What book are you reading at the moment?

Still waiting for volume 9 from The Tawny Man Trilogy, by Robin Hobb. I really don't understand why takes so long for the actual reader to finish it. :mad:
 
Just finished "Psy war", by J.M. Thibeaux. Its about a new kind of war using children with paranormal activities (telepathie, telekinezie, precognition, etc) to spy and destroy the enemy. Interesting but not an outstanding book.

I'm reading presently "Alexis", by Yvon Hecht. I suppose I'm in my period of paranormal activities.
 
Originally posted by alexa
I suppose I'm in my period of paranormal activities.
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You might be interested in Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, Pegasus series or her Rowan series (the Rowan series consists of The Rowan, Damia, Damia's Children, Lyon's Pride, and The Tower and the Hive {although I may have missed a book in it. :eek: })
Her characters are mostly telepaths, but there are a few other "abilities" included.

Another author you might be interested in is Mercedes Lackey, but I'm not sure. Try her collection Werehunter.

I, myself, am rereading Svenska Utifrån (my textbook for Swedish class.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Im rereading Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.. I read books like people eat comfort food.
 
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine said:
You might be interested in Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, Pegasus series or her Rowan series
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Thanks Phyllis, I'll might ask for them. I'll try again tomorrow to get vol. 9 from Hobb's seria, but if I'm not lucky with it, maybe I can find Ann McCaffrey's book instead.

I, myself, am rereading Svenska Utifrån (my textbook for Swedish class.)
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I thought you were studing Japonese. Is Swedish a second option ?
 
Well, I thought Japonese was very hard. But studying together with Swedish, God, that must be real hard ! :cool: Congratulations !
 
Just started Seven Storey Mountain, at last, and am excited about reading it. However, I am glad for the introduction that pointed out the difficulties a reader today, more than 50 years after it was written, might have with the POV of a pre-V II Catholic monk. Also, even though I've only read the first chapter, I'm disappointed that Merton is so harsh on his mother, who died while he was still young, and I'm worried I will see some the the same subtle misogyny I detect in the writing of C.S. Lewis. Say it ain't so! :(
 
I'm reading Adin Steinsaltz' guide to the Tanya, which is a guide to an important hasidic book. I am also reading Seek My Face by Arthur Green, which is a modern mystical approach to Judaism. His views seem very pantheist to me, although Jewish reconstructionist pantheist. And hippyish. if that makes any sense. I was caught off guard when I got to the chapter in which he strongly attacks all consumption of meat. He has a point, but it just seemed a little too impassioned. I was thoroughly enjoying his discourse on the interconnectedness and sacredness of all things in the universe, and then out of nowhere he climbed through my bedroom window with a chainsaw, screaming that the animals are people too while laughing violently, smelling of half-digested organic soy milk and endangered buffalo feces.

I'm also reading Sacred Fragments by Neil Gilman..Gillman... I tend to rotate books a lot. I can't stick with one. I've been pulled as if by some magnetic force to the Tanya so I've been reading that a bit, but I like the Green book because the chapters are short. I don't like that at least so far he hasn't said anything I haven't heard before, except about looking for mitzvot in our own midrashic readings of biblical stories. I think he means in the sense of feeling commanded to act rather than a divine decree. I was looking for a bit of a general system but instead he's just sharing his very specific approach, which so far is too vague and too specific to be of any use to me. He is affirming some of my own views though, not that I was really looking for that.

Sacred Fragments is a guide to modern Jewish theology which is very nice.

Dauer
 
Revelation for the for the biblicaly inept.

It does a nice job outlining and keeps things basic simple. It also gives others views at the same time, so you are not just seeing from one mans understanding. Current events, key symbols and things to ponder. The comics are funny too. It stays interesting and focused.

http://www.starburstpublishers.com/html/gwbi_revelation.html

revelation.jpg
 
Rereading " The Field " by Lynne McTaggart.
"The zero point field, a field of unimaginably large quantum energy in the space between things-an ocean of microscopic vibrations-seemed to hold the answer to the many big questions man has never had answers for. Here in so called 'dead' space, lay the very key to life itself, to cell communication, to DNA, to strange effects like ESP, or spiritual healing and even to the most elusive notion, the collective unconscious."
A chapter on the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, of the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon, some how brings it all into perspective. A journey of consciousness, and the interdimensionality of space.
A read again with new perceptions.
 
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (I already read his Hitchhiker's Guide series, so I'm borrowing this book just for the fish. ;) :D )

Originally posted by alexa
Well, I thought Japonese was very hard. But studying together with Swedish, God, that must be real hard ! :cool: Congratulations !
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One must remember four different "alphabets" when studying both languages (hiragana, katakana and kanji for Japanese, and a variation of the German alphabet for Swedish.) At least they both run from left to right and they both have "proper" vowels (in hiragana and katakana, each "letter" is a syllable, containing either just a vowel sound or a consonnant sound with a vowel sound [except for "final n"] and kanji is basically pictographs [I think].) Imagine learning Japanese and Hebrew at the same time! Can you say :p/:confused: ? I knew you could.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
I'm reading Tormented Master, a scholarly biography of Nachman of Breslov, that crazy tzadik who went to great lengths to remove his desire for food and sex(among other things), treasured contemplation in solitude, loved joy (not a person) and told all of his hasidim that they too could potentially reach his level of spiritual advancement.

This is an excellent book. This guy was so tortured. He may have been Bipolar. He saw life as struggling beyond moments of God being very near and moments when God is very far away. He would do things like rowing out into the middle of a lake to be alone, and then while there gripping the boat and rocking it, crying to God not to let him die that day. And he told wonderfully complex stories. I actually have another volume I'm going to tackle a little later, the first of two volumes of his stories with intense commentary by Aryeh Kaplan. He supposedly influenced Kafka.


Dauer
 
Finished both books and am now on The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey (book 2 of her Elemental Masters series, which is pretty much a retelling of four different fairy tales, but with a twist.) I think this one is kind of retelling Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but I'll have to finish it before I say one way or another.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Phyllis,

Are you a big fan of Lackey? I have only read Elvenblood and Elvenbane, and that seems like many lifetimes ago, but they were very good. Almost went down like candy. Well, with my stomach maybe not like candy. It went down like something that tastes good and goes down well... If I remember correctly, that was around the time I was reading Joseph Campbell so my eyes were quite open to some of the archetypes being used. Or maybe I was just learning archetypes at school. Anyway, good books. I was more into sci-fi (Frank Herbert, David Brin, et al) than fantasy but I had a girlfriend who read fantasy so I picked one up. I've also enjoyed some books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I haven't been reading much fiction lately.
 
At present, I am reading Falling Backwards by Marti Leimbach.
 
I started reading Meditation and the Bible by Aryeh Kaplan and really should have known better. I read his practical guide to Jewish meditation a long time ago and got a lot out of it. I bought it and will be re-reading it soon. But he uses many later sources as proof texts, which should be expected from an Orthodox scholar attempting to show something that might seem radical. So I guess I walked into this one myself. I was hoping it would give me a few new ways to view Torah but everything he says he has alluded to in the other book. He's merely offering sources which usually don't mean much to me.

However, the fact that he gathered together so many references to meditation within Judaism is useful and I will probably come back to the text for the sources themselves, if not for his own writing.

Dauer
 
Just finished Parthian Shot, by David Wishart. It's a guilty pleasure sort of a book--historical murder mystery set in First Century Rome, plenty of hardboiled attitude and street slang, with lots of local color. Hey, the plot is secondary--this is reading for fun stuff, and I plan on reading more of Wishart's series featuring Marcus Corvinus, the rough-talking, wine-swilling detective with the uppity servants and the bookish and long-suffering better half, Perilla.
 
BluejayWay said:
Just finished Parthian Shot, by David Wishart. It's a guilty pleasure sort of a book--historical murder mystery set in First Century Rome, plenty of hardboiled attitude and street slang, with lots of local color. Hey, the plot is secondary--this is reading for fun stuff, and I plan on reading more of Wishart's series featuring Marcus Corvinus, the rough-talking, wine-swilling detective with the uppity servants and the bookish and long-suffering better half, Perilla.
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That does sound like a fun read. I might just pick that one up to mix in between heavier books. :)

Let's see. I finished Seven Story Mountain. I liked it a lot at first but then got kind of bored with Merton's agonizing over whether or not to go into the monastery (or more accurately, agonizing over whether to even look into whether he'd be accepted. Guess I'm just too pragmatic; felt like saying to him, 'go on already and ask if you'd be accepted!'). The descriptions of some of his glimpses into transcendence were inspiring. He really was quite down on Protestantism and all other religions at the time he wrote that book, which was early in his vocation. Guess he widened his view with time.

I also recently read The Heart of Christianity, by Marcus Borg. I haven't gotten much into the Jesus seminar stuff very much, although I have read a couple of books by D. Crossan as well. I was very inspired by The Heart of Christianity and recomend it to anyone seeking to reconcile the struggle between heart and mind as a Chrisitian.

Also reading Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is within You. Very interesting stuff especially knowing the impact this book had on Gandhi. Tolstoy hated the Church and thought it was an impediment to understanding Christ's message. Tolstoy basically distills Christ's whole message to the transformative teaching of non-violence and non-resistance to evil. He rejects all mystical aspects of Christianity, except belief in God, which I think is an extreme view and also cuts the teachings off from their roots. However, I'm not done with the book yet and supposedly the last chapter is the most inspiring.
 
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