174

In the air between Adelaide and Cairns Australia. 3 January 2014, 11:01.  9 days since 173.

Schurn flying home from amazing Sal time in the southern states to meet more international visitors and regular 444 project Maria and Fredrik The Greats.
Schurn considers himself some kind of minimalist, or likes the idea of it quite a lot – not owning too many possessions for they only lead to clutter. Of the house and the mind. He’s quite good at it too, he thinks: one item of clothing out for every item in, selling old pots and crockery etc, donating whatever is taking up space to the Salvos. Unless of course, it’s books. No, I’ll read that next he says when looking at his overflowing makeshift bookcase. Yes, but that’s about a topic I’m interested in so I may as we’ll hold on to it despite having read it 4 times already, he tells himself.
And so it was with Nelson Mandela’s autobiography ‘Long Walk To Freedom’. It sat in the bookshelf, perhaps bookshelves in 3 states, unread, until his death motivated it to be promoted to the ranks of ‘must start before the week ends’.
And so it was, and so it began, this most interesting read on the life of one of times most recognisable leaders. Being only 174 pages into a 630 page book makes it hard to comment entirely, suffice to say I like the guy’s style. Viva la revolution.
What will become of the book once done? Schurn would like to think he’ll find an equally interested friend who might enjoy the read.

165

Mission Beach, Australia. 9 September 2013, 08:24. 38 days since 164.

A little post breakfast reading and sunning for Schurn. Reading because it’s informative and interesting and calming and stimulating; and sunning cause it’s healthy and a good start to the day and warming and going out in it after about 09:23 is too intense in the tropics.

Why haven’t more books featured in the 444 project? I read quite often, but one wouldn’t say prolifically. My theory is that if a book is engrossing enough, one doesn’t stray from the text onto things like the bird in the tree or the lyrics of the music in the background or the numbers on the bottom of the page. By my count, the only other books to appear were the sacred 111, which the attentive follower might recall was found by accident; and 022 way back towards the beginning of the project.

So it says a little about all the previous books I’ve read, and a little about the amount of books CC Top has read, and a lot about the current book – Nutritionism by Gyorgy Scrinis. The topic is right up my alley – the science and politics of dietary advice. He’s pretty much saying that we focus too much on reducing foods to nutrient levels, and not on whole foods or processing techniques, when deciding whether something is nutritious. It’s just that he’s a scientist, and they tend to be good at science and not so much at penmanship. So it has a lot of interesting points and leads and information, but not engaging enough to keep me from wondering when I might reach page 165, which I did this morning in the sun.

111

Göteborg, Sweden. 24 October 2011, 21:32. 26 hours since 110.

SCHNAPPS! Or more correctly, BREAD! That marks one quarter of the 444 project completed in an almost even 20 months. Some great travel stories and numbers found since 001.

Back in the Göt after our weekend away, first item of business for Schurn was to bake some bread. Sal gave me this wonderful bread book for my birthday, and I was exploring the options for cultivating and maintaining one’s own sourdough culture when the text referred to a photo on the previous page (pg 111). I was too engrossed in the text to notice what page I was on! I have not become advanced enough in my breadmaking for sourdough yet, although it is an aspiration I hold, and the book has made my home-made seeded rye bread taste even more delicious. BREAD!

021

Canterbury, England. 15 Mar 2010, 12:51.  2 days since 020.

2 days is perhaps sufficient time to recover from a half-pint-every-six-minutes-come-big-boozy-all-nighter, and once recovered it was time to catch up on some reading, which is the pursuit of choice for people awaiting visa decisions. Around The World In 80 Days, occasionally on ‘classic novel’ lists but not on mine. It was however, a good story, history lesson, and travel inspiration combined into a few pages.

Schurn was got a little glow inside from finding a roman numeral for the 444 project, hopefully another will present itself before time is through.