Non-Fiction Books that Changed the Way I Think: Part I ...

In today's post, Miss Warner explores some of the non-fiction books that have had a significant impact on the way she looks at the world.

The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin
This book is one of my all time favourites. It is a patchwork of musings that really stay with you; a cultural tour de force!

'To great writers,' Walter Benjamin once wrote, 'finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labour their entire lives.' Conceived in Paris in 1927 and still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in 1940, The Arcades Project (in German, Das Passagen-Werk) is a monumental ruin, meticulously constructed over the course of thirteen years--'the theater,' as Benjamin called it, 'of all my struggles and all my ideas.'

Books of the Week

Today's post features a second batch of book recommendations from 4E.  

The Beach by Alex Garland
Recommended by Felix 

An adventure fiction novel because about a young English backpacker who journeys to Thailand in the 1990s. He encounters a huge amount of things, and learns about all the different places that exist within the country.

I thought this book was gripping and thoroughly enjoyable as the reader really has time to get to know the main characters and care for them, so that when they are in danger you are worried along with them. I think the book helps to show just how many beautiful places exist around the world, with there also being slight warnings referring to overpopulation and pollution. I would highly recommend this book.

Books of the Week

Today's books of the week are all recommended by 4E.  

The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown

Recommended by Aarav
Gripping sci-fi dystopian novels that set around 800 years in the future where humanity has terraformed most of the planets and moons in the Solar System, and rests upon a hierarchy of Colour. 

Each colour (Red, Brown, Orange, Violet, Yellow, Obsidian etc.) is placed in a hierarchy where each colour has specific roles within the society, with Gold leading. However, the warColours have superior genetics and physical structure, with increased height, strength and bone density. A young lowRed has discovered that their Colour has been lied to, and his wife was hanged after protesting. With vengeance on his mind, he attempts something that no-one sane would ever have thought of…

I thought this series was possibly the best I have ever read, and would recommend it to all readers above the age of 8, but it is still a very good read for young adults. This book takes you on a thrilling journey, with plenty of futuristic technology and war, with politics mixed in.