What book are you reading at the moment?

[littlemissattitude]

I'm reading an interesting book right now called "Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths: A Critical Inquiry" by Vine Deloria, Jr. Deloria seems to believe that neither theory is correct, and that in fact they are really the same theory, with the only difference that the one uses secular, scientific language while the other uses sacred, religious language. It isn't a distinction that I get, but it makes for interesting reading. He does advocate going back to catastrophism, however. I'm not sure yet where he's going with this, as I'm only about a hundred pages into the book so far.

Oh, and on the fiction side, I'm reading "The Cloud Atlas".

[lunamoth]

I finally picked up How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and plan to crack the binding on it tonight.

lunamoth

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Just finished Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark and The Killing Game by Iris Johansen (trying to wean myself off of a seven or eight tomes a week habit [and barely succeeding].)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[PistisSophia]

ZEN for Americans


Writings by Zen Master

Soyen Shaku

Translated by: D.T. Suzuki

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

I finally picked up How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and plan to crack the binding on it tonight.

lunamoth

May the wind be always at your back...

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

The Satanic Verses

Ironically, if Islam hadnt kicked up such a fuss about it I probably never would have bothered. It's Wierd.

[path_of_one]

Just finished "A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year"

Now in the middle of "Liberating the Gospels" (for personal interest) and "A New Plateau" (for research)

Thinking about picking up "Sense and Sensibility" again, just for a lighthearted bit of fun between the heavy stuff.

[dauer]

I just finished reading Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Holy Masters by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and I also read a quickie book of hasidic hanhagot, instructional teachings, called God in All Moments. Oh, and I returned to Gershon Hundert's collection of essential texts on hasidism to read something by Gershom Scholem on Devekut, or attachment, as expressed in hasidism, from a modern critical perspective. Now I'm returning to older books I never finished like one on reading midrash, one on Nachman of Bratslav's stories, and some other stuff.

Rabbi Schachter's book I thought was awesome. He was able to speak about the hasidic masters by comparing to other religious figures and other concepts like St John of the Cross and dukkha, and there was something somewhat satisfying seeing him use his experience with peyote to explain one of the Hebrew words sometimes translated as fear that's really more of an overwhelming anxiety. And he was able to put it all into a very modern perspective, relating it to how an older concept could possibly be understood in current times.

The book of hanhagot was awesome too. Short one-page blurbs re-formatted as poetry accompanied by explanatory notes. Something I would want to return to, but in this case I won't be. Maybe I'll get myself a copy.

Gershom Scholem's essay was awesome. He traced the meaning of devekut both before hasidism and how it changed somewhat within hasidism. I'm not good at being critical of books, or maybe I only read what I want to read. Devekut is the idea of attaching or cleaving oneself to God, basically, and while Scholem argues that when Dov Ber of Mezeritz refers to it at its higher level (at another level it is an awareness of God's omnipresence in every moment) as union it could not have possibly meant such a thing in that time and place, in other cultures, or in other places, it may have just been seen as union with the Divine at that level.

Dauer

[thipps]

hmmm... what im reading has a long subtitle and cant remember it either at the moment. The title of the book is (transliterating here so forgive me): "Jaadoo ke haqeeqat" by Ghazi Uzair Mubaarakpuri. Its available from Dar-us-salaam. anyway, it means 'the reality of magic'. This is a topic i wanted to read about for a long time but this was a confused thing for many regular people and so much fraud is involved that one doesnt know where to even start thinking about the topic.Finally, one day my brother came home with this book.. its 384 pages.. he read it and said its a blast if you want to get the concept of the thing right. Its a 'for dummies' type book i guess. So, ive started reading it.. on page 164 at the moment. Its clearing up some things.... currently its dealing with the background and what is used and how much of it is just for show and is a complete fraud but, yes, where it actually does do damage and how it is done and there is a short section on the origin of the word 'magic' even. that was interesting. It has talked about how it was used in the past by other civilizations. One thing interesting i came across... there was a mention of a guy in old times who had his head sawed from his body and then would put it back on and be all well. obviously this amazed everyone... this reminds me of that trick i saw David copperfield do in which he sawed his body in half at the waistline and then wiggled his feet and then put his humpty dumpty self back together again. There are 'other' beings involved in actual magic tricks as i understand it. They influence the mind of those watching... thats how the 'illusion' takes place... im drawing an analogy here from what ive read,... the writer didnt mention copperfield and im somewhat reluctant to explain it from what ive read so far as im still in the middle of it and since so many ppl saw it... and probably millions on thier TV screens .. . he might have used something else to effect this particular illusion. The one mentioned in the book is one guy a millenium ago doing this in front of a crowd. There the idea works easily. Not so sure about Copperfield's illusion. Maybe when i get to the end of the book.. i might understand what ive been seeing.

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Aces High (book II) and Jokers Wild (book III) edited by George R.R. Martin (they are from the Wild Cards series.) The couple who loans me books loaned them to me (I'll probably be able to return them tomorrow.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, all!

I guess my most recent reading hasn't been books, per se, but besides all of the material I have been pouring through dealing with prehistoric human anthropology, I recently completed a course at work on Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Successful People." Good stuff, in my opinion. Also recently made myself read the "Unabomber Manifesto" of Ted Kaczynsky. Interesting views I think many here would be comfortable with, at least until he gets to the part about what to do about the state of affairs in the world.

[thipps]

Finished that book on magic. This is about stuff you dont see on tv folks. This book isnt about pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The last 40 pages or so was the real gist of it. Explained most of what ive seen people do and also what ive heard. alot of bad stuff is involved. You can hurt or even kill people with this stuff.... it explains how to protect, prevent and counter these things. Happy i read it.
Now that this one is finished, im reading a book entitled 'The Minor Resurrection' again from Dar-us-salaam publishing. The title refers to death. No, im not an old guy but its good for the soul. 327 pages. The book is divided into 3 parts. The first part deals with what happens at the point of death, how alive people dont perceive what happens to the soul of the dying and tells what happens to the soul in the Barzakh.. which is also often called the life of the grave... Uptil Judgement Day/The Major Resurrection/The Hour/Yaum-ul-Qiyyaamah.
The second and third parts are about the minor and major signs of Judgement Day, respectively. All this, in the light of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

[ISFP]

i'm reading Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues right now.

great book. the characters remind me an awful lot of the folks here in Indiana.

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, ISFP!

Reservation Blues was a good read, if too short. I like the movie that came from it, "Smoke Signals." I watch it every so often.

Oh no! My mistake, I had it confused with "the Lone Ranger and Tonto, fistfight in heaven."

[zeekur]

My current book is: A History of God by Karen Armstrong.

Next in line is the Masks of God four volume set of books by Joseph Campbell: Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, Creative Mythology.

Have fairly recently completed: Diary of A Witch by Sybil Leek, The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner, Anam Cara by John O.Donohue, A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and three books by Hermann Hesse and some Kurt Vonnegut.

I think I see a need to include some fluff!
zeekur