Best read of the month.

" One day everything will be well, that is our hope. today everything is fine, that is our illusion."

"We never quite get over the sorrow caused by losing those loved; we only learn to live with it and to live despite it; which makes living a richer thing. That is sorrow's gift."

These are 2 quotes that are extracted from the book i am reading now. It has been months since i found a book that can impress me incredibly much. A book by A.C grayling " The meaning of things- Applying philosophy to life". This book is made up of many short essays that tackle with every aspects of life. For example, some of the chapters in it are "death","tolerance","virginity","peace" and so on... Each chapter consists of 2 to about at most 6 pages, which is pretty short for any book. But after i read it, i understand why each chapter is so short. The reason is there is no reason for it to be long. The author just did a fantastic job in covering the width and depth of a particular theme within the 6 pages. Any longer, it will be superfluous.

In fact to me, though this book just consist of many independent short chapters compiled together, i found it quite a "heavy" read. The whole book is laid with sentence like the quotes above. It induces a lot of thinking, a lot of cross referencing to my experience and the reality. Frankly speaking, to be able to cover every aspect of life to such great depth and all the way down to the tiniest details, i really wonder what kind of life he has been through. He is definitely one of my most admired writer. Going to get his other books soon. haha...

unconsidered life is not worth living- by socrates. <--- i think is very true. i am a great advocate of this ideal.