What book are you reading at the moment?

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally posted by The Fool
I'm impressed that Phyllis can read so much at once without getting confused about it all!

I just love reading. And I'm always confused (or confuzzled or whatever.)

I can't wait for spring semester when I'm [hopefully] going to be taking Ethnicity in modern Russia (an ethnic studies class[hopefully not cancelled {again}]), Astronomy Survey (a relatively easy science class), second semester Japanese (again), and perhaps Straw Weaving (again).

btw, I'm reading Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and rereading Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[Vajradhara]

I just love reading. And I'm always confused (or confuzzled or whatever.)

I can't wait for spring semester when I'm [hopefully] going to be taking Ethnicity in modern Russia (an ethnic studies class[hopefully not cancelled {again}]), Astronomy Survey (a relatively easy science class), second semester Japanese (again), and perhaps Straw Weaving (again).

btw, I'm reading Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and rereading Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

Namaste,

interestingly enough...

my spouses grandparents immigrated from Russia as the Revolution was getting underway. boy... did they have some stories to tell....

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally posted by Vajradhara
my spouses grandparents immigrated from Russia as the Revolution was getting underway. boy... did they have some stories to tell....

My paternal grandfather emigrated before the Revolution, but I never got to speak with him about life in Russia back then (my father wasn't speaking to him for most of my growing-up years and he [my dedushka] died before real contact could be reinstated, but that's an off-topic subject. )

Yuri and I have conversed quite a bit, but we haven't gotten into religion. He kinda knows what I am, but not really.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[Fern]

Living History

I'm reading "Living History" by Hillary Clinton. I bought the book because I am interested in Hillary Clinton. I admire her resolve to keep moving forward in life even after the public harrowing experiences she has faced. She seemed strong to me, so I thought I would get it. I have not been disappointed either. The book reads more like a conversation than a telling of herself.

I am also trying to figure out what to do with 'the rest of my life' and this book has pushed me towards pursuing a life of service - not politics - but service to those less fortunate than myself.

It is an uplifting book. If you are looking for a realistice 'feel good' book where life is hard, but the spirit triumphs, this is a book to read... unless of course you dislike Hillary Clinton to begin with - then, maybe it's not!

Fern

 

[Postulant]

In the past 4 weeks I've read...
The DaVinci Code--Dan Brown and
Galapagos--Kurt Vonnegut.

At this very moment I am reading
Sula--Toni Morrison

One day I am going to read both...
The Bible from cover to cover and
The missing books of the Bible (which is how I found this site)

 

[iBrian]

Hi postulant, and welcome to CR!

I read the Bible from cover to cover - excepting the Psalms. It's such a big read, though, that you need a method - mine was to elave it in the bathroom, so that every time I had to "cover my feet" I would read a chapter or two, and then make notes. Got through it in about 2 years.

Left out the Psalms because in Monty Python's "Holy Grail" they effectively advise against it.

 

[veritasamat]

I just finished reading "The Humanure Handbook" by Phillip Jenkins, about the pollution and insanity of our modern civilized "sanitation" system. He advocates thermophilic composting of human feces to be used as an hygenic agricultural resource, and also talks about alternative graywater systems. It also speaks somewhat to the spiritual responsibility of keeping our planet clean, and includes fascinating history tidbits about the way different cultures have dealt with the 'end product'. (It turns out the Hunza people in what is now called Pakistan have had it right all along.) It is very eye-opening, humorous and instructive, and I highly recommend it. After reading this book you will never flush a toilet with indifference again.

"You must become the change you wish to see."

 

[Susma Rio Sep]

Ennui

I have not read a book or an collection of pages with printed words for many years now.

I admire the binding of books and appreciate the science of printing that goes into them, and also the medium of printing.

Why have I not read books for so many years? Someone should tell me that I never ever read any book at all -- and maybe he's right.

You see, early on I have realized that in written records people do not really say what is really in their minds and hearts, because it is impossible: they don't know what's in their mind and heart. And in many cases they are saying more or less than or different from what they really know or are.

Next, when you try to imagine what they are going to say, you will reach the suspicion, a true one at that, that it's not something you don't already know.

What I enjoy is to walk the streets to look at peoples and things. Where are they going, what are they up to, how long can they go on and on?

And things, the very nail left on the road is an invitation to recall the very first days of the foundry.

Have you read anything new in human history?

See anything new in your neighborhood? What about yourself, even.

Susma Rio Sep

 

[Zazen]

Im currently reading "The complete I Ching" by Alfred Huang

"CHINA" by Fox Butterfield

"Norse Mythology" John Lindow

I just finished "Beyond Illusion and doubt" by srila prabhupada

Amitabha

 

[Postulant]

Hi postulant, and welcome to CR!

I read the Bible from cover to cover - excepting the Psalms. It's such a big read, though, that you need a method - mine was to elave it in the bathroom, so that every time I had to "cover my feet" I would read a chapter or two, and then make notes. Got through it in about 2 years.

Left out the Psalms because in Monty Python's "Holy Grail" they effectively advise against it.

Thanks I, Brian! I like your Bible strategy. I am not familiar with the Monty Python-Psalms angle, but I'm working google for the reference, sounds fascinating.

By the way, I love this site. Wonderful conversations!

 

[iBrian]

Monty Python are/were a very big British comedy group - I hear they only have underground status in the USA, though.

Anyway. Holy Grail was a send-up of the legend of King Arthur, and is a generally very funny and silly film.

Here's one of my favourite scenes, where King Arthur meets some peasants digging dirt. It's all inthe acting, though.

Scene 3

[clop clop]
ARTHUR: Old woman!
DENNIS: Man!
ARTHUR: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there? DENNIS: I'm thirty seven.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I'm thirty seven -- I'm not old!
ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you `Man'.
DENNIS: Well, you could say `Dennis'.
ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called `Dennis.'
DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
ARTHUR: I did say sorry about the `old woman,' but from the behind you looked--
DENNIS: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior! ARTHUR: Well, I AM king...
DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society! If there's ever going to be any progress--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how d'you do?
ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
ARTHUR: The Britons.
WOMAN: Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship. A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about if only people would--
ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN: No one live there.
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting.
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,-- ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: --but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh -- who does he think he is?
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [angels sing] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an empereror just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up! [grabs Dennis roughly]
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Come see the violence inherent in the system! Come see the violence inherent in the system!

 

[Postulant]

Monty Python...

Thanks for the scene!

Unfortunately, I am only vaguely familiar with the stylings of Monty Python, but I am a fan of John Cleese (post Python).

Building an acquaintance with the work of Monty Python is on my list of things to someday amongst the clutter in my brain.

My curse is knowing a little bit about a lot of things, but never truly being a master of any one thing. I am also a collector of seemingly useless information. Then again everything does have a time, a place, and a purpose.

Perhaps my user name should have been Master Novice

 

[iBrian]

Thanks for the scene!

Unfortunately, I am only vaguely familiar with the stylings of Monty Python, but I am a fan of John Cleese (post Python).

To many people, John Cleese was at his peak in Python.

Building an acquaintance with the work of Monty Python is on my list of things to someday amongst the clutter in my brain.

"Life of Brian" is a great film, as is "Holy Grail". Always recommend people watch those (excepting maybe certain Christian Fundamentalists ).

My curse is knowing a little bit about a lot of things, but never truly being a master of any one thing. I am also a collector of seemingly useless information.

Absolutely the same here.

 

[Anzac]

Flying Circus was amazing, especially with the Gumbies (does anyone remember the anesthetist sketch??); The Upper Class Twit of the Year and the Bookshop sketch (the bloke going to buy a book but in the end doesn't know how to read - it's quality).

+ has anyone got a hold of that recent Python book release and is it any good?

(if you're looking for good post-python Cleese - "A fish called wanda" is a good starting point and includes our local boy Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis in the cast).

 

[Susma Rio Sep]

Reading and optometrists

...and the Bookshop sketch (the bloke going to buy a book but in the end doesn't know how to read - it's quality).

( . . . )

Try this one:

A guy went to the optometrist for reading glasses. He could not read with any of the lenses tried on him by the optometrist.

"But can you read?" asked the optometrist.

"No, that's why I am here for reading glasses," was his reply.


Susma Rio Sep

PS People doing posts here, please tell me what to you is the main message or the most important or any message that strikes you in particular of the book you have read or are reading -- in less than 50 words.

 

[Fern]

Norse Mythology

Im currently reading "The complete I Ching" by Alfred Huang

"CHINA" by Fox Butterfield

"Norse Mythology" John Lindow

I just finished "Beyond Illusion and doubt" by srila prabhupada

Amitabha

Hi! Can you tell me the age range for this book? I have a 16 year old son who loves mythology & am wondering if it is written in a manner for high schoolers or is is college level?

Thanks.

Fern

 

[Zazen]

hmm

im not sure, if he loves mythology im sure he'll enjoy it..umm i took mythology in highschool and it was so easy i never even had to try, but thats just me..just making a point that im not exactly the best person to ask about reading levels since i never had one..

but i mean, if he loves mythology..i strongly reccomend it, it is more like a scholarly type of read though, not really all stories and such its basically for someone whos familiar with norse mythology and wants to study it indepth

but its definately worthwhile for an aspiring student of mythology

amitabha

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally posted by Postulant
My curse is knowing a little bit about a lot of things, but never truly being a master of any one thing. I am also a collector of seemingly useless information. Then again everything does have a time, a place, and a purpose.

Ditto here, Postulant, ditto here.

I've finished some of the books I've previously listed, and am starting on some new ones, so here's my current list:

The Longest Way Home by Robert Silverberg
a couple of Ann Rule books that I can't recall the titles offhand
Operation Excaliber by some guy by the name of William H. Keith
Sadie Shapiro's Knitting Book; a novel by someone I can't quite recall right now
Tevye's Daughters (albeit a translation) by Sholom Aleichem

Those are it for now (until I can get my hands on some more.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[Susma Rio Sep]

Merck Manual

I an at this moment reading The Merck Manual, 9th edition, 1956. I picked up this book from the flea market book stalls for US$1.00.

An officemate is feeling very dizzy and experiencing nausea. I looked up the manual. Did not find anything useful.

The officemate must be having either very low or very high blood sugar or very high or very low blood pressure, according to my own university of hardknocks diagnosis. He is a diabetic and has normally high blood pressure for which both he takes daily medications.

But his one touch reading is just a bit above the average range, and his blood pressure is just his normal high.

So I told him to keep quiet and relax on getting home; it's just his body's way of telling him to slow down and de-stress himself from all the X'mas and New Year's over-stimulation of hormones and foods and drinks.

The Merck edition I now have even gives common cupboard remedies for all kinds of your day to day ailments. And they make sense.

Susma Rio Sep

 

[juantoo3]

I am impressed with the amount of reading going on.

I thought I was doing well to get through "New Realities" by I forgot who, a quick read for a scholarship paper, and to be currently working on "The Golden Bough" by J.C. Frazer. In the morning "library" I have been going through a series of pages I printed off the web pertaining to prehistoric religion.