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Jun 13 2011
Back in January, I read a book Hector and the Search for Happiness. Not long after, I saw the film Blue Valentine (Trailer). I had grand plans to write about both the book and film at the time. Certain events were a little too fresh in my head at the time, time passed, and I never wrote about the book or the film.
Hector and the Search for Happiness is part of a now series of books by the French author François Lelord. Lelord is psychiatrist who did post doctorate work at UCLA and now lives in SE Asia. In the book, Hector is a psychiatrist who is burnt out and decides to go on a global journey to discover secrets of happiness. But that’s all I’m going to say about that book for now.
The translation of the second book in the series, Hector and the Secrets of Love came out at the end of May. The book begins not long after the first one ended. Hector is happy with his work, his relationships, his love. He’s even considering getting married. Then his girlfriend’s boss invites him (and a few other leading psychiatrists) to a resort to ask them about love. For Hector, there is another task…his girlfriend’s boss wants him to find a friend and colleague that has disappeared while researching love for the pharmaceutical company Hector’s girlfriend works for.
This journey is going to be a lot more complicated than Hector’s first journey, because love, as Hector often says, is complicated.
In the spirit of the first book, over the course of the book, Hector makes numerous observations about Love. These “seedlings” are the building blocks to the five components of love (and their corresponding five components of heartache). Below the cut, I’ve put each of the 27 seedlings of love (at least until someone tells me I have to take it down). I don’t really think I disagree with any of these observations. As for the components of love and heartache…for that you’ll have to read the book yourself.
Love being such a complicated thing, this book often made me sad while reading it. But I suppose a journey to discover the secrets of love is also more prone to heartache than a journey to find the secrets of happiness.
So how is my own journey to discover the secrets of love? Well that’s its own journey…one I’m still on…I’ve been in love and lost love…and I’m still discovering how to love (both myself and someone else)…so instead of answering that question in this public space, I’ll leave you with the words of Hector at the end of his journey:
“Love is indeed complicated, difficult, sometimes painful,
but it is also the only time that our dream becomes reality…”
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Apr 11 2011
I’ve had this on order at Amazon for months, but finally noticed in the reviews that Barnes & Noble had it in stock on their website. In his latest work of fiction, Jonathan Safron Foer has literally cut out a new story from Bruno Schulz’s classic story The Street of Crocodiles (also known as The Cinnamon Shops).
The result is something beautiful…words from pages below peeking up into the current page…giving so many different ways to read each page. Reading through front to back is quick, as there aren’t many words on each page…and each page is only one-sided. But this is something I imagine you’d want to read over…seeing the different ways the words come together.
About the book (from Jonathan Safron Foer):
The making of the book (from the publisher):
Tree of Codes (Publisher’s Microsite)
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Aug 26 2008
Well I seem to be having a string of luck with electronics lately. On Saturday I came home from running some errands to a dead computer. It was off, and the little light on the power button was flashing yellow. Not good. Anyway, I’ve picked out something to replace it…for the moment at least. Its a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop at Best Buy for $599. Of course I need a couple weeks to come up with the funds to purchase it, so it’ll be at least Sept. 5th before I can get it. At least I’ve got the web at work to check my email and stuff.
I went and saw Hamlet 2 on Sunday after church. Kind of a ridiculous movie, but then that’s what I was hoping for. The movie took its own sweet time to get going, but the last half of the movie was pretty funny.
With the lack of a computer at home meaning no DVD watching, I’ll probably be doing a lot more reading over the next couple weeks. Should help me catch up a little in my quest for 52 books for 2008.
I met one of my friend’s mother and sister over the weekend as well. That was pretty cool. We all went out to eat at The Kettle on Friday night and then went over to my friend’s aunt and uncle’s place in Hermosa Beach for a BBQ on Saturday evening.
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