Author: Elijah

I am still reading the book drive Your plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarkczuk. I am further into the book, past chapter 5 and the book is escalating and getting more interesting. In Chapter 5, gunfire can be heard outside when Janina awakens. She firmly gets into her car and heads out to the area where hunters have elevated raised wooden blinds known as pulpits so they can fire at wild wildlife. She is aware of what this is. At least 20 men with firearms are present. They are reassured that their pheasant hunt is legitimate when Janina confronts them furiously. One of their group includes the police commander. This is the same person who dismissed her past grievances over Big Foot. She swings fiercely at a few of the hunters before walking away.

“The Prison is not outside, but inside each of us. Perhaps we simply don’t know how to live without it.” -Olga Tokarkczuk

I am currently reading the book Drive Your Plow Over the Bones Of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. At the Beginning of the story, Janina’s neighbour, whom she has given the moniker Big Foot, passes away. He is a vile person who abuses his pet dog and takes wild wildlife illegally. Janina is a vegetarian and abhors any form of animal abuse. Several hunters pass away or go missing not long after Big Foot is killed. I find this book very interesting, mysterious and thrilling so far.

With undisguised astonishment he cast a glance at my linen suit (I sleep in something the Professor and his wife wanted to throw away last summer, which reminds me of a fashion from the past and the days of my youth–thus I combine the Practical and the Sentimental) and without a by-your-leave he came inside.

“Please get dressed. Big Foot is dead.”

I am reading The handmaids tale which is a book set in a disastrous environment which led many women to become infertile, so only a small handful of women are able to reproduce. The fertile women are referred to as “handmaids” who are “owned” and raped in order to have children.

“You can’t help what you feel, but you can help how you behave”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

I like this quote because controlling how we feel is difficult, but controlling what we do is easy.

The book that i am reading now is titled “The Handmaids Tale” I have finished the first chapter of this book and i have found the book interesting to read.

The book is about Offred, the narrator of the story whom describes sleeping on army cots in a gymnasium with other women. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrol with electric cattle prods slung around their waists, and the women are forbidden from speaking aloud, whisper to avoid drawing attention. The women walk in the former football field twice a day, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Angels, armed guards, patrol the perimeter. The Angels stand outside the fence with their backs to the women while the women go for their walks. The women yearn for the Angels to notice them. They believe that if the men look at them or talk to them, they will be able to use their bodies to make a statement.

I like that the book is nicely paced with words that i find slightly challenging but i learn new words from it.

“Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.”
― Robert Greene, Mastery

This quote is from Robert Greene’s “Mastery”. This quote stands out to me out of all the many other well written quotes in the book. In my opinion, failure is great. By failing, you have everything to gain.

Sadly, we punish or disregard failure in our environment today. Success is the basis for self-worth. Remove the stigma from failure and accept it. Since the most successful people are those who frequently failed, you rapidly discover this when you enter the real world. They merely benefited from suffering and failure. Learning to fail is the secret to mastery.