'Start Up Nation'

Whoever thought that non-fiction was aso an art? I always thought it was a recollection of articles commenting on a certain thing, maybe a tad of editorial, but that's pretty much it. Recently, I started this book, 'Start Up Nation', because I was fretting over the fact that quite frankly, I was quite ignorant when it came to a theme many people associate me to, and that theme is Israel. 'Bombs and men beating their wives, you don't wanna go there.' Something I've heard over time. Well, yeah, 'x' stereotyped average human being is so wrong, but why? Israel is a great place: it's a coalition of opposing forces concentrated into one tiny nation-the size of New Jersey. It's an area of a dense, rich, thick flow of EVERYTHING: art, engineering, religion, sex, identity, creativity, pragmatism... It's THE place if you want to pursue something you've only just recently discovered and find out more about, for example, yourself (?) But that's all I have to say. For those who ask the legitimate 'How' and 'Why', I can't properly explain. 'Start Up Nation' does exaclty that. It helps you to explain the 'whys' and 'hows' of Israel. It's basically an entire editorial, complete with fun, witty annecdotes on chapters explaining the Israeli mind set, their social hierarchy, their battlefield techniques, their gumption. I have not finished it yet-it's one of those books which has a lot of ideas you can ponder over and come back to in due course. A recommended read, especially (and evidently) if you're interested in this little country's whereabouts and brief history. Or you want to become a leader/develop your leadership skills in a few hours; it's the perfect book, honest. Keep reading, my children.

Universities in the UK are unsurprisingly obsessed with their applicants reading. Reading is great (evidently), but I truly had absolutely NO idea what to read for an architecture application. So, I did what any UK university applicant thinking about embelishing their personal statement would (probably) do; I went onto the Cambridge architecture course website and searched for recommended reads. Amongst the list, 'Body, Memory and Architecture' by Kent C. Bloomer and Charles W. Moore. My dear mother purchased a second hand edition in perfect conditions on Amazon (Yale Univesity Press). I had read the first chapter twice, but it was only today chilling at the beach that I actually grasped the essence of the book; the way in which space interacts with not only the person, but the human body, how the home is the extension of man, and every part of a home represents something human. Beautiful, no? Next is the definition of beauty. The chapter seemingly has little to do with aarchitecture, but soon goes into arguing the fact that architecture used to be considered a mere science, not an art, and only later was pragmatic mechanics of a building with a purpose considered beautiful. And only after THIS was the pragmatic mechanics of a building with a purpose combined with basic aesthetics to create an alteration of space which can be considered art in the eyes of everyone who encounters it. It's really well written, no joke, especially for those who think about studying the art of altring space...

Keep reading.