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TODAY IS WORLD Book Day, the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in Ireland and the UK.
With that in mind, we want to hear about your favourite books.
What’s the most inspiring or life-changing book you’ve read? Or what is just a plain good read?
We’ll kick things off. Here are some of TheJournal.ie employees’ favourites:
“The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami – huge, bold storytelling that will knock any aspirations to be a novelist out of you (if you have them): how could you possibly produce something as incredibly inventive as this?”
“If you want to read two Irish books to understand our more accessible literary inheritance beyond the giants of Joyce, Wilde etc, I’d recommend That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern and Country Girls by Edna O’Brien.”
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. A combination of brilliant, inventive, language and cutting satire. I don’t think I’ve read another book like it.
“A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster (both by David Foster Wallace) were life-changing in the sense that they inspired me to do a thesis on DFW. Both are also extraordinary pieces of work and nice, gentle introductions to a writer who can be quite difficult and intense at times (though always worth the effort).”
1984 by George Orwell really shaped my view of how governments interact with populations, and has stuff in it that’s so fascinating to read in a 21st-century context. Also, When Panic Attacks by Aine Tubridy really allowed me to understand/get a hold on anxiety.
“Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich – terrifying and will give you nightmares, but it’s an amazing piece of work.”
Most definitely Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. It’s a collection of her columns from when she was the online agony aunt Dear Sugar (now a podcast). In theory it sounds like nothing special but, my goodness, her answers are incredible. She’s like Oprah and a really, really kind mam all in one. It totally changed my thinking on everything from relationships to family dynamics to work stress.
“Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock by Amy Raphael made me want to be a music journalist.”
The Will to Change by bell hooks was one of those “everyone should read this” books for me.
“The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is an incredible book. It teaches you never to trust what you can see with your own eyes, and to never trust the words you read on a page.”
Now it’s your turn. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
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No more embarrassment of getting thick in the office and shouting “I can’t get it in”.
Never had that problem ;-)
Ah but then you are an office legend after all Alan!
I went to Knock to pray for this.
You are a gentleman and a saint. I dub thee Sir, and king of the nine realms.
I get it in first time
If you have a problem plugging in a USB device you seriously should stay away from technology! How thick do you have to be ???????
Desktop PC’s, with usb at the back can be quiet annoying to get at if they are fixed into a tight space. Usb connections are also on their side so this fixes that problem.
Just keep the USB symbol on the connection facing upwards.
This is a USB problem I’m sure everyone can relate to:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–oVTS07RH–/18ixbwhjud1zxjpg.jpg
They should bring in reversible trainers..
The hassle of figuring out witch foot is witch in the mornings
Witch foot? Is that a medical condition like Druids knee?
first batch portlaoise prison
FFS … Beat me to it.
What a technological breakthrough.
It would be vastly more useful if they passed a law to standardise the name of what I call a flash drive. It seems like every single person I meet through my job has a different name for them. Portable drive, thumb drive, pen drive, stick, usb, pen, usb drive, memory stick, portable hard drive etc etc
The amount of times I’ve been stumped by which way to face a flash drive when inserting it (it’s zero btw), pales in comparison to the number of blank expressions I’ve gotten when I ask “have you got the files on a flash drive there?”
This is the first-world-problemist thing I’ve ever read.
It’s a hard oul life.
Lightning cable
This technically makes it a USC – which now send here to stay … hooray :(
Look at that feckin’ gibberish you typed Dung – FFS, sort out your fatty fingers man …
Thanks be to god! Now I can sleep tonight. Will this be on the 9 o clock news…..mmmm Anne Doyle…..
A little help please?
I can’t find the ” Any” key, my coffee cup holder has a CD-ROM in it and my foot pedal is asking me if I want to ” cut and paste”???
I tried switching the PC on and off as that works 95% of the time but no joy..
A first world problem!!!
“designed to be both reversible and get rid of the problem of which way is up”
Surely that is the same thing?
Ooooh – can’t wait for the mid 2015 story No. III on this one topic.
- EU charger thing was actually March 2013, date your padding correctly Sir ;)
Kane, it was March 2014 . Also it was only an agreement on chargers , not on connecting cables. So you will still have the problem of having different connectors for different brands of phone.
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/onecharger-law-wont-hit-smartphone-makers-30091690.html
have your say