Which Awesome Books Have You Read Lately?

[indicabush]

Thank you, indica! I actually still have my copies from college stashed somewhere. :D I lent out my copy of the Bill Moyers interview.

So, here's a non-fiction book that will, in real time and in real life, tie Joe Campbell together with John Steinbeck and his best friend and muse, the man who WAS Doc, Ed Ricketts.

In fact, being Steinbeck's good friend and muse wasn't, or shouldn't be Ricketts' claim to fame. His effect on modern taxonomy and our understanding of ecosystems should. He's got plenty of original descriptions under his belt, he and Steinbeck (and at one point Campbell, and all's wives/SO's) made several trips along the western coast and the Sea of Cortez specifically in order to collect and describe organisms (focused on sea life). Ricketts really did predict the sardine fishery crash of the 30s. It is called Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell.

Thank you, just ordered from Amazon...$3.99 +$3.99 shipping...Hard Cover :)

 

[rubthe nub]

I'd have to agree with indicabush on that one
e-book or even on pc just isn't the same, much rather turn pages

 

[pinegrovedave]

I'd have to agree with indicabush on that one
e-book or even on pc just isn't the same, much rather turn pages

I gave my son my old Nook, but he still prefers hardcopy as well. The boy is an voracious reader...Something I'm proud to say that I instilled in him as his mother never even owned one single book.

 

[NaturalTherapy]

Eliot Coleman's book, The New Organic Gardener is excellent.

I studied mythology in college, you're talkin' my language! Have you read Black Elk Speaks? Part of my coursework. Also, LOTS of Joseph Campbell, which led me to many stories and helped me understand what makes a good story good.

The Old Man and the Sea is pretty much the only work by Hemingway I like. He was an awful, awful misogynist.

For fun, I like to whip out my Edgar Allen Poe. But my favorites? Come from Mark Twain. The Tragedy of Puddin'head Wilson was EXCELLENT, and too often overlooked, IMO. I'm still working on The Gilded Age. Frankly, it's incredibly depressing to know that politics have been politics since before the inception of the colonies as a single nation, or uniting of states.

You want to see the documentary Jodorowski's Dune. Live footage of Salvador Dali!

Hero With a Thousand Faces opened my mind a lot. Also Edith Hamiltons Mythology was amazing.

My favorite Steinbeck work is East of Eden.

 

[indicabush]

Hero With a Thousand Faces opened my mind a lot. Also Edith Hamiltons Mythology was amazing.

My favorite Steinbeck work is East of Eden.

Mythology by Edith Hamiltons is a great read.

What I have always liked about Mythology is...It's all loyalty and treachery, bravery and cowardness playing out over and over and over—it's the stuff of life!

The Trojan war...The Fall of Troy...The House of Atreus...I could keep on going!

 

[NaturalTherapy]

I read Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan series quite avidly. A few of the books are weak, but overall the series blows my mind. I've read all the stuff about how Castaneda is now considered a fraud who made up his story, and I guess if he did make it all up he is a genius and a visionary and a prophet, because the philosophy bears remarkable similarities to other ancient rites, and incorporating some of the teachings into my own life yielded scary and beautiful results.

Another of my favorites was A Gradual Awakening by (I think) Stephen Levine. His son wrote one called Dharma Punx that first helped me see my past drug use as something negative. Took a while to kick though...

The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman is one of the most important books of our time- IMO- and Next on my reading list is his latest: The Soul of Prophecy, where he theorizes and presents evidence that the Old Testament is a model for the mystic, hallucinatory experience, hence religion and esoteric mysticism originates from shamanic style ritual drug use and mind exploration. Whoa!

 

[NaturalTherapy]

Mythology..The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Greek Myths, Greek Gods and Heroes, also enjoy Percy Jackson and The Olympians series

You may enjoy a book called The Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. By Julian Jaynes.
In it the author supposed that human neurology is still very much evolving, and a hall mark if that evolution is consciousness, and even as recent as the time of Homer, humans didn't posses consciousness as we know it now. Among much other research, this schizophrenia expert uses ancient epics and literature to detail the differences of how we related our experience of the world. It's a tremendous work!

 

[NaturalTherapy]

Mythology by Edith Hamiltons is a great read.

What I have always liked about Mythology is...It's all loyalty and treachery, bravery and cowardness playing out over and over and over—it's the stuff of life!

The Trojan war...The Fall of Troy...The House of Atreus...I could keep on going!

Something Hamilton's work helped me realize is how crucially the role of environment played in shaping each cultures' vision of Gods and the afterlife. I never understood why Viking/Norse mythology was so dark until contemplating their environment. I love that book!

 

[indicabush]

You may enjoy a book called The Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. By Julian Jaynes.
In it the author supposed that human neurology is still very much evolving, and a hall mark if that evolution is consciousness, and even as recent as the time of Homer, humans didn't posses consciousness as we know it now. Among much other research, this schizophrenia expert uses ancient epics and literature to detail the differences of how we related our experience of the world. It's a tremendous work!

What a great way to spend Sunday morning!

Didn't he suggest that each person had their own individual "god", which always told them what to do. And that theory further accounts for why the gods were so naturalistic and anthropomorphic, rather than supernatural and otherworldly. This would account for voices heard in the heads of the schizophrenic a throwback to ancient times.

 

[phoenixfire]

@indicabush @NaturalTherapy

I'm know where on y'alls level but based on the current dialogue both of you may find this book worth reading. Especially if your familiar with the Mara'akame from the Wixiruka tribe aka origins of earth healers and people healers.....

 

[phoenixfire]

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@indicabush @NaturalTherapy

I'm know where on y'alls level but based on the current dialogue both of you may find this book worth reading. Especially if your familiar with the Mara'akame from the Wixiruka tribe aka origins of earth healers and people healers.....

My favorite line of the book, take a look it's the last line of the page!

 

[Seamaiden]

I don't believe I've run across Edith Hamilton's work (sp?), now I have to take a look!