bibliophiliac
I'm usually in the middle of several books. Slowly juggling many nonfiction and trying to limit myself to only one fiction or narrative type book at a time. But lately it has exceeded even more than that. So I decided to write up a journal about all the books I happen to be working on at the moment. I even included some quotes :)
I Celebrate Myself: the somwhat private life of Allen Ginsberg by Bill Morgan
it's a massive book so I may have to get it out of the library a few times. I'm very interested in Ginsberg. I love him as a blend of Eastern mystic, gay rights and free speech activist, poet, sensitive lover soul, generous friend, one who struggled with and aspired towards much of the same things I do.
"Most politicians give lip service to the country's founding principles, but Ginsberg put himself on the line time after time to fight for those principles and was called un-American and subversive for doing so. People have been quick to forget that dissent is not un-American, but the very cornerstone upon which the country was founded. As a result Allen became a spokesman for a generation that was beginning to question the "my country right or wrong" attitude of the military-industrial complex at midcentury. More than effecting a political change, however, his work as a champion of free speech led to a cultural change that swept the entire world and continues to this day."
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
it's very enjoyable and I am almost finished. I love his poetic style and the way in which the book embodies just going with the flow and experiencing everything.
"Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I stuck my head out the window and took deep breaths of fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments."
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
I haven't actually started it but probably will soon, as I am dying to read it.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
It was between this and the electric kool-aid acid test, which one I started after I finish on the road. My dad said I should do this one first because it is a quicker read. Well, I've kind of started this now. I read the intro and some of the first chapters. Also, this book has pictures! really nifty ones. Too many books, so little time and attention span!
The Cultural Creatives by Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson
I've only barely started it, but very interesting
"I feel like I'm some kind of seed that's been planted, but I haven't the faintest idea of what kind I am or when I'm going to sprout-if I'm going to sprout at all."
(I can relate so much to this)
books in my posession that are in somewhat of a state of read or about to be read but I go slow with books I own sometimes:
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I think this book was mentioned in my dream last night. Anyway, it's a slow digester, reading it one little morsel at a time as it is deep into the jung archetype stuff. really interesting. maybe i'll read some of it today, thanks to my dream.
"One of the most remarkable things about using intuition and the instinctive nature is that it causes a surefooted spontaneity to erupt."
Letters To a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
I've already finished all but the afterword in this one, actually. Easy as it's a short read. It's very beautiful and heartfelt. All sensitive poet type souls should read it.
"be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue."
The Book: on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
I love Alan Watts, and he has imparted so much wisdom through books and audio. (he was a fantastic orator, charming and funny while still philosophical..) funny how two of my greatest heroes (Alan Watts and Allen Ginsberg) have the same first name as my father.
"Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, open-ness, an act of trust in the unknown."
The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
this is a slightly fluffy and spiritual book that I have been gradually reading as I find it inspiring at times.
"Perhaps sometimes we give up our loneliness too quickly, moving away from the ache before it can lead us back to the Beloved."
Spiritwalk by Charles De Lint
I got this from a used book store. I like Chareles De Lint a lot ("creator of urban fantasy"), but this book is mainly for when I need some fantasy (which is a soothing indulgence for me) so it's my fantasy backup book. I've only read the first chapter, which was promising.
"visitors to Tamson House will certainly be struck by the "feel" of the building- a sensation akin to that found in certain other places that we remember forever, our subconscious memory stirring in recognition of some hidden facet of mystery that stands revealed, if only for a moment."
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
I randomly picked this book up from the program they make me go to (so yea, I guess I kinda stole it. oops). It's interesting, but I don't really care if I ever finish it, as it's also kind of a downer. It's about the epidemic of troubled young girls, and it illustrates in depth the problems with society that the author believes cause the trouble.
"It's important for girls to explore the impact the culture has on their growth and development. They all benefit from, to use an old-fashioned term, consciousness-raising. Once girls understand the effects of the culture on their lives, they can fight back. They learn that they have conscious choices to make and ultimate responsibility for those choices. Intelligent resistance keeps the true self alive."
Journey of Awakening: a meditators guide book by Ram Dass
I've actually already read this, but suspect I will be referring back to it time and time again. This is one of the best smelling books I've ever encountered. And it's content is rather delicious as well.
"Only when I stopped clinging to those past experiences did I see that the present ones had a fullness, immediacy, and richness that was enough-I didn't need the memories."
"Simply watching your reaction makes anything a teaching."
The Heart of the Soul by Gary Zukav & Linda Francis
this is an annoying and repetitive book, but I also feel like I have learned some important things from it in the past, and so I intend to finish it. I almost finished it long ago but haven't picked it up in a while.
"(changing your life) means locating within you impulses to make yourself feel worthy by attempting to control others or the circumstances around you, and changing them."
The Televisionary Oracle by Rob Brezsny
this is a really fun book (I <3 Rob Brezsny) but also intense and kinda all over the place. I read some of it and then decided it was for another time.
"Relax. Breathe sweetly and deeply. As you inhale, become aware that every one of your heart's beats originates in a gift of love directly from the Goddess Herself. As you exhale, allow every cell in your perfect animal body to purr with luminous gratitude for the enormity of the blessings you endlessly receive. Become aware that any reside of hatred still tainting your libido is draining out of you into the good earth."
The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
here's another slow burner. I've read all of doors of perception and barely started on heaven and hell.
"We must learn how to handle words effectively; but at the same time we must preserve and, if necessary, intensify our ability to look at the world directly and not through that half opaque medium of concepts, which distorts every given act into the all too familiar likeness of some generic label or explanatory abstraction."
the other day I was given two used books in a "quiz show" at open mic poetry because the guy was moving to Texas was it?
the question that won me them was who was the first astronaut to walk on the moon. um, actually I originally won movies and traded with another winner for books:
e.e. Cummings: 100 selected poems
lucky me, I love E.E. Cummings.
the great path of awakening by Jamgon Kongtrul
well actually this doesn't look that great. I don't know if I'll read it. Maybe I'll give it away.
I Celebrate Myself: the somwhat private life of Allen Ginsberg by Bill Morgan
it's a massive book so I may have to get it out of the library a few times. I'm very interested in Ginsberg. I love him as a blend of Eastern mystic, gay rights and free speech activist, poet, sensitive lover soul, generous friend, one who struggled with and aspired towards much of the same things I do.
"Most politicians give lip service to the country's founding principles, but Ginsberg put himself on the line time after time to fight for those principles and was called un-American and subversive for doing so. People have been quick to forget that dissent is not un-American, but the very cornerstone upon which the country was founded. As a result Allen became a spokesman for a generation that was beginning to question the "my country right or wrong" attitude of the military-industrial complex at midcentury. More than effecting a political change, however, his work as a champion of free speech led to a cultural change that swept the entire world and continues to this day."
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
it's very enjoyable and I am almost finished. I love his poetic style and the way in which the book embodies just going with the flow and experiencing everything.
"Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I stuck my head out the window and took deep breaths of fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments."
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
I haven't actually started it but probably will soon, as I am dying to read it.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
It was between this and the electric kool-aid acid test, which one I started after I finish on the road. My dad said I should do this one first because it is a quicker read. Well, I've kind of started this now. I read the intro and some of the first chapters. Also, this book has pictures! really nifty ones. Too many books, so little time and attention span!
The Cultural Creatives by Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson
I've only barely started it, but very interesting
"I feel like I'm some kind of seed that's been planted, but I haven't the faintest idea of what kind I am or when I'm going to sprout-if I'm going to sprout at all."
(I can relate so much to this)
books in my posession that are in somewhat of a state of read or about to be read but I go slow with books I own sometimes:
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I think this book was mentioned in my dream last night. Anyway, it's a slow digester, reading it one little morsel at a time as it is deep into the jung archetype stuff. really interesting. maybe i'll read some of it today, thanks to my dream.
"One of the most remarkable things about using intuition and the instinctive nature is that it causes a surefooted spontaneity to erupt."
Letters To a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
I've already finished all but the afterword in this one, actually. Easy as it's a short read. It's very beautiful and heartfelt. All sensitive poet type souls should read it.
"be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue."
The Book: on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
I love Alan Watts, and he has imparted so much wisdom through books and audio. (he was a fantastic orator, charming and funny while still philosophical..) funny how two of my greatest heroes (Alan Watts and Allen Ginsberg) have the same first name as my father.
"Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, open-ness, an act of trust in the unknown."
The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
this is a slightly fluffy and spiritual book that I have been gradually reading as I find it inspiring at times.
"Perhaps sometimes we give up our loneliness too quickly, moving away from the ache before it can lead us back to the Beloved."
Spiritwalk by Charles De Lint
I got this from a used book store. I like Chareles De Lint a lot ("creator of urban fantasy"), but this book is mainly for when I need some fantasy (which is a soothing indulgence for me) so it's my fantasy backup book. I've only read the first chapter, which was promising.
"visitors to Tamson House will certainly be struck by the "feel" of the building- a sensation akin to that found in certain other places that we remember forever, our subconscious memory stirring in recognition of some hidden facet of mystery that stands revealed, if only for a moment."
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
I randomly picked this book up from the program they make me go to (so yea, I guess I kinda stole it. oops). It's interesting, but I don't really care if I ever finish it, as it's also kind of a downer. It's about the epidemic of troubled young girls, and it illustrates in depth the problems with society that the author believes cause the trouble.
"It's important for girls to explore the impact the culture has on their growth and development. They all benefit from, to use an old-fashioned term, consciousness-raising. Once girls understand the effects of the culture on their lives, they can fight back. They learn that they have conscious choices to make and ultimate responsibility for those choices. Intelligent resistance keeps the true self alive."
Journey of Awakening: a meditators guide book by Ram Dass
I've actually already read this, but suspect I will be referring back to it time and time again. This is one of the best smelling books I've ever encountered. And it's content is rather delicious as well.
"Only when I stopped clinging to those past experiences did I see that the present ones had a fullness, immediacy, and richness that was enough-I didn't need the memories."
"Simply watching your reaction makes anything a teaching."
The Heart of the Soul by Gary Zukav & Linda Francis
this is an annoying and repetitive book, but I also feel like I have learned some important things from it in the past, and so I intend to finish it. I almost finished it long ago but haven't picked it up in a while.
"(changing your life) means locating within you impulses to make yourself feel worthy by attempting to control others or the circumstances around you, and changing them."
The Televisionary Oracle by Rob Brezsny
this is a really fun book (I <3 Rob Brezsny) but also intense and kinda all over the place. I read some of it and then decided it was for another time.
"Relax. Breathe sweetly and deeply. As you inhale, become aware that every one of your heart's beats originates in a gift of love directly from the Goddess Herself. As you exhale, allow every cell in your perfect animal body to purr with luminous gratitude for the enormity of the blessings you endlessly receive. Become aware that any reside of hatred still tainting your libido is draining out of you into the good earth."
The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
here's another slow burner. I've read all of doors of perception and barely started on heaven and hell.
"We must learn how to handle words effectively; but at the same time we must preserve and, if necessary, intensify our ability to look at the world directly and not through that half opaque medium of concepts, which distorts every given act into the all too familiar likeness of some generic label or explanatory abstraction."
the other day I was given two used books in a "quiz show" at open mic poetry because the guy was moving to Texas was it?
the question that won me them was who was the first astronaut to walk on the moon. um, actually I originally won movies and traded with another winner for books:
e.e. Cummings: 100 selected poems
lucky me, I love E.E. Cummings.
the great path of awakening by Jamgon Kongtrul
well actually this doesn't look that great. I don't know if I'll read it. Maybe I'll give it away.