Dharma Bums

Book Recommendation:

Dharma Bums

By: Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

These reviews sum up my thoughts on Dharma Bums perfectly. –

Readers’ Reviews:

“I’ll be quick and straight to the point, this book inspired me to do great things.”
– Jim

“This short novel serves as one of Kerouac’s many strokes of genius. Written within a two-week spurt, Kerouac’s character Ray and his sidekick Japhy search for the meaning of life, death, and love through the study of Buddhism and the Dharma. Like all Kerouac ventures, Dharma Bums is only a small chapter in the Duluoz Tales. However, it serves as one of the most aspiring and most beautifully written tales to come from the mind of Jack Kerouac. As ‘On the Road‘ defined the “beat generation,” Dharma Bums continues not only to define it, but also to define the mastermind behind it. The black and white pages of this inspiring novelette, are illuminated by the sprays and splashes of vivid Technicolor that drown the pages with the joys and disappointments of not only Kerouac’s life, but of all of us who find so much beauty in all we still do not know but grasp to understand.”
– Andrew

“Words cannot express the emotions I felt as a result of reading ‘Dharma Bums’. I have never come across such descriptive prose before, and it touched me deeply. Everything just seems so much nicer with a bit of Kerouac in your life. There is magic and inspiration all around. Kerouac’s writing is pure soul, it’s the beat generation, it’s beat, it’s the beat to keep, it’s the beat of the heart, it’s being beat and down in the world and like old-time lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat.’ ‘Dharma Bums’ would have to be in my top ten list for sure – waste no time and read it now!”
– Trudy

“After reading this wonder of a book I question my life itself. How I long to hitch my way through, go to poetry readings, and live off the land. I have been out West and even hiked the trails of Alaska, but every year I come back to this tortured society where my words are a threat to this sheltered world. Kerouac’s words are an inspiration to my curious soul.”
– Jaimie

“High atop a mountain Jack Kerouac and ‘Japhey Rider’ find peace and love and Zen-like perfection in a rare account of a peaceful time in Kerouac’s life. A gem shining forth from Kerouac’s vast and flowing psychological library of literature, this book is Kerouac at his essential Zen-like serenity.
– Rudy

source: http://www.kerouac.com/review_kerouac_dharma_bums.html

Outlander – by Diana Gabaldon

Book Recommendation

Outlander Series

by Diana Gabaldon

The Series

Diana Gabaldon

About the book: 

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon–when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach–an “outlander”–in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life…and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

 

I have read a countless amount of novels throughout my life and am  a highly qualified book nerd; with that being said I can recommend this series as my favorite one to date. This is a compelling story that was hard to put down. It’s incredibly well written and the historical aspects are fascinating. Diana Gabaldon has written a rich and captivating story. 

 

Words from the author:

“In essence, these novels are Big, Fat, Historical Fiction, à la James Clavell and James Michener. However, owing to the fact that I wrote the first book for practice, didn’t intend to show it to anyone, and therefore saw no reason to limit myself, they include…

history, warfare, medicine, sex, violence, spirituality, honor, betrayal, vengeance, hope and despair, relationships, the building and destruction of families and societies, time travel, moral ambiguity, swords, herbs, horses, gambling (with cards, dice, and lives), voyages of daring, journeys of both body and soul…” – Diana Gabaldon

 

My mind has been fully living in this story for the past two years and I must say, its been quite an adventure. 

 

Now, if you are not willingly to commit yourself to such a grand number of pages(which you really should be), they are making a TV series of it on STARZ. Beginning August 9th, watch it and fall back into time, you won’t be sorry.