Shelf It Up: My Must Read List

Do any of you ever feel that there are so many books you'd like to read, but you just don't have enough time to read them? I can tell you that, as a book enthusiast, that feeling is no stranger to me. One thing that helped me deal with that feeling was to make a list of books that I would like to read in the foreseeable future and respect it religiously. In today's entry of “Inside the Head of Noah”, I will share with you my list of books I'd like to read shortly and, as a bonus, explain why I want to read them. 

The first book on my list is The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (the first book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before going into detail about the reasons why I'm interested in reading this novel, I'll copy-paste a quick description of the plot from the internet (I'm not the best at quickly explaining stories. I tend to go too much into the small details, which would spoil the story for you and make this entry quite boring). Here is a synopsis from the website of Harper Collins Canada (you can find the link in the bibliography): “Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power – the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring – the ring that rules them all – which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. / In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.” Now that you're all familiar with the plot, I'll dive into the reasons why this book caught my eye. Right now, I'm in the middle of reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Even though I am only at page 131 (the book has a total of 351 pages), so far, I find the book very interesting. So it is only natural that I am drawn to other books written by the same author. Also, The Hobbit is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Therefore, I am interested to see how the rest of the story will play out. It also helps that those books are very popular. According to Wikipedia, more than 150 million copies of the Lord of the Rings have been sold, making it one of the most successful books ever published. To some, that may sound like nothing, but it isn't. 150 million is a lot! Compare it to the number of people who read my blog. Less than 150 people read my blog (if you want a precise number, only 130 people read my blog. That's not a lot, but I don't write to be popular. I write because I enjoy it). Now that I covered The Lord of the Rings, I'll move on to the next book on my bucket list.

The second book on my reading list is The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. The question I am sure many of you are asking yourselves is: “Who is Al Gore?” Well, Al Gore is an American politican. From 1977 to 1985, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee. Then, from 1985 to 1993, he served as a United States Senator from Tennessee. Finally, from 1993 to 2001, he served as the Vice President of the United States (he was Bill Clinton's VP). He was the nominee of the Democratic Party for President in 2000, but sadly for him, he lost to George W. Bush. After that, he quit politics and now does other things. Most notably, he became an author and a climate activist (he won the Nobel Prize in 2007 for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change”.) He wrote numerous books, like An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, and of course, The Assault on Reason. He also made two documentaries: An Inconvenient Truth and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Now that we covered who Al Gore is, let's talk about his book The Assault on Reason. “What is it about?” you may ask yourself. I think the best person to explain the content of the book is Al Gore himself. Here is the description that's on his website: “A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason./By highlighting George W. Bush’s use of fear tactics and indifference to sharing the truth with the citizenry, former Vice President Al Gore explains in The Assault on Reason how the Bush administration was able to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and order American forces to invade Iraq. Gore’s larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason’s enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life’s work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.” What drew me to this book is that, despite it being written when George W. Bush was in office (2001-2009), I feel like it's still relevant in today's society. Think about it. We have politicians like Donald Trump whose campaigns are based on lies (in Trump's case, the lie that he won the 2020 election) and dividing people (a lot of the time, divisive rhetoric is based on hate speech and misinformation (fake news)). Trump isn't the only one. Most far-right politicians (like the ones on the rise in Europe) use the same tactics as Trump (maybe you could argue that they are a bit less bad than him, but that's a debate for another day). It doesn't help that we now have social media platforms that allow us to be in echo chambers that only defend our opinions and prevent us from hearing what the other side has to say. In the United States, there is also the problem that most big cable TV networks are politically biased (the most famous example is Fox News which favours conservatives (the GOP) and CNN which favours liberals (The Democrats)). Anyway, I believe that this book will teach me how to educate myself better on current affairs. I also genuinely think that Al Gore is a very interesting person who has a lot of knowledge to share, and I guess you could say I'm willing to take what he has to offer. With all of that, let's move on to the last book of my list.

The last book that's on my bucket list is A Promised Land by Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States (2009-2017). A Promised Land is the first of two volumes of his memoirs (in other words, part one). The period that the book covers is from 1961 (his birth) to 2011 (the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden). Like most memoirs, it is quite long (768 pages), which makes sense. It covers a 50-year period. I'm drawn to this book because, in my opinion, Obama was an important president. I know what some of you are thinking: “All presidents are important!” Well, I disagree with that statement. What you may think I mean by important is a powerful person. In that regard, all of them were important during their presidencies. However, what I mean by important is legacy. What did they do while in office? Did they leave a mark on the country after leaving? I think that Obama did. On the top of my head, I can name a few of his accomplishments. He signed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) into law, he ordered the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, one of the terrorists who planned the 9/11 attacks, and of course, he was the first African-American President. That was just based on my knowledge. I'm sure he did more. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that he did a lot, and I'm curious to know what he was thinking and feeling when all of that happened. And who knows, maybe I can learn a thing or two from him. 

To conclude, three books are on my list of books I'd like to read soon: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Assault on Reason by Al Gore, and A Promised Land by Barack Obama. It's one thing to set a goal and write a list, it's another to accomplish it. I hope that I will go through with my goals.

Bibliography :

1. “The Fellowship of the Ring (the Lord of the Rings, Book 1) - J.R.R. Tolkien - Hardcover.” HarperCollins Canada, 23 Apr. 2018, www.harpercollins.ca/9780007203543/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-the-lord-of-the-rings-book-1/.

2. Gore, Al. “Books and Dvds.” Al Gore, algore.com/library/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

3. Obama, Barack. “A Promised Land by Barack Obama: 9781524763176: Penguinrandomhouse.Com: Books.” PenguinRandomhouse.Com, Crown Publishing Group, www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562882/a-promised-land-by-barack-obama/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.