The results of our survey on what you read during lockdown are in! Social commentary, escapism, memoir, life lessons, and reading about Covid itself, the choices probably reflect all our different moods at different stages of lockdown and during the Covid crisis. Thanks to all who took part!

    • Pick:
      Covid-19: The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One, by Debora MacKenzie
      Comment:
      Actual info on covid, not biased media non speak

 

    • Pick:
      There There, by Tommy Orange
      Comment:
      Like all great books it brought me inside another world of modern native american lives where I could just forget about all the anxieties of the pandemic and focus on something I knew nothing about. And it’s just a great read, Simple!

 

    • Pick:
      Sex and the Unreal City: the demolition of the Western Mind, by Anthony Esolen
      Comment:
      Excellently written by Professor Anthony Esolen it takes an unflinching look at the descent into stupidity and silliness by the west. I had already read Tom Holland’s Dominion and this is the response to that. The transgender movement gets a real roasting for their distortion of language, but all of the “rights” and “-ism” movements don’t escape either. Immediately afterwards I read Abigail Shrier’s book on transgenderism, which deals with facts, figures and science (the trans movement tried to get it banned and have constantly trolled the writer). It received a Times Book of the Year Award, but as it deals with inconvenient truths there have been attempts to derail its publication and distribution. I would always try to read what was counter cultural rather than run with trends. Why both books made an impact on me is that I have thought for a long time that DkIT (and all third level in Ireland) has moved from robust and rigorous scholarship to something wishy-washy and degraded, and there is no intellectual discourse about the -isms trying to hijack education and society today. “Closed mindedness” is now refusing to accept the self-identification of gender, rather than physical reality (the unreal city). To me, closed mindedness is always running with the herd, being easily swayed and led by whatever is currently fashionable and putting patent lies on an equal footing to the truth.

 

    • Pick:
      Chain of Gold, by Cassandra Clare
      Comment:
      escape from the real world, while discussing themes I was dealing with, for example, went into lockdown and quarantine

 

    • Pick:
      The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness, by Morgan Housel
      Comment:
      Made me look differently at wealth and income and what really motivates people to do what they do.

 

    • Pick:
      Stoner, by John Williams
      Comment:
      William Stoner’s life as a quiet, solitary academic struck a chord with me. Working alone on my postgrad, his understated being, somehow both bleak and purposeful, gave me something to hope for and relate to.

 

    • Pick:
      All of Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s novels
      Comment:
      I discovered the first few in a box outside a neighbour’s house when we had local book swaps during the first lockdown. I love crime and thrillers and these are fabulous page turners – pure escapism. They have been a real treat for me and a chance to escape into another world entirely and really relax my mind. There are just two of her books now that I haven’t read and I’m trying to pace myself!

 

    • Pick:
      Bonus Time: A True Story of Surviving the Worst and Discovering the Magic of Every Day, by Brian Pennie
      Comment:
      He went through a crippling addiction to turning his whole life around. Using is challenge for his growth. I am now using the lockdown and pandemic as reasoning for growth

 

    • Pick:
      Overcoming: A Memoir, by Vicky Phelan
      Comment:
      It was a real eye opener to appreciate life

    The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of DkIT.