Top 12 U2 Songs So Far
U2 is definitely the biggest rock band ever to hail from the Emerald Isles. Aside from being the greatest and most influential musical act to come from Ireland, the group – composed of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton – is also known for its longevity, having been around and active for almost 30 years now. The group definitely has some very memorable songs that shaped the sound of future acts like Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, amongst many others.
Of all the songs that U2 released so far, which are the best? We believe we hit it with this list. It is quite noticeable that many of the songs in this list came from The Joshua Tree, but can you really be surprised with that? It is the greatest and most successful of all of U2’s albums.
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12. “October” (October, 1981)
U2 is a great band, but it was not all hits for them. October is one such album that remained in obscurity in their catalogue. But even plain boxes can hold gems, and the track “October” is one of them. It is a very short and almost instrumental melody, lasting only a little over two minutes and with heavy chords in piano as its intro.
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11. “40” (War, 1983)
Atheists may not care about the lyrics of this song, mainly because the lyrics of “40” are derived from the first three verses of Psalm 40 of the King James Bible. But there is a kind of freshness to the melody; it is a kind of beat that will uplift you with its soaring simplicity, regardless of the inclinations of the lyrics.
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10. “All I Want Is You” (Rattle and Hum, 1988)
“All I Want Is You” is a tender and stirring melody that U2 composed as a group but which Bono dedicated to his wife, the activist Ali Hewson. The sound is simple yet passionate; it begins quietly, with Bono’s vocals not shifting much, but towards the end it rises and closes with a soaring orchestral section.
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9. “The Unforgettable Fire” (The Unforgettable Fire, 1989)
“The Unforgettable Fire” is a good sample of the expansive style embraced by U2 for the album of the same name. It plays with varying melodies and has a symphonic sound that is almost visual in its richness. The song has a very surreal feel and it celebrates a sort of departure from the old sound that U2 had in the first couple of albums it had released.
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8. “Walk On” (All That You Can’t Leave Behind, 2001)
his song is another one of U2’s many political anthems, but the difference here is that it sounds more positive and encouraging rather than protesting. “Walk On” sings about Aung San Suu Kyi and it both admires and encourages her for her non-violent protests in Burma, for which she has been under house arrest for most of the last 20-odd years. The song is banned in Burma and anyone caught with it can face criminal charges and arrest.
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7. “Stories for Boys” (Boy, 1980)
From the band’s debut album Boy, “Stories for Boys” introduces the public to the original sound of U2. It is fast, heavy on drums, spiced up with a touch of guitar riffing and full of angst. It is a glimpse of how glorious U2 would be as one of the greatest bands of all time.
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6. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (The Joshua Tree, 1987)
This U2 song is often referred to as a gospel song by both Bono and The Edge. The reason is very obvious; the song talks about having all the conventional stirrings and trimmings of faith but still having doubts on the veracity of that faith. It is like telling God that, yeah, I believe in You but leave me alone to sort it all out by myself for a while.
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5. “Where the Streets Have No Name” (The Joshua Tree, 1987)
This song is a simple plea for equality and recognition of identity without prejudice. It begins with a glorious synthesised intro that sounds a lot like a church hymn, and then followed by a “running” melody produced by guitars, drums and the bass. It evokes the image of a frantic escape from oppression.
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4. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (War, 1983)
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” is one of the angrier and less reconciling songs of U2. The beat produced by the drums and the guitars are fast, tight and rough, an expression of U2’s reflections on the Bloody Sunday incident of 1972 in Northern Ireland. It is one of the signature songs of U2, always present in the set list of the band’s live tours.
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3. “Pride (In The Name of Love)” (The Unforgettable Fire, 1984)
“Pride” is one of the most anthemic songs of U2, as well as one of its most recognisable. Aside from that, it is a commercial success and continues the trend of bankability for the band. But nowhere in the song does it sound commercial. The lyrics talk mostly about Martin Luther King, Jr., carried on a very strong bass line.
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2. “With or Without You” (The Joshua Tree, 1987)
U2 has some truly lovely love songs in the band’s catalogue, but the best amongst these is undoubtedly “With or Without You.” The song, which is the lead single of the album The Joshua Tree, is very emotional, very passionate and very profound lyrically. You can feel its drum beats thumping against your heart, and their wooing is echoed by the guitars blending in at the song’s end.
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1. “One” (Achtung Baby, 1991)
Without much debate, most music critics agree that “One” is one of the best songs that U2 ever produced. The song was created at a pivotal point of the band’s history, when the members were experiencing disagreements about the future direction of the band. “One” was the song that convinced them to hang around together much longer. But more than that, it is also the anthem that emphasised many of the socio-political advocacies espoused by Bono and U2 in general.
Top 5 Reads for Young Adults
Many disgruntled old fogeys have this notion that reading is a lost art, at least amongst today’s teenagers. They derive that notion from the fact that teenage lifestyle these days is a far cry from the one enjoyed by these old people when they were still teens themselves. Teenagers these days are seen as having no time or patience to sit down and indulge in reading a book.
Well, unlike these elders, teenagers today have the advantage of technology. Their access to information is unprecedented in its ease, and instead of books, they have Blackberries, laptops, portable reading devices and other such gadgets. Teenagers today may not have books in their hands, but that does not mean that reading is a lost art amongst them. The books just found a new form.
Having said that, there are books that are considered must-reads for teenagers, and many of these books are ones that these young readers actually enjoy reading. The list is extensive, but here are five beautiful books that should be read by teenagers.
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5. Pride and Prejudice
No list of must-read books for teenagers should be without Pride and Prejudice. This classic is probably the most loved of all of Jane Austen’s books, spawning various renditions in film and television and alluded to in many other works.
Though most literary critics warn against reading too much into this book’s title, Pride and Prejudice can be said to be a novel describing the dangers of sticking to one’s prejudices because one’s pride calls for it. The entire novel spins around the idea of misunderstandings and misinterpretations of intent amongst the characters, which created hindrances to their own happiness. Is this not a common concern faced by teenagers today – forming opinions out of prejudice but without the right information, thereby “judging a book by its cover”?
Teenagers do read, and they do enjoy spending their time reading. There are so many books that hold a huge appeal amongst teenagers, regardless of the genre and the date the book was first published.
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4. The Lord of the Rings
Most teenagers today know of The Lord of the Rings as that very, very long trilogy of movies that starred, amongst others, the British hottie Orlando Bloom. But a good many of these teenagers who first encountered the story through the movies found themselves reading the book.
And indeed, The Lord of the Rings is one classic must-read for all, not just for teenagers. Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, it spawned an entirely new literary genre that we now know as the high fantasy genre, and has thus influenced many writers, not just of science fiction and fantasy, but also of mainstream fiction.
What is The Lord of the Rings all about? It is, basically, an epic tale of the fight between good and evil; of high adventure that spanned whole territories and fraught with so much danger; of friendship that crossed the barriers of race; of facing unshakable destiny head-on; of sacrifice; and most especially, of brotherly love in the purest of senses.
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3. The Joy Luck Club
The struggle that mothers and daughters have to go through in order to understand each other is an age-old struggle that transcends races, classes and generations. Each mother strives to create perfection out of her own daughter and each daughter fights what she sees as her mother’s manipulation to make her something that she is really not. But at the heart of it, the truth is that a mother and her daughter are simply a pair of mirrors reflecting each other, one looking at her past whilst the other faces her possible future.
That is one way to look at Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, a bestselling book that first came out in 1989 and was later turned into a film starring actress Ming-Na and other leading Asian-American actors. The Joy Luck Club is the story of four Chinese women who immigrated to the United States, each with a colorful but sorrowful past in mainland China. Each of these women has a daughter, and each mother-daughter pair is faced with a mutual misunderstanding of each other. In the end, they all discover that despite the cultural barriers, each share the same, enduring spirit.
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2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1.One of the most common life struggles that a teenager gets to face, regardless of what era he or she was born in, is the struggle for self-identity and finding one’s place in this world. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the acclaimed poet Maya Angelou tells us what it was like to grow up as a black teenage girl in a close-knit community in Arkansas before the Second World War.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first in a series of six autobiographies that Maya Angelou wrote to describe her childhood, her teenage years and the early years of her young adulthood. This book in particular describes the bewilderment of a very young girl sent away to live with her grandmother at a very young age, the confusion created by having to bow down to the white folk despite being obviously better than them, and the tragedy of being abused as a child hardly twelve years old.
Published in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the most popular and most critically acclaimed of all of Maya Angelou’s works. The tone of the story is very poignant, uplifting in some parts and heartbreaking in others, and with each word beautifully written like poetry in prose.
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1. Dune
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
So goes the mantra that is central to this tale of struggles, betrayals, discovery of truths, and coming of age. This tale belongs to Paul Atreides and it tells of how he lived to face his destiny as the Muad’Dib of the desert planet Arrakis.
Frank Herbert’s Dune is a science fiction classic, well-loved by readers of all ages, including young adults. It was awarded a Hugo Award in 1966 and was the first novel to win the Nebula Award in the same year. Although it was published some fifty years ago, the struggles of Paul Atreides still echo for many young adults.
Top 8 Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time
Led Zeppelin is, without a shred of doubt, the biggest band ever to hit the rock and roll scene. The band is considered to be the king and progenitor of the heavy metal genre, mainly because of their guitar-driven sound and heavy beats. Their music has influenced generations, and their songs remain popular even though thirty years have passed since their disbanding.
But the beauty of Led Zeppelin’s music lies in the fact that despite being labeled as a heavy metal band, the songs actually transcend the genre. Many of Led Zeppelin’s songs have a lot of folksy and bluesy notes, and the band experimented with ska, soul, reggae, country, and even classical. Versatility fails to describe what Led Zeppelin is; they are nothing other than just brilliant.
Everyone should be aware of the kind of music that Led Zeppelin played in the band’s heyday, and listed below are the eight best songs the band ever came up with during the stretch of their career.
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8. “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” (Presence, 1975)
“Nobody’s Fault But Mine” is a Led Zeppelin cover of a traditional blues/gospel song. The band was almost true to the original – “almost” being the keyword. Led Zeppelin made their song truly their own by adding in the syncopated rhythm at the beginning of the song and putting in additional lyrics. The guitar work by Jimmy Page, as always, is just amasing.
The song became a staple of all Led Zeppelin concerts from 1977, until the band broke up because of the death of John Bonham in 1980. It remains a big favorite amongst the band’s fans.
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7. “Houses of the Holy” (Physical Graffiti, 1975)
“Houses of the Holy” is another Led Zeppelin song that shows how versatile the band is and how well they transcend genres. The song is not strictly a heavy metal song; it is more of a funk song, but with much heavier melodies. Again, it features the remarkable trademark riffs of Jimmy Page combined with the superb beats produced by John Bonham’s drums.
We should note that Led Zeppelin had an album called Houses of the Holy that was released previously to Physical Graffiti. Why the title track of that album is included instead in Physical Graffiti has always been a mystery.
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6. “Rock and Roll” (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
If you think that Led Zeppelin songs are all standouts because of their unique spin on guitar riffs, you may be surprised with the song “Rock and Roll” if you have not yet heard it. Dare we say that it is the one Led Zeppelin song that closely follows the traditional rock and roll progression beat the most?
The song sounds like a cover of a Chuck Berry song, but it is not. And the best thing about “Rock and Roll” is that although it used the same rhythm and melody, it is not as nauseating to listen to as some songs using the same endless repetition of rhythm.
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5. “Kashmir” (Physical Graffiti, 1975)
A list of best songs by Led Zeppelin will not be complete without “Kashmir.” The members of the band itself think that “Kashmir” is their best work, a combination of all the elements that made Led Zeppelin the remarkable band that it was.
The song is not heavy metal per se, but one would say that it is an experiment in combining the rhythms of rock and roll with the more exotic melodies of music from the Middle East.
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4. “Black Dog” (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
“Black Dog” must be the most difficult of all of Led Zeppelin’s songs to replicate. The beat and the timing are so complicated that it is so easy to call the song syncopated. But despite the seeming irregularity in the song’s rhythm, the song is a true slayer, with Robert Plant’s breathy and high-pitched a cappella alternating with the complex melody created by John Bonham’s thumping on the drums and John Paul Jones’ intense riffing.
But then again, the song was really meant to be hard to copy. It was said that when John Paul Jones composed the riff and the main melodies of the song, the intention was to create something that other bands would find difficult to cover.
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3. “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
Amongst all the songs of Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven” is probably the most recognisable. It is also one of the most lauded, landing in the lists compiled by the Rolling Stone Magasine, VH1 and many others of the best rock tracks ever produced.
What makes the song so great is the layer upon layer of rhythms created by the guitars so cleverly done by John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, combined with the storytelling vocals of Robert Plant. If ever rock needed an anthem, it has got to be “Stairway to Heaven,” never mind the controversy the song generated because of allegedly containing backmasked satanic messages.
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2. “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
There is a reason why this Led Zeppelin song has been described as one of the best guitar tracks ever written by various sources like Rolling Stone Magasine and VH1. The riffs Jimmy Page composed for the song are simply mind-blowing. And then there is the so-called noise part, the part where Robert Plant just moans – that part raises goose bumps.
This song is just a whole mix of a lot of things. It has the blues feel that makes the track sound so palatable, the distortion that makes it so clever, and then, of course, that evilly awesome riffing. The song is really a mind-trip.
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1. “Immigrant Song” (Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
It is hard to decide which element makes this song a big winner. It could be Robert Plant’s shrieking and somewhat eerie vocals, or it could be the evil staccato that John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page created with their guitars.
Whichever it is, “Immigrant Song” is probably one of the most iconic of Led Zeppelin’s songs, pushing into our consciousness the archetype of rock bands in Viking-esque hairstyles conquering the music scene like warriors on their way to glory in Valhalla. The song certainly led to many people summing up the Led Zeppelin musical style as “Hammer of the Gods,” straight from a line of the song.
Top 10 Must-Read Classic Books
There are innumerable classic novels in history, but there are only few that have touched, captured, and influenced countless generations.
In the first part of the list are some of the greatest literary works of all time, which have garnered interest from literary and non-literary circles alike. In the second part of the list are five best classics from which we will recognize age-old themes still experienced by the society in the past and in today’s world.
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10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: A Novel of Societal Equality
Pride and Prejudice is one of the few classics loved by the mainstream. The book follows Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy, two lovers separated by social status and clashing viewpoints. The book explores the prejudice faced by the lower social classes as well as the role of women in society. The novel is written in a poignant and witty manner that made Jane Austen a classic favorite among literature lovers.
Pride and Prejudice was second in UK’s Best Loved Books in 2003, and was first in an Australian survey of the 101 Best Books Ever Written. It was also adapted into a film in 2005 with Hollywood actress Kiera Knightley playing the feisty, opinionated, and much adored Elizabeth Bennett.
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9. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: A Novel of Injustice and Redemption
Les Miserables was greeted by critiques and negative reactions upon release, but it became commercially successful. Today, it is considered as one of the most important novels ever written because of its sensational look into the lives of the poor and oppressed. It has been turned into films and TV films, as well as adapted into a Paris musical, which became one of the most successful musicals ever made.
Les Miserables can be compared to The Count of Monte Cristo and Crime and Punishment as it combines the themes of justice and redemption. It seems to explore the other sides of these themes. The protagonist, Jean Valjean, was faced with a punishment that did not fit his crime and, in the end, also found redemption.
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8. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Novel of Justice
Crime and Punishment was the first great novel in Dostoevsky’s age. The novel revolves around Raskolnikov, a young man who murders an old woman believing that it will be for the common good. In the story, Raskolnikov faces justice for what he did, not from the law, but from his own conscience.
The novel has been adapted into several films and TV serials. One of the films was released in 1993 and starred Hollywood actor Patrick Dempsey. Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest works in classic literature that touches on themes that we still heavily encounter nowadays.
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7. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: A Novel of Vengeance and Redemption
The Count of Monte Cristo is Dumas’ most popular work and one of the bestselling books of all time. Even as an adventure story, The Count of Monte Cristo has a lot of profound emotional themes. It tells of Edmond Dantes, who was condemned to life imprisonment, escaped, found the treasure of Monte Cristo, and planned his revenge. He, however, sought vengeance but found redemption.
The story has been adapted into several movies, the most popular of which is the 2003 version with Hollywood actor Jim Caviezel. The Count of Monte Cristo also spurned three plays, a stage musical, Japanese mangas, and unofficial sequels. This is one adventure novel you should not miss.
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6. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: A Novel of Growth and Rebellion
Catcher in the Rye is a famous story about teenage rebellion and is one of the most censored books because of its rebellious themes and profane language. The novel is often challenged, but a lot of schools nowadays assign it as literary reading. The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has also become literature’s most famous teen icon. The story told of Caulfield’s experiences in New York where he explores the harsh realities of life.
Aside from being one of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, it is also in Time’s 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005 and of the 20th century. Famous actors Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tobey Maguire have all expressed desire to play Holden Caulfield, but author J. D. Salinger has refused all plans for a screen adaptation of the highly elusive novel. Intriguing, isn’t it?
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5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: The Controversial Classic Novel
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita entered the literary scene in 1955 and immediately became controversial due to its subject: a man’s obsession with a 12-year-old girl. At the same time, however, the novel became loved for Nabokov’s innovative writing style. Lolita was later on translated into Russian, adapted for the stage, inspired poetry collections, and was adapted into two films. The screenplay of the first was written by Nabokov himself.
The novel, written in English, was one of Time’s 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923-2005. From then until now, no other novel has braved the controversial subject of child sexuality as Lolita did.
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4. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien: The Beloved Epic Classic
The presence of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings on this list is to be expected. After all, who have not seen the live-action epic trilogy by New Line Cinema? The Lord of the Rings won worldwide acclaim, with the final installment winning 11 Oscars awards. Soon after, the novel’s popularity was revived, and it became the first in UK’s Best Loved Books in 2003.
The fantasy novel told of Middle-Earth’s salvation from Dark Lord Sauron with the help of the Fellowship of the Ring, led by Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, a fictional race Tolkien cleverly created. The novel, written from 1937 to 1949, intermingled fantasy, philosophy, and religion. It also opened up the doors for more literary fantasy works, a lot of which rocked, and are still rocking, the literary world.
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3. The Iliad by Homer: The Famous Epic Poem
Homer’s The Illiad is one of the greatest epic poems. The heroic classic covers the finale of the Trojan War, and includes some of the most famous events in the war such as the combat between Paris and Menelaus, the gods’ intervention, and Achilles’ defeat of Hector. The Iliad has been translated into English by countless authors.
The fame of The Iliad cannot be defined. It was used by Robert Browning and William Shakespeare himself as inspiration. The Iliad was also turned into the popular Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt as Achilles in 2004. The movie, now the 64th top-grosser, raked in $133 million in the U.S. alone and $497 in worldwide movie sales.
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2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: The Second Greatest Novel Ever Written
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary revolves around Emma Bovary, a plain doctor’s wife who had a highly romanticized view of the world that led her to search for something greater, in the process having an affair and going into debt. In literature, Madame Bovary is widely praised for Flaubert’s detailed and meticulous writing.
Madame Bovary has been adapted into several films and TV series, and was loosely adapted in both film and literature. It is now considered one of the most influential novels in history, and it has won the second spot in The Top Ten, following closely behind Anna Karenina.
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1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: The Greatest Novel Ever Written
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina tells the story of Anna, a woman of high society who was criticized for having an affair with the man she loves. The success of the novel lies in Tolstoy’s writing, which even famous authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov described as “flawless.”
Anna Karenina won the top spot in J. Peder Zane’s The Top Ten, a book that compiles the ten greatest books taken from the top ten lists of 125 contemporary writers. It has also been referenced in mainstream television shows and in literary works by authors Vladimir Nabokov, R. L. Stine, Haruki Murakami, and Milan Kundera. Even Oprah recommended the book back in 2004, making it even more popular.
Top 5 Best Gardening Books
Pruning, clipping, planting, digging, sowing – these are the things that you have to do on a regular basis if you have a garden to maintain. No matter how small or big your home garden is, what’s important is for you to learn about the basic skills on how to properly tend to your garden.
Naturally, your goal should be to make the plants grow healthy as they thrive in an environment where the soil is rich and there’s plenty of water and sunlight to ‘feed’ them.
If you’re one of those who consider gardening to be a chore, you might just change your mind when you learn about the benefits of this activity, which includes the following:
- Gardening is an activity which allows both the young adults and the elderly to get some serious workout through the lifting, digging, sowing and pruning that they need to do
- For those who are suffering from any illnesses, you can use gardening as a therapeutic activity to cure whatever is ailing you.
- From the fresh air that you will be breathing in, to the sense of being one with nature – gardening is an activity that will calm your mind and soothe your senses.
- If you’re planting herbal plants with a medicinal purpose, herbs for cooking or fruits and vegetables that are easy to grow, you will have a regular supply of fresh greens that will keep you healthy.
- Finally, gardening is an activity which helps develop your patience. In a world where everything seems to be almost instantaneous, it’s refreshing to know that there is an activity like gardening wherein you would need to wait for quite a long time before seeing the actual fruits of your labor. But once you see that first fruit, flower or when you see that your entire garden is healthy and continuously growing, the sense of satisfaction that you will feel is priceless.
Now that you already have an idea about the many benefits that you will enjoy from gardening as an activity, let us countdown the top 5 best books for gardening:
5. “The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses” (Eliot Coleman)
Okay, the title of the book may be a mouthful – but every word contained in the succeeding chapters of this comprehensive gardening book is worth a read. Even homemaker goddess Martha Stewart herself has only good things to say about Eliot Coleman’s book.
It’s chockfull of tips on how to choose locally grown organic food and grow them even during the harshest weather of the year: winter. Growing a garden may not be something that a newbie at this activity will attempt, but that’s exactly where the charm of the book comes from.
Once you successfully manage to grow a garden in the harsh of winter, you will be able to do it during the milder seasons of the year.
4. “Creative Vegetable Gardening” (Joy Larkcom)
Despite the fact that you are planning to grow a food-producing vegetable garden, there is absolutely no need to sacrifice its aesthetic beauty. That is exactly what Joy Larkcom’s “Creative Vegetable Gardening” book is all about.
The author believes that no matter what size of a vegetable garden it is that you wish to grow, it can be as pretty as a conventional flowering garden. Like an artist, you will be able to combine beautiful textures with a slew of lovely colors in growing a gorgeous beautiful garden, without compromising the productivity of the vegetables that you will plant.
3. “On Guerilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries” (Richard Reynolds)
If you live in a small apartment, you might not even consider growing a garden in your home, but reading Richard Reynold’s book might just convince you otherwise. “Let’s fight the filth with forks and flowers” is an apt description of how the author manages to convince the readers to make a pastime out of gardening other people’s plots.
It’s literally a book about guerilla gardening which delightfully guides you through a guerilla gardening movement which was started by the likes of Mao Tse-Tung and Che Guevarra. Whether your goal is to grow food or grow plants to beautify your surroundings, you can definitely do so – and do it beautifully, no matter how shabby the place you are planning to convert into a garden.
2. “Salad Leaves for All Seasons: Organic Growing from Pot to Plot” (Charles Dowding)
The cover of this book looks green and sumptuous enough to eat, but wait until you get to read its content. In “Salad Leaves for All Seasons: Organic Growing from Pot to Plot”, Charles Dowding will teach you how to live a healthy and beautiful life by eating a serving of salad a day – which you have grown yourself.
Whether it’s a windowsill or a full-fledged garden, the book will teach you how to grow the greenest of leaves which are used for salads. There’s even a bonus of some excellent recipes so that you can truly produce and consume your own food. Dowding’s garden book deserves a spot in our list because it is well-written and the advice is as practical as you can get.
1. “The Garden Primer: Second Edition” (Barbara Damroch)
It all starts with the basics – and whether you’re already an expert handling the shovel or if you haven’t touched garden soil ever before, Barbara Damroch’s “The Garden Primer” book is the best gardening book to help develop your gardening skills.
It’s basically a gardening encyclopedia minus the fancy terms. Chicago Tribune calls Barbara Damrosch an author who “delivers the goods”, and she really does. The 820-page book tells you about the principles of landscape design, what your plants really need, which gardening gear you should be wearing and how to choose which plants to grow in your garden.
There you have it, our top 5 list of the best books for tending your garden. These are all great reads that will make you forget the fact that you think of gardening as a chore. Instead, this almost therapeutic activity will be something that you’ll grow to love, because of the gardening skills and knowledge that you will develop along the way.
Top 9 Best Disney Pixar Movies
Disney Pixar, the world-renowned CGI animation production company, has so far created 9 immensely popular feature films. Each of them has earned critical acclaim, a large number of awards and nominations and, on top of that, massive commercial success.
So, which one is best? We have compiled the top Disney Pixar films based on worldwide gross, general public ratings from IMDB and professional ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. Additionally, we compared professional reviews of the picture and audio quality of the blu-ray disc releases.
Enough said. Here is the countdown of the Top 9 Best Disney Pixar Movies…
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9. A Bugs Life
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
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8. Cars
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
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7. Monsters, Inc.
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6. Toy Story 2
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5. The Incredibles
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4. Toy Story
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3. Ratatouille
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2. Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo, Disney Pixars fifth feature film, was released in 2003. It depicts the clown fish Marlin and his journey to find and free his lost son, Nemo, who has been captured from the Great Barrier Reef and placed in a fish tank in an office.
More than $864,000,000. Yup, that’s Finding Nemo’s worldwide gross so far. That makes it not only the highest grossing Disney Pixar movie of all time but the highest grossing animated movie. Ever. In addition it received an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and has currently earned an IMDB average of 8.2, making it well into the IMDB Top 250 list. The critics have been equally impressed; Finding Nemo has 98% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Finding Nemo is yet to be released on blu-ray and no release date has been confirmed so far.
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1. WALL-E
2008’s WALL-E, the latest Disney Pixar feature film, tells the story of a waste collecting robot in a distant future. Arguably one of the more “different” Pixar stories, in terms of pace, visuals and dialogue (or rather, the lack of it), it has been a massive success.
WALL-E is currently ranked #41 of all movies of all time on IMDB (and is the only top 50 ranked animated feature), has grossed over $530,000,000 (in one year!) and has achieved a 96% rating by professional critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes. It has appealed not only to children and young adults but has even managed to achieve a weighted average of 7.5 in the age group 45+ voters on IMDB.
The partially subdued, but still extremely detailed visuals and crisp sound, has made WALL-E on of the best selling blu-rays and DVDs since its release. The blu-ray release, with AVC video, DTS-HD MA audio and 2.40:1 aspect ratio, has earned overwhelming acclaim from professional reviewers at web sites such as Blu-ray.com and High-Def Digest.
And oh, did we mention that the movie is absolutely amazing? Get it. Now.