Paranoid Prophets - ILS

Advantages: Thought provoking words of wisdom on the mysteries of life.
Disadvantages: A matter of personal opinion

...Ciao have put this enigmatic little book in the ‘philosophy’ section but it is not that easy to classify. If it is philosophy then it is very simple philosophy but with a sort of ‘shallow’ depth. According to the back cover of my copy The Prophet is “the most famous work of religious inspiration of the twentieth century.” The claim is at least partially justified for this book has sold 10 million copies world-wide, has been translated into more than 20 languages and, in America is second only to the Bible in sales. But why? What is so special about it? In all honesty – I don’t know. It is difficult to even work out what type of writing it is. Classified by its publishers Penguin under various categories including literature, philosophy, and religion/mythology, The Prophet has more... Read review

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Advantages: A good read and quite uplifting
Disadvantages: Available for free on the net.

...The Prophet is the work of Kahlil Gibran. It has been classed at philosophy, although I think it would have been better qualified as poetry. All the lines are written in verse rather than a prose style. Plus it does not really pose any kind of argument. There is not really a story to the Prophet. It is basically about a prophet who appears before his people and offers them advise in a poetic form. This would appeal to people who like Paulo Coelho The Alchemist or Richard Bach's Seagull as it is has a same basically uplifting message. Essentially the prophet offers advise to the people in a form that could best be described as like a sermon. He talks and we assume the people listen! The passages are based on various themes. These are love, marriage, children, giving, eating, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling... Read review

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Advantages: life affirming
Disadvantages: none!

...Film only review. Il Postino (1994) Director: Michael Radford Stars: Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta Not to be confused with the wholly inferior Kevin Costner vehicle with the same name (Il Postino means "The Postman" - US title), this charming Italian language film won an Academy Award for Original Music Score and was nominated for five other awards including Best Director, Best Actor (Massimo Troisi) and Best Picture. The film is based on an adaptation of a Spanish language novel, Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skarmeta and is based partly on real life events that happened to the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature winning poet, Pablo Neruda. Neruda (1904-1973), known as el poeta del amor (the poet of love), famed for his beautiful love poetry, and was also famous for his political poetry and activism... Read review

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