Bookish Bits and Happy Buddhas
The serpent’s sorting and decluttering schedule has well and truly been derailed by a certain toadish creature who shall remain nameless. Not only has it all come to an abrupt end but the Izzie has regressed to some ridiculously silly and irrational behaviour in the last four weeks or so.
Started off so well this month with all those good intentions not to buy any munchies other than milk and the occasional loaf of bread and certainly no books of any kind unless acquiring book cases or shelves to put them in.
Of course each one of these new books in itself is harmless enough. It is the slowly accumulating collection that is the problem and the increasing tendency to start a story but not to finish it. Already abandoned Stephen King’s “Cell” for something shorter and snappier as the story seems to be taking ages to get moving along. His short stories are definitely much better than most of the novels.
It started ever so innocently last Wednesday with a walk past the gorgeous good old fashioned Elizabeth’s book shop. There was a big stash of bargain basement books most of which were dust covered pulp fiction. One of these included the intriguingly titled “Interview with the Vampire” by one Anne Rice. This story has rather a good reputation and with a price tag of a mere two silver sickles plus a desire to banish the memories of sparkly silliness, it was just too good to resist. A bunch of American atheist vampires are much more interesting than bright and shiny sparkly special snow flakes. A rave review on the inside page from “The Catholic Herald” proved to be temptation beyond endurance.
Instead of hoarding and adding it to the stash actually started reading it on Saturday at the spooky Subiaco farmers markets in the old primary school. Most impressed so far. The age of the book is apparent by the use of nasty old cassette tapes to record the interview but it wipes the floor with the more recent offerings in spite of such quaintness. Been so so long since the serpent has been acquainted with a proper vampire. Reading the story of Louis is the next best thing to being one of these accursed creatures of the night. It is interesting to know that vampire snobbery is alive and well. Some are rather more refined in their tastes while others are just blood thirsty craven junkies unable to restrain their appetites. And at least this time ‘vegetarian vampires’ don’t come across as some sick and pathetic joke but a sometimes necessary adaptation to circumstances and simple good manners for situations like long sea voyages.
Then there was a large black book with luminescent green font which turns out to be an anthology of zombie stories. It also features some useful history of the genre and its recent resurrection from the dead after years of oblivion. Still unsure about the whole gun cult survivalist cult thing surrounding these creatures. Not sure what magic powers bullets are supposed to have against the already dead. Maybe it is just part of some massive NRA conspiracy.
It is a bit too late at this stage to do some serious reading and research for Camp Nanowrimo. And anyway if the Izzie really were serious would have already been properly peeking in the definitive Book of Zombie Dead “The Serpent and the Rainbow” by the anthropologist Wade Davis. Instead it is gathering dust like so many others on the shelves.
Even came across an impressive looking facsimile of a 1935 book of tales from Edgar Allen Poe called “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” with some seriously creepy illustrations or what in the old days were called ‘Illustrated plates’. Charity shops are such a good source of the strange and unexpected and downright quirky.
Will be making a special effort to stay away from the annual Save The Children fund charity sales which are seriously dangerous for any bookish creature in search of bargains. It is the lure of the lucky dip that makes them so addictive.
Will really need to set aside time for proper reading of old fashioned classic books instead of pottering about aimlessly in Cyberia or perusing the daily newspaper over a cup or two of coffee.
The sorting ritual even included creating a list of books to read over the next three years. The kind of book that you always intend to get around to reading one day or more bluntly - the bucket list of books. Izzie’s preferences are along the lines of the spooky and weird. Heard so many good reviews of Robert Louis Stephenson’s “The Bottle Imp” and assorted creepy Edgar Allen Poe tales
Izzie simply never tires of those “666 months interest free” stories usually involving some sort of dodgy object with strange powers or a dark past or an impish creature offering a quick fix and instant gratification in return for some vague payment in the future. As always the devil is in the detail.
That does not even include any of the interesting non fiction out there. Along with the aforementioned “The Serpent and the Rainbow” there is the recently acquired “The Black Swan” about one of the serpent’s favourite themes - counterfactuals, chance, 20/20 hindsight and the influence of unexpected events which are always ever so obvious after they have happened. Then there is the feast of strange loopiness that is pretty much anything by Douglas Hofstadter and the more medieval incarnation of such ideas in the form of alchemical tail gobbling serpents
But life is too short to read everything so there’s got to be some picking and choosing.
Finally found our pasta paradise after first searching some four weeks ago. Had to make the most of the last day of freedom from the mad house. Being a Monday many of the usual lurking grounds are closed for business. So decided to go on a coffee crawl before having a leisurely lunch. Doing the cheapie two hour bus ticket thing meant making a bit of a detour. It was worth the twenty minute walk to save the price of the second ticket. Random walks down side streets are also an excellent opportunity to smell the roses and enjoy the sunshine. It also helped by resisting the bag lady tendencies of bringing way too many things.
Found a cute little shop full of new age stuff. Normally not tempted by such stuff but could not resist a place with a window full of teapots and tarot cards. Maybe they will have something different and interesting. It was full of the usual fluff such as goblets and ridiculously overpriced crystals. There were countless golden Buddha statues along with little elephant amulets and assorted Feng shui tokens and coins including one very creepy toad with a coin in its mouth.
Did make it to the Buddhist relics exhibition on the weekend and found it quite amazing how certain very concrete expressions of religions can be so similar no matter how different their theologies claim to be. For a religion that claims to be more about philosophy and where the existence of deities is considered not to be an issue, these statues, relics, altars laden with flowers and fruit not to mention the ritual of the Bathing Buddha seemed remarkably similar to a lot of what takes place in a Catholic church.
The new age shops go one better and stock all of this stuff. Was especially intrigued by the Le Scarabeo “Tarot of the Saints’ cards and there was not just one deck but several.
Was surprised at the variety of decks on display. Especially these days as most deck junkies get their fix from Amazon at less than half the retail price. It was easy to resist temptation as so many of them were quite ugly, already had most of the beautiful ones and the price tags of the few desirable ones was a definite deterrent.
But it was one of the Oracle decks that caught the Izzie eye. It featured large green eyed witchy and fairy creatures with a definite Gothic look and a wicked twisted sense of humour. At last an oracle artist who does not take herself so ridiculously seriously with all this ‘inner goddess’ fluffy bunny nonsense. With titles like “The Mermaid of the Sewer” “A Clockwork Pumpkin” and “The Carnivorous Greenhouse” it was love at first sight.
But presently the Necronomicon Tarot card with the evil toad God demanding the most appalling sacrifices is providing a distraction from much fluffier and nicer things
Started off so well this month with all those good intentions not to buy any munchies other than milk and the occasional loaf of bread and certainly no books of any kind unless acquiring book cases or shelves to put them in.
Of course each one of these new books in itself is harmless enough. It is the slowly accumulating collection that is the problem and the increasing tendency to start a story but not to finish it. Already abandoned Stephen King’s “Cell” for something shorter and snappier as the story seems to be taking ages to get moving along. His short stories are definitely much better than most of the novels.
It started ever so innocently last Wednesday with a walk past the gorgeous good old fashioned Elizabeth’s book shop. There was a big stash of bargain basement books most of which were dust covered pulp fiction. One of these included the intriguingly titled “Interview with the Vampire” by one Anne Rice. This story has rather a good reputation and with a price tag of a mere two silver sickles plus a desire to banish the memories of sparkly silliness, it was just too good to resist. A bunch of American atheist vampires are much more interesting than bright and shiny sparkly special snow flakes. A rave review on the inside page from “The Catholic Herald” proved to be temptation beyond endurance.
Instead of hoarding and adding it to the stash actually started reading it on Saturday at the spooky Subiaco farmers markets in the old primary school. Most impressed so far. The age of the book is apparent by the use of nasty old cassette tapes to record the interview but it wipes the floor with the more recent offerings in spite of such quaintness. Been so so long since the serpent has been acquainted with a proper vampire. Reading the story of Louis is the next best thing to being one of these accursed creatures of the night. It is interesting to know that vampire snobbery is alive and well. Some are rather more refined in their tastes while others are just blood thirsty craven junkies unable to restrain their appetites. And at least this time ‘vegetarian vampires’ don’t come across as some sick and pathetic joke but a sometimes necessary adaptation to circumstances and simple good manners for situations like long sea voyages.
Then there was a large black book with luminescent green font which turns out to be an anthology of zombie stories. It also features some useful history of the genre and its recent resurrection from the dead after years of oblivion. Still unsure about the whole gun cult survivalist cult thing surrounding these creatures. Not sure what magic powers bullets are supposed to have against the already dead. Maybe it is just part of some massive NRA conspiracy.
It is a bit too late at this stage to do some serious reading and research for Camp Nanowrimo. And anyway if the Izzie really were serious would have already been properly peeking in the definitive Book of Zombie Dead “The Serpent and the Rainbow” by the anthropologist Wade Davis. Instead it is gathering dust like so many others on the shelves.
Even came across an impressive looking facsimile of a 1935 book of tales from Edgar Allen Poe called “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” with some seriously creepy illustrations or what in the old days were called ‘Illustrated plates’. Charity shops are such a good source of the strange and unexpected and downright quirky.
Will be making a special effort to stay away from the annual Save The Children fund charity sales which are seriously dangerous for any bookish creature in search of bargains. It is the lure of the lucky dip that makes them so addictive.
Will really need to set aside time for proper reading of old fashioned classic books instead of pottering about aimlessly in Cyberia or perusing the daily newspaper over a cup or two of coffee.
The sorting ritual even included creating a list of books to read over the next three years. The kind of book that you always intend to get around to reading one day or more bluntly - the bucket list of books. Izzie’s preferences are along the lines of the spooky and weird. Heard so many good reviews of Robert Louis Stephenson’s “The Bottle Imp” and assorted creepy Edgar Allen Poe tales
Izzie simply never tires of those “666 months interest free” stories usually involving some sort of dodgy object with strange powers or a dark past or an impish creature offering a quick fix and instant gratification in return for some vague payment in the future. As always the devil is in the detail.
That does not even include any of the interesting non fiction out there. Along with the aforementioned “The Serpent and the Rainbow” there is the recently acquired “The Black Swan” about one of the serpent’s favourite themes - counterfactuals, chance, 20/20 hindsight and the influence of unexpected events which are always ever so obvious after they have happened. Then there is the feast of strange loopiness that is pretty much anything by Douglas Hofstadter and the more medieval incarnation of such ideas in the form of alchemical tail gobbling serpents
But life is too short to read everything so there’s got to be some picking and choosing.
Finally found our pasta paradise after first searching some four weeks ago. Had to make the most of the last day of freedom from the mad house. Being a Monday many of the usual lurking grounds are closed for business. So decided to go on a coffee crawl before having a leisurely lunch. Doing the cheapie two hour bus ticket thing meant making a bit of a detour. It was worth the twenty minute walk to save the price of the second ticket. Random walks down side streets are also an excellent opportunity to smell the roses and enjoy the sunshine. It also helped by resisting the bag lady tendencies of bringing way too many things.
Found a cute little shop full of new age stuff. Normally not tempted by such stuff but could not resist a place with a window full of teapots and tarot cards. Maybe they will have something different and interesting. It was full of the usual fluff such as goblets and ridiculously overpriced crystals. There were countless golden Buddha statues along with little elephant amulets and assorted Feng shui tokens and coins including one very creepy toad with a coin in its mouth.
Did make it to the Buddhist relics exhibition on the weekend and found it quite amazing how certain very concrete expressions of religions can be so similar no matter how different their theologies claim to be. For a religion that claims to be more about philosophy and where the existence of deities is considered not to be an issue, these statues, relics, altars laden with flowers and fruit not to mention the ritual of the Bathing Buddha seemed remarkably similar to a lot of what takes place in a Catholic church.
The new age shops go one better and stock all of this stuff. Was especially intrigued by the Le Scarabeo “Tarot of the Saints’ cards and there was not just one deck but several.
Was surprised at the variety of decks on display. Especially these days as most deck junkies get their fix from Amazon at less than half the retail price. It was easy to resist temptation as so many of them were quite ugly, already had most of the beautiful ones and the price tags of the few desirable ones was a definite deterrent.
But it was one of the Oracle decks that caught the Izzie eye. It featured large green eyed witchy and fairy creatures with a definite Gothic look and a wicked twisted sense of humour. At last an oracle artist who does not take herself so ridiculously seriously with all this ‘inner goddess’ fluffy bunny nonsense. With titles like “The Mermaid of the Sewer” “A Clockwork Pumpkin” and “The Carnivorous Greenhouse” it was love at first sight.
But presently the Necronomicon Tarot card with the evil toad God demanding the most appalling sacrifices is providing a distraction from much fluffier and nicer things