PATTI SMITH | Reading M Train

I'm reading Patti Smith's M Train slowly, allowing her voice to flow through me. This is what happens when the writer has a distinct "voice" in their writing. I stop, and I want to "listen" to that voice in my head. I want the process to be comfortable, and allow it as much time as it needs. That's how I feel right now as I'm reading M Train.

My bias for travel makes me think of this book as travel writing. Yes, in this book, she writes about the various places she had been. She doesn't quite do the usual tourist destinations. There is a method to her journeys, and it is usually to follow the footsteps of a writer, or an artist. She took a photo of Frida Kahlo's bed, she took a photo of the chair Robert Bolano sat in. She traveled to laid stones on Jean Genet's grave.

I am reminded of how someone asked me last year, after my trip to Paris - Did you visit the Eiffel Tower? No, I did not. And there was a questioning look. Who goes to Paris and not go see the Eiffel Tower?

But why do I need to? Our journey is ours, and all we truly need to do, is to listen to the whispers in our hearts. To follow that voice that tells us where to go, and what to see. Who cares what is written in the guide books or tripadvisor? Your own yearning should be the true compass.

This is why I enjoy this series of Patti Smith's journeys. She is guided by her own yearnings, her own idiosyncrasies. There is not greater testimony to a life lived true to oneself.

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Now reading: Eat & Run by Scott Jurek with Steve Friedman.

Now Reading: Fierce Medicine

Learning to be a spiritual warrior, from Ana Forrest's Fierce Medicine.

What I Am Reading At the Moment | Shock Doctrine

[Photo: Shock Doctrine, with my spectacles, and a triangular pencil from the Tate Modern souvenir shop.]

I bought Shock Doctrine when I was in London. Just a few pages into it, I was hooked. It quickly became the book I carried with me everywhere I went; I read Shock Doctrine when I was commuting on the Tube. I read it when I was waiting for the rain to stop. I read it the moment I woke up. I came back from work this evening with the sole intention to continue reading the book.

It has been a while since any book - fiction or non-fiction - had such an immense power over me.

I had to do Economics for my 'A' Levels - and I hated it. I reckon I was absent for more than 50% of my Economics lectures back then. This is why it is so amazing that Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine made me realise how an understanding of economic theory is intrinsic to an understanding of politics and the world today.