangers cast looks of bewilderment and of skepticism my way. I am quite the comedic scene, petite young lady dressed to the nine wrestling a stack of books up to her eyeballs in stilettos, but strangely their stares fill me with a sense of pride…

 
This article was written by Katharine. Please, visit the site “I’ll have my cake and eat it too… preferably with funfetti frosting!” to continue to read the article.

The gift of insults

By Paulo Coelho

 
Near Tokyo, there lived a very great Samurai who, now an old man, devoted himself to teaching Zen Buddhism to the young. Despite his great age, it was said that he could defeat any adversary.

 
One afternoon, he was visited by a warrior who was known to be entirely without scruples. This warrior was also famous for his technique of provocation; he would wait for his adversary to make the first move and then, using his exceptional intelligence to assess any errors made, he would launch a lightning counter-attack.

 
The impatient young warrior had never once lost a contest. He knew the Samurai’s reputation and had gone there in order to defeat him and thus enhance his own reputation.

 
Despite his students’ protests, the old Samurai accepted the warrior’s challenge.

 
Everyone gathered in the city’s main square, and the young man began insulting the old teacher. He threw a few stones at him, spat in his face, heaped every known insult both on him and on his ancestors. For hours, he did everything he could to provoke the Samurai, but the old man remained utterly impassive. By the end of the afternoon, the fiery warrior withdrew, exhausted and humiliated.

 
Disappointed that their teacher had failed to respond to these insults and provocations, his students asked:

 
‘How could you put up with such indignities? Why, even though you risked losing the fight, did you not use your sword, rather than reveal yourself to us as a coward?’

 
‘If someone comes to you with a gift, and you do not accept it, to whom does that gift belong?’ asked the Samurai.

 
‘To the person who tried to give it,’ replied his disciples.

 
‘The same applies to envy, anger and insults,’ said the teacher. ‘If they are not accepted, they remain the property of the person who carries them within himself.’

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Veronika Decides to Die

Another Paulo Coelho! To be honest, I just can’t get enough of him. One thing as I was reading this book was the similarities it had with The Witch of Portobello. The parents who were close-minded and the somewhat evil kind of doctor…

 
This article was written by bookfriendly. Please, visit the site The Library to continue to read the article.

He stole my soul

Christina Lamb has covered many foreign wars for The Sunday Times, but she had no defences when one of the world’s bestselling novelists decided to hijack her life

 
This article was written by Christina Lamb. Please, visit the site TimesOnline to continue to read the article.

True importance

By Paulo Coelho

Jean was out walking with his grandfather in Paris. At one point, they saw a shoemaker being insulted by a customer who claimed that there was something wrong with his shoes. The shoemaker calmly listened to his complaints, apologised and promised to make good the mistake.

 
Jean and his grandfather stopped to have a coffee. At the next table, the waiter asked a man if he would mind moving his chair slightly so that he could get by. The man erupted in a torrent of abuse and refused to move.

 
‘Never forget what you have seen,’ said Jean’s grandfather. ‘The shoemaker accepted the customer’s complaint, while this man next to us did not want to move. Men who perform some useful task are not bothered if they are treated as if they were useless, but men who do no useful work at all always think themselves very important and hide their incompetence behind their authority.’

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