Bookworms and 'Life of Pi'

A couple of weeks ago I fell down our backstairs. It can be so wet in Vancouver that algae will grow on most surfaces throughout the winter.

Usually by summer it dries out, but in the case of our back steps it's been wet enough through out the spring and warm enough that a wonderfully thick layer of green slime grew on the wooden stairs in our backyard.

It had rained the night before and the stairs were wet when I walked down them, carrying a coffee mug, taking my sisters dog outside. Suddenly I was flat on my arse and I think I slid down a step or two.

The coffee cup went flying, landing on the concrete below and miraculously survived. My body? Not so lucky.

My bruised backside

I spent the next two days doped up on painkillers and muscle relaxants, binge watching'Orange is the New Black' and season 4 of 'The Walking Dead.' 'The Walking Dead.'

I also spent a lot of time wandering around the internet, looking at failblog and failbook because nothing, and I mean nothing, makes a person feel better than to see how miserable and full of fail other people are. I also spent a lot of time reading lists on buzzfeed.

On those two days I found a number of lists of books on Buzzfeed. These are two of my favorite things: lists and books. I have books full of lists and I love to make lists and lists and then lists of all my lists - I might need some help, come to think of it.

So anyway, what does that have to do with the Wreak Journal? Well, in my drugged stupor it seemed to make sense to write these lists of books in the journal, that what I'd be able to find them again so I could read the books on the lists.

Bookmarking them in my computer did not, at the time, occur to me.

Instead I wrote them out in my Wreakage Journal:

Books that will make you laugh out loud

Books that will actually change your life

Guilty pleasure books that are awesome

Books more addicting than Candy Crush

Books that you'll love if you loved "A Fault in our Stars"

I put check marks next to the books on these lists that I have already read. I wrote 'movie' next to a few books I haven't read, but seen the movie. The 'sort of' are for books that I've started, but didn't finish (the same for movies).  I just could not get through reading or watching 'The Importance of being Ernest' it was just to ridiculous and I freakin' love Colin Firth.

Anyway, this afternoon I finished reading 'Life of Pi' by Yann Matel. It is on the 'change your life' list and the 'more addicting than candy crush' lists, also I had it on my shelf along with the 'I'll read these one day books'.

I've never played Candy Crush, so I can't attest to whether this book was more or less addicting. But once I got through the slow beginning I was certainly hooked and read the last half in one go because it got intense and I had no idea how Pi was going to get saved.

What I started thinking about this afternoon was did it change my life? 

Did it? 

I'm really not sure. I'm thinking about the story, wondering how I would survive if that happened to me. On the Huffington Post site they say this about the book:
  "One man, one lifeboat, one tiger. If you haven't yet read Martel's masterpiece about spirituality or adventure (depending on how you choose to read it), take the time this summer to get lost in it."
Was is Spirituality or an Adventure? 

 That's what I'm trying to figure out and it's bothering me that I can't.

I don't think it changed my life, not it the way reading 'The Road' did. Which is not on the change your life list, but on the better that Candy Crush list. It didn't change my life the way 'Joy of Cooking' did or 'The Artists Way'. Both drastically improved my life - better cooking, more creativity.

Or even the way the Wreakage Journal has changed my life, to be completely honest. But I suspect that it is too soon to tell with 'Life of Pi'. It probably needs to seep in for awhile. Which is probably why I connect the two.  The Wreakage Journal and my experience with it has changed me. It's changed my perspective on the world around me and has helped me to better understand and appreciate the fragility and impermanence in this world.

Nothing lasts forever, not the journal I am bound and determined to destroy, not the garden I tend every spring, not the life of the mouse my cat caught the other day. My life too, my world, my everything is as fragile and impermanent.

This same fragility is a theme throughout 'Life of Pi', just under the surface, like the sharks. Pi's life and Pi's story both are fragile and both carry with them the possibility of impermanence.

I am haunted by it. I'm left thinking about the ending, so much so I'm trying to write about it to sort out my feeling about it, but I also don't want to give away the ending, which as an aside is just plain awesome.

There's more pondering to be done, I think.

 In the meantime, below are links to the book lists... not sure what book I'm going to pick up next...

Huffington Post: The Best Page turners that will make you forget about Candy Crush

Buzzfeed: 32 Books that will actually change your life

Buzzfeed: 30 guilty pleasure books that are in fact awesome

Buzzfeed: 32 books guaranteed to make you laugh out loud

Buzzfeed: 17 books to read if you liked 'The Fault in our Stars'





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