Coffee

I could not put the book down. And it was tragic to say the least.

I liked how most of the things said in the book was told through stories and examples. And though I ended up disagreeing with a lot of that she said, I like how she didn't talk in vague expression. She said what she wanted to say, straight and clear. This was a nice read, it made aware or some things that never even crossed my mind before. (Like how in most households women do the cooking, but when we look at the biggest chefs in the world almost all of them are men. They are undoubtedly talented cooks, but it can't be a coincidence that almost all of them are men.) I do wish she didn't just talk about Nigeriens so much, but now I know that Nigeria has a big problem with genders (I am yet to know much of that is actually true though as I don't know any from Nigeria). Overall, I had my agreements, and I had my disagreements too, but I don't think disagreeing with a book necessarily makes it bad (though I had to think about that a bit before I made that opinion). It gets a 3.5/5 rating from me, it was good read.

Love the manner it's written in. Took some time to get used to it but it was a great exprience reading it and I had a good time.

I don't usually listen to audiobooks but I don't think I would've reached the end of this story otherwise. There wasn't any grand story, things happened and the characters simply went along with the waves. That is in fact more realistic in fact I suppose but it's not really my thing. I liked Old Man the most but didn't really feel sad or anything, it was pretty obvious that he was going to die then. I wonder why her mother was the first one to be called by the Memory Police. The most interesting part about the book I'd say was how the views of Arr and main character (whose name I, oddly, can't recall) differed. One was convinced memories never truly fade and tried to make others recall the things they had forgotten about, and the other couldn't understand why it was so important to hold on to memories which had already been lost. Other than that I can't think of much to say, it was okay overall.

 The second part was easier to read but I preferred the first part. I agree that people will never be truly rational and that sometimes it is that irrationality that they value the most, in fact I myself am an example of that. Not in the way the UM is in the second part, but still the same in different ways. I find peace in insanity sometimes and I wouldn't give that up for no rationality whatsoever, even if it costs me my well being. That's what makes me me. If everything I did was rational I think I'd be nothing more than a clog in a machine, there's no place for my free will there. (I'm just rambling, hope it makes some sense.) The constant pursuit of learning about new things is a big part of what keeps me alive. If I'm devoid of it for too long it's not exaggeration to say that I kind of fall into a sort of madness. And there was a part about this in the book. It is the process of taking in that information and learning about something that is more important to me that actually having learnt that information. I won't be satisfied even if I were given an immense amount of knowledge at once put into my head, as there's no enjoyment in it for me even though I know that going through the whole process of learning it on my own is inefficient than simply getting the final product. Humans will never be completely rational and a perfect society isn't possible. Anyways, that is all for me, I'll end this ramble here.

 In general I liked the book and it's ideas and I thought everyone should read it. It's the kind of book I realize that I have to read more than just once to truly understand, and I shall do that sometime. But for now I think I will take a break from it and read some more happy stuff.
Inital rating: 3.8/5