Would recommend if you are in a non-finction change the world mood

[Soozi]

Recently read Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton. Goes into the causes and cures of why the world is in the state it is today. TBH I found the causes more interesting than the cures but certainly thought provoking.

Currently reading Shopped by Joanna Blythman and In praise of slow by Carl Honore. Yup reading both at the same time as they are both riveting. Shopped is all about the power of British Supermarkets - really shocking stuff and motivated me to try to do a Saturday shop without visiting one (and I succeeded)

In Praise of Slow is all about how to take the speed out of modern life and chill a bit more. Goes on about how we never have time to do anything coz we are rushing around constantly and think that the world will be a better place if we do it bigger, faster, quicker but all it really means is more stress.

All this stemmed from me reading No Logo by Naomi Klein which highlighted the power of global branding.

Heck I think I've become a revolutionary in Suburbia. Power to the people!!!

my two favourite non-fiction books are: 'buddhism - plain and simple' by steve hagen. a very real lesson in waking up and enlightenment without all the gongs, bells, incense etc. the other book is 'the continuum concept' by jean lliedlof' (sp? i don't have a copy as i keep giving them to new parents!)very powerful book about a anthroposophist who vistited the 'yequana tribe' deep in south america to find out why there babies don't cry....
both have been life changing rather than world changing. 'status anxiety' sounds interesting - what was his main conclusion soozi?

whoops - that should have been 'their' - my next non-fiction book shall be 'eats shoots and leaves'

Are there really babies that don't cry? At all? I'm very intrigued now.

it goes right back to basics. the 'continuum' is the baby being held at all times until it crawls. no seperate nursery, no toys, no cot, no pram - just held 'in arms'(or a sling) . jean liedloff argues very eloquently for those instincts we all have. its the baby/toy industry that needs the babies not the other way around. it had a profound affect on me and the way i am bringing up my ds's. not easy in a modern world...and especially when i found out about the book when my ds1 was 6 months old and i had done the mothercare/best baby buy guide thing. i can't do the book justice as i have given my last copy away and i will just end up rambling but i know there is a website somewhere - i will go and find it and try and do one of those fiddly link things

I am currently reading The Bookseller of Kabul. It is written by a journalist who spent time with an Afgani family during the troubles and is writing about their lives/experiences. It is written like a novel but is a true story. So far it is very enjoyable.

here is the continuum concept website

Hi Shrub

I've read the Continuum Concept too, whilst I was pregnant. Very interesting and it does all make sense. I have tried to incorporate some of the suggestions into a western society but it is difficult. When you think about it, it does all seem so natural to have your baby by you all the time. In the last few decades it has been promoted as the norm to have your child whisked away at birth to spend its first few days in a separate room from you - what other animal would naturally do this? I agree with you totally that it's the industry that dictates what the norm is.

Re Status Anxiety - the 5 main causes are:
lovelessness
snobbery
expectation
meritocracy
dependence
and the 5 solutions are:
philosophy
art
politics
christianity
bohemia

It's about an anxiety about what others think of us; whether we are judged a success or a failure, a winner or loser. So it looks at different ways of measuring success depending on the culture. He doesn't really come up with one main conclusion, just the 5 possibly solutions which, as I mentioned, seem a bit disjointed. He focuses on Christianity but his points would cover most religions. I did relate mostly to the chapter 'Bohemia' as one of the solutions.

One interesting quote was " the more people we take to be our equals and compare ourselves to, the more people there will be to envy.

thanks for your reply soozi - i would say i was definately a slave to status a few years ago - a horrible place to be in - there is no end to it. a few big life events including the birth of my ds1 woke me up to whats really important. i guess unless those beliefs or illusions are challanged then people still hold on to them? when he covers bohemia in the book does he mean in the context of dropping out of society? i am tempted.. but how do you prepare children for the 'real world' when you don't want to be a part of that world yourself?
'shopped' and 'in praise of slow' also sound very though provoking, what were the main messages from the books? i feel another trip to amazon coming....

Not so much dropping out of society but more just going against the norm of the bourgoise. If it helps, to quote from the book "the word bohemian came to be used in relation to a range of people who did not, for one reason or another, fit the bourgeois conception of respectibility".

I'm still reading the other two but will let you know once I've finished them.

Have any of you sen this thread? thread We have talked about many of these books not just here but in other sections and have to say enjoyed no logo although it can become a bit of a polemic at times.