Monday 24 October 2011

Books I love: Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach was written in 1970. It is the story of a seagull, Jonathan Livingstone (JL), who loved flying and freedom, and pushing for perfection. He leaves his flock because they merely see flying as a means to getting to their food source. He transcends to a  place where all the gulls there enjoy flying, like him. Then from a wise gull Chiang, he learns how to move to anywhere he wanted just by 'thinking' about it. And he then knows that 'with practised ease, he was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all'. JL later returns to his flock to teach others who would learn, the power of perfect flight.

This novella has been placed in the spiritual and also self-help genre because it is about "love, (deserved) respect, and forgiveness".

I bought my book in 1974. I had inscribed 'Bought at W H Smith, Shopping Centre, Elephant & Castle, 18th October 1974 (Practical at Poly. of the South Bank).

"A Book is the only immortality" - Rufus Choate

My copy of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (CNB 2011)

Photography in JLS is by Russel Munson (CNB 2011)
Ex Libris CNB 0490 

No comments:

Post a Comment