I really love this song - it's so beautiful...
So, I am really awake now. Due to the wonders of modern medicine, I was able to review/learn a great deal about the Statistics test I have in 9 hours. There are still several basic concepts that I just don't understand though, so hopefully I'll be able to really grasp those soon (or DIE!)... Yeah.
Since I can't sleep, I want to tell you about my great treasure that I recently rediscovered.
Over the summer, during the rather rough patch towards the end, I went with Connor and Tim to a movie at the Pavilion (Stardust actually, which was amazing!) and we stopped at the little bookstore in there. While I was looking around, I found The Thief of Always by Clive Barker for $6.00 and I thought I was going to cry. Four or five years ago, my mom bought me his book Abarat for Christmas and I really loved it. The whole thing is illustrated with really unusual but beautiful oil paintings that he had been working on for years. The next book in the series came out about two years afterwards, but there hasn't been another since then, which is sad. I guess maybe the illustrations take longer than the writing and that could be holding it up...
Anyway, Clive Barker is also pretty famous for writing Hellraiser and, hands down, the most eloquent but viscerally disgusting horror compilation I've ever read, The Books of Blood. So yeah, anyway, the TToA that I have, which is illustrated also, is his first "children's book" (although it's pretty weird and scary too and is more like a novel), and is a hardcover first edition from 1992. I started reading it last night and I'm almost finished with it because I kind of couldn't stop. It reminds me a little bit of Ray Bradbury, but the prose is a less lyrical and the images aren't conjured quite the same way. Even so, it's very special to me for all of those reasons.
So now... Could I give it up? Probably, but not without a good reason. Unconditional giving is hard. I know I've already talked about it but we discussed it more in class today. In the text we're reading, bodhisattvas are supposed to apologize politely and profusely to beggars for being "new to the path" if they're still too attached to what the beggar wants and can't give it away. Geez. I hope one day I can give it to someone who will appreciate it the way I do, or maybe just to someone I don't know that well who really needs a good book to read :)
I'm working on being more giving! Yay!
Since I can't sleep, I want to tell you about my great treasure that I recently rediscovered.
Over the summer, during the rather rough patch towards the end, I went with Connor and Tim to a movie at the Pavilion (Stardust actually, which was amazing!) and we stopped at the little bookstore in there. While I was looking around, I found The Thief of Always by Clive Barker for $6.00 and I thought I was going to cry. Four or five years ago, my mom bought me his book Abarat for Christmas and I really loved it. The whole thing is illustrated with really unusual but beautiful oil paintings that he had been working on for years. The next book in the series came out about two years afterwards, but there hasn't been another since then, which is sad. I guess maybe the illustrations take longer than the writing and that could be holding it up...
Anyway, Clive Barker is also pretty famous for writing Hellraiser and, hands down, the most eloquent but viscerally disgusting horror compilation I've ever read, The Books of Blood. So yeah, anyway, the TToA that I have, which is illustrated also, is his first "children's book" (although it's pretty weird and scary too and is more like a novel), and is a hardcover first edition from 1992. I started reading it last night and I'm almost finished with it because I kind of couldn't stop. It reminds me a little bit of Ray Bradbury, but the prose is a less lyrical and the images aren't conjured quite the same way. Even so, it's very special to me for all of those reasons.
So now... Could I give it up? Probably, but not without a good reason. Unconditional giving is hard. I know I've already talked about it but we discussed it more in class today. In the text we're reading, bodhisattvas are supposed to apologize politely and profusely to beggars for being "new to the path" if they're still too attached to what the beggar wants and can't give it away. Geez. I hope one day I can give it to someone who will appreciate it the way I do, or maybe just to someone I don't know that well who really needs a good book to read :)
I'm working on being more giving! Yay!