JLS (for free).

Free Vergara Paguia asked to hear my thoughts on JLS. He has a post with some of the many great lines over on his blog, but I'm going to just comment on a few of my personal favourites.

Ok first up a bit of history. I was first introduced to this book by one of my university lecturers who taught us for 12 weeks in the first year. He was teaching us about project management, but would often wander off topic, and he suggested we try and read this book. I'm really glad he did. I first read it when I was 19, and have found myself going back to it for annual top ups since then.

One of my favourite lines is the dedication at the front of the book

"To the real Jonathan Seagull,who lives within us all."

Each of us is capable of being whatever, or whoever, we want to be. All we need to do is figure out how to release our Jonathan. I think a lot of the time people are put off by reality. Of course you do need to be able to pay the rent and the bills and have a roof over your head, but you shouldn't get so bogged down with everyday life that you don't follow your dreams.

It's pretty, he thought. The moon and the lights twinkling on the water, throwing out little beacon-trails through the night, and all so peaceful and still...

I love this line because I love seeing lights at night. When I was small I used to love being out in the car with my mum when it was dark. There's something so beautiful about looking over hills and valleys and seeing all the streetlights and car lights shining. It's like a manmade version of a still lake reflecting the star light. I still love being out at night.

"You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you
touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a
million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit,
and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being
there."

Especially in modern culture people quantify things. I earn X amount of money per year. I own X number of cars. My house has X wide screen TVs. I have the trophy wife. I like the idea that by quantifying something, you are infact giving it a limit. We don't need X material possessions, we have everything we need to be happy right now, we just need to realise it.

The trick, according to Chiang, was for Jonathan to stop seeing
himself as trapped inside a limited body that had a forty-two inch
wingspan and performance that could be plotted on a chart. The trick was
to know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number,
everywhere at once across space and time.

"To begin with " he said heavily, "you've got to understand that a
seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull, and
your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your
thought itself."

Much the same as the dedication, basically reassuring us that each of us is perfect. This is a big deal for me, as I am very quick to point out my faults on a daily basis. I can see how everyone else is perfect, but I don't feel like this applies to myself.

And though he tried to look properly severe for his students,
Fletcher Seagull suddenly saw them all as they really were, just for a
moment, and he more than liked, he loved what he saw. No limits, Jonathan?
he thought, and he smiled. His race to learn had begun.

This is the closing of the book. I think it shows how even though most of us are so wrapped up in our daily lives, we can see the world for what it is, even if it is only for a moment.

Overall, I guess I have some problems with self confidence, self worth, all that kinda stuff, so I find myself sometimes needing to be reminded that hey yeah, maybe I'm not as bad as I see myself after all. This is a really, erm I guess 'inspiring' is the right word, inspiring book for me. Makes me feel positive. Like I can do anything in the world.