Book 108: The No. 9 Bus To Utopia by David Bramwell
Book 108: The No. 9 Bus To Utopia.
Author: David Bramwell, 2014.
Genre: Memoir. Travel. New Age.
Other Details: ebook. 288 pages.
After his partner left him for someone, ‘younger but more mature’, David set himself a life-changing task: to be a more sharing, loving person. As a man with a taste for the exotic however, this was never going to be resolved by a weekend course in Mindfulness. Instead he embarked on a global adventure to learn how to live with others. He visited an anarchist community in Denmark, a futuristic city in the desert and found paradise in a Californian retreat, dreamt up by Aldous Huxley. Most fantastic if all was Damanhur in the Italian Alps, with an underground temple the size of St Paul’s Cathedral, and a ‘fully functioning time machine’.
Along the way, David’s quest raise issues that best many of us. Why is depression rife amongst those who have wealth and freedom? Is getting what you want really utopia? And could alternative communities teach us a better way to live in both our relationships and our modern cities? 0 synopsis from author's website.
This quest by the author brought back many memories for me of the years I spent exploring New Age philosophies and the Human Potential Movement. It was interesting to read of his visits to these communities many of which were new to me. I certainly found it an interesting memoir.
This was a reading group selection and I was looking forward to the meeting to discuss this book but bad weather prevented going to the meeting, which is some distance away. However, a week later I was able to meet up with a group member for coffee and she reported that it was fairly well liked. Everyone, myself included, was very intrigued by Damanhur.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.