Pico Iyer Knihy

Nečakané priznanie uznávaného novinára – pokoj môže byť jedinečným dobrodružstvom. Pico Iyer prežil svoj život cestovaním po celom svete – od Veľkonočných ostrovov cez Etiópiu, Kubu až po Káthmandu – a písaním o svojich cestách. V tejto knihe sa paradoxne venuje svojej radosti z pokoja a ticha. „V určitom bode všetky horizontálne cesty celého sveta prestanú dávať zmysel a vy už nebudete túžiť ísť hlbšie, zažívať výzvy a nečakané okamihy, pretože pohyb je najdôležitejší v pokoji. V dobe rýchlosti som si uvedomil, že nič nemôže byť lepšie než spomaliť. V dobe ruchu nemôže byť nič drahšie ako pozornosť. A v dobe neustáleho pohybu nie je nič naliehavejšie než potreba sedieť v tichu.“

Přečtěte si nečekané vyznání známého novináře o tom, že klid může být jedinečným dobrodružstvím. Pico Iyer tráví život cestováním po celém světě – od Velikonočních ostrovů přes Etiopii, Kubu až po Kátmándú – a reportážemi ze svých cest. Ve své knížce se paradoxně věnuje radosti z poklidu a ticha, na které ho upozornil světoznámý písničkář Leonard Cohen. Inspirovaný jím, ale i Gándhím, Proustem či Emily Dickinsonovou se rozhodl cestovat nikam a najít tak svou vnitřní rovnováhu. Ponořte se do ticha a objevte nový vztah k světu tím, že se od něj odstřihnete.

Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay are just a few of the jarring images that Iyer brings back from the Far East.

"Earns its place on the very short shelf of books on Japan that are of permanent value."—Times Literary Supplement. "Richie is a stupendous travel writer; the book shines with bright witticisms, deft characterizations of fisherfolk, merchants, monks and wistful adolescents, and keen comparisons of Japanes and Western culture." —San Francisco Chronicle"A learned, beautifully paced elegy."—London Review of BooksSheltered between Japan’s major islands lies the Inland Sea, a place modernity passed by. In this classic travel memoir, Donald Richie embarks on a quest to find Japan’s timeless heart among its mysterious waters and forgotten islands. This edition features an introduction by Pico Iyer, photographs from the award-winning PBS documentary, and a new afterword. First published in 1971, The Inland Sea is a lucid, tender voyage of discovery and self-revelation.Donald Richie is the foremost authority on Japanese culture and cinema with 40+ books in print.

We all carry other people inside our heads - actors, leaders, writers, people from history or fiction, met or unmet, who sometimes seem closer to us than people we know. In The Man Within My Head, Pico Iyer sets out to unravel the mysterious closeness he has always felt with the writer Graham Greene: he examines Greene's obsessions, his life on the road, his penchant for mystery. Iyer follows Greene's trail from his first novel, The Man Within, to such later classics as The Quiet American and begins to unpack all they have in common: a typical old-school education, a lifelong restlessness and refusal to make a home anywhere, a fascination with the complications of faith. The deeper Iyer plunges into their haunted kinship, however, the more he begins to wonder whether the man within his head is not Greene but his own father, or perhaps some more shadowy aspect of himself. Drawing upon experiences across the globe, from Cuba to Bhutan, and moving, as Greene would, from Sri Lanka at war to intimate moments of introspection; trying to make sense of his own past, commuting between the cloisters of a fifteenth-century boarding school and California in the 1960s, one of our most resourceful cultural explorers gives us his most personal and revelatory book yet, and one of the best new portraits of Greene himself.

In this “exquisite personal blend of philosophy and engagement, inner quiet and worldly life" (Los Angeles Times), an acclaimed author returns to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-law’s sudden death and picks up the steadying patterns of his everyday rites, reminding us to take nothing for granted. In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, Pico Iyer comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, children scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat begins to soften, Iyer shows us a Japan we have seldom seen before, where the transparent and the mysterious are held in a delicate balance.

Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his father's) for the last three decades-a continuing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Now, in this insightful, impassioned book, Iyer captures the paradoxes of the Dalai Lama's position- though he has brought the ideas of Tibet to world attention, Tibet itself is being remade as a Chinese province; though he was born in one of the most remote, least developed places on earth, he has become a champion of globalism and technology. He is a religious leader who warns against being needlessly distracted by religion; a Tibetan head of state who suggests that exile from Tibet can be an opportunity; an incarnation of a Tibetan god who stresses his everyday humanity. Moving from Dharamsala, India-the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile-to Lhasa, Tibet, to venues in the West where the Dalai Lama's pragmatism, rigour, and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, The Open Road illuminates the hidden life, the transforming ideas, and the daily challenges of a global icon.

The author draws on readings, reflections, and conversations with Japanese friends to illuminate an unknown place for newcomers, and to give longtime residents a look at their home through fresh eyes. The book is full of glimpses into Japanese culture. Iyer's observations as he travels make for a series of provocations to pique the interest and curiosity of the range of fascinations the country and culture contain

"In The Art of Stillness, Iyer draws on the lives of well-known wanderer-monks like Cohen--as well as from his own experiences as a travel writer who chooses to spend most of his time in rural Japan--to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. Iyer reflects that this is perhaps the reason why many people--even those with no religious commitment--seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or tai chi. These aren't New Age fads so much as ways to rediscover the wisdom of an earlier age."--Publisher's description.

An internationally bestselling comic novel in which a man--with the help of a bunny--suddenly realizes what's important in life "Escapism at its best . . . Just pure fun." --NPR.org "Which of us has not had that wonderfully seditious idea: to play hooky for a while from life as we know it?" With these words from his foreword, Pico Iyer puts his finger on the exhilaratingly anarchic appeal of The Year of the Hare, a novel in the bestselling tradition of Watership Down, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Life of Pi. While out on assignment, a journalist hits a hare with his car. This small incident becomes life-changing: he decides to quit his job, leave his wife, sell his possessions, and spend a year wandering the wilds of Finland--with the bunny as his boon companion. What ensues is a series of comic misadventures, as everywhere they go--whether chased up a tree by dogs, or to a formal state dinner, or in pursuit of a bear across the Finnish border with Russia--they leave mayhem (and laughter!) in their wake.