The Sonnets by Shakespeare is supposed to be the 652nd of The Greatest Books of All Time, at least that is what you get if you access the site which uses a new algorithm, which updates lists permanently, ergo the place will change – I take a look at this on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/about-shakespeares-sonnets.html where I have posted a few hundred other reviews - 10 out of 10

 

The Sonnets by Shakespeare is supposed to be the 652nd of The Greatest Books of All Time, at least that is what you get if you access the site which uses a new algorithm, which updates lists permanently, ergo the place will change – I take a look at this on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/about-shakespeares-sonnets.html where I have posted a few hundred other reviews

 

10 out of 10

 

It is interesting to check this new site for The Greatest Books of All Time and see how relevant or not some of the works you like, the former classics have become – the formula they use is taking into account more than sixty lists and there would be other criteria taken into the mix, such as contemporary magnum opera

 

Nevertheless, The Sonnets come close to number one in my list, surely, they are part of The Top 100, having had an impact not just in literary ways, but moving way beyond that – ‘a thing of beauty is a joy forever’ - John Keats – and remembering some of the sonnets worked like a miracle in my life, and there is more

Appreciation of excellence and beauty https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/learned-optimism-by-martin-seligman.html is one of the Character Strengths, as defined by the co-founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman

 

So, we have that, a trait which is part of transcendence, and if there is anything that allows, encourages, pushes you to move to a Higher State of Consciousness then it must be The Sonnets – they have been part of my rituals for such a long time – alas, not anymore, thus I have forgotten some of them, though I still have about four

For instance, the day would start with swimming – well, first take the daughter to the Lycee Francais, get to the Downtown Club – and for half an hour, one would need to be entertained, and the way to do that was by

 

-          Reciting Sonnets

 

One seemed, still sounds funny –

 

-          ‘My love is as a fever longing still

For that which longer nurseth the disease…’

Flow https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.html is part of the reason why one should read The Sonnets, for they are some of the most beautiful creations of man, be that number 652, if that is what the algorithm says, although now it could be 701 or 342, it changes constantly

 

Another important part that The Sonnets played for me was in the…romantic side, for I have learned by heart the aforementioned one, then ‘shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’, ‘oh how thy worth with manners can I sing’, the forward violet thus did I chide…’, then ‘my mistress eyes are nothing like the sun…’

However, the latter was a more recent addition to my stack of poems by heart and seeing as there is no more swimming, I have moved upstairs in the meantime, that is the gym room, then the poems will be lost – from my memory, Alhamdulillah, they will stay for eternity in the minds of the people, not MAGA folks however…

 

This brings me to that piece of miracle, which is similar to the Zen Story https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-look-at-charlie-wilsons-war.html told at the end of Charlie Wilson’s War, by the regretted Philip Seymour Hoffman, a CIA analyst, to Tom Hanks aka Senator Charlie Wilson

This Zen Master has a horse that runs away, and the neighbors come to express sorrow, and the Master says ‘we shall see’, and when the missing animal returns with some wild horses, the villagers share their joy, only to hear ‘we shall see’, next thing, the son of the Master breaks his leg, trying to tame one of the wild things

 

-          ‘We shall see’ is what the Master says, when the community is again feeling his pain

 

The same thing when the son is spared because of his broken leg, and he is excused from joining the war – in my case, I went to the club for about thirty years, to swim, not for the gym, but on this morning, there was no water in the pool, and I said ‘god damn’, went to move a little on the treadmill and lift some weights

Because the water would not return for days, my ritual changed, and for next to a couple of years now, it is no longer swimming, but running and lifting that I do – on the top of the cycling that takes me to and from the club – a thing which has again changed one year back, when I found a mentor and trainer that took me to running competitions

 

The downside, the ‘we shall see part’, is that Shakespeare will soon be gone from my memory, if he was the author – a book I have read recently The Secret History https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-secret-history-of-world-by-mark.html argues that William Shakespeare could have been just the cover, in reality, he did not have the education, background for such magnum opera, and some other names are advanced as the more credible geniuses responsible

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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