Readers’ Responses to Our Question (110)

When I was in elementary school I asked my mother, what’s the difference between fiction and non-fiction? She said non-fiction was true and fiction was made up. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to waste their time reading something made up if they didn’t have to. I stuck to biographies and autobiographies. Then one day I was assigned to read “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. When I finished I locked myself in the bathroom and cried. “I get it, I get it, I get it”, I sobbed over and over again.
These are other books that made me think, “Wow, fiction is really good!”
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald- as a teenager I totally identified with the jazz age.
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith- made me want to be kind
“To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee- made me love my father even more
The novels and short stories of John Cheever and John Updike- gave me a glimpse into what I thought was the grownup world.
Autobiographies that surprised me:
“Swanson On Swanson” by Gloria Swanson- contained warnings I would fail to heed
“Sing Me Back Home” by Merle Haggard-When I finished reading it, I talked my husband and his best friend into jumping into our 1957 bright yellow Chevy and heading to Bakersfield to find Merle’s boyhood home. We didn’t find it but had quite an adventure.
Autobiographies that made me want to talk to that person about my own experience:
“Autobiography of Malcolm X “ by Malcolm X
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
“This Life” by Sidney Poitier
“Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt
“My Life So Far” by Jane Fonda
“Personal History” by Katharine Graham
“A Good Life” by Ben Bradlee
“Facing the Lion” by Simone Arnold Liebster
An autobiography too painful to read:
“Will There Really Be A Morning” by Frances Farmer
In my thirties I began a serious study of the Bible. It completely changed my life course. I left acting and took up teaching the Bible. Anti-marriage (at the time I believed marriage was created by man to enslave women), I got married. I worked to and did heal my relationship with my large wounded family. I got out of politics and protests and focused on the reality of God’s Kingdom. I traveled the world meeting with other spiritual brothers and sisters who are all working toward the same goal: educating mankind about God’s Kingdom, the work Jesus gave his followers. And so today I continue to study, to teach and to travel.

Hi Jihadist on June 29, 2008 at 5:50 AM, you wrote:

"Amaryta Sen and India: The country is too complex and too layered to be comprehensively captured by anyone. His “The Argumentative Indian” brings forth a whole new discussion on India then and now in India itself too.

"A friend said Amaryta Sen should stick to writing on economics, not on India’s history, culture and identity. As for his previous books such as “Resources, Values and Development”, Choice, Welfare and Measurement” and “Choice of Techniques” only someone like me who read economics as an undergrad could get excited over those."

SJT: My guess is that I didn't express myself clearly enough. I thought I mentioned that I have not read any of Amaryta Sen's books, not even the one you mentioned. I didn't even know he wrote books on topics other than economics. Since I'm not interested in economics I didn't bother to find out more about him although I was very thrilled about the fact he got the Nobel Prize (never mind he has lived outside India most of the time since 1971 and has done most of his work outside India too, but he still has an Indian passport like Lakshmi Mittal the fourth richest man in the world, who doesn't live in India either).

When I referred to Sen's subjective perspective I was commenting mostly on the title which seemed to give the impression all Indians are by nature argumentative. Yes, there is an ancient academic and philosophical tradition but it does not involve all Indians. I don't know what percentage of women could be called argumentative and whether the tradition can be said to exist equally in all Hindu castes. I say this even though I myself hail from a state (Kerala) which has the highest literacy rate and female literacy is almost as high as male literacy, for Kerala cannot be considered the norm in India.

Bengalis (Amaryta Sen is one) are an extremely brilliant people (Arundati Roy, the Booker Prize winner, is born of a Bengali Hindu father and a Keralite Christian mother) and their world class achievements are impressive indeed. What Bengal and Kerala have in common are a democratic communist party (!) which hold considerable power, 25% Muslims, and love for fish curry and rice. And I almost forgot, we like to consider ourselves intellectuals.

I for one would very much want Amaryta Sen to continue to write on other topics about India. After all he has written enough on economics to earn him the Nobel Prize.

You wrote, You : “That was the very last time I have tried to act on the ideas derived from a book.”

Capital idea. Look where it got the Soviet Union when they implemented ideas derived from Karl Marx’s book, “The Communist Manifesto” .

SJT: Once again I didn't clarify. I meant acting out after reading fiction and fairy tales. I was so impressed with C S Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, I might have wanted to run off and have an adventure in Narnia if I didn't remember my terrible experience with trying to live out Enid Blyton fantasies. C S Lewis by the way is another author I can say I have been crazy about. He is a Christian writer and his books gave me quite a strong rational fundament to Christianity. It was Dom Bede Griffiths, an English Benedictine monk, a student and friend of C S Lewis at Oxford, who introduced me to his books.

As to the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx, the idea behind his book is good even if it might have been implemented badly in some places. In India for instance the Communist party is a party like any other. Bengal and Kerala are the only two states in India which vote them in and out of power. The communist party in Kerala has done immense good and paradoxically it was an arch orthodox Nambudiri Brahmin, EMS Namboodiripad who was one of the leading figures of the party. "In 1957, EMS led the Communists to victory in the first election for the Kerala state government, making him the first communist leader anywhere to head a popularly elected government.On 5th April 1957 he was appointed as the first chief minister of Kerala."

Since I have digressed considerably from the topic at hand I will close now.

Best wishes
Soja

well ive been unsuccessfully attempting to post this list since june 26th- 5 days its been held for approval-
i realized when jihadist said that no one mentioned arthur c, clarke that the authors must be lost the way i listed them ( i didn't want to be showy or hoggy)

dave barry makes milk come out of my nose too-
james thruber- the whole algonquin round table authors-
don marquis! don marquis! don marquis!
let me see if this one makes it through-

"A Purpose Driven Life" is the one book that most recently had a positive impact in my life. It gave me a renewed spiritual guidance, and reaffirmed the perfect plan that our Creator has had since the beginning of time (a human figure of speech since time does not exists for Him).

It also reaffirmed that a society without a moral compass, like the SP movement is slowly but surely sneaking into it, erodes from within.

Everything we do or say has a consequence, and the effects are evident all around us.

FOr those here who see religion as a fence or wall between us. It isn't meant to be that way. Jesus Christ is a doorway to understanding, not a fence to prevent it.
I understand how some folks can get totally wrapped up in their religiosity and forget their humanity, but I can also see how some get totally wrapped up in their humanity and forget their maker.
I pray for the people who can not see past the worst of religion and can not or will not develop a relationship with Christ and for the people to whom dogma is an end unto itself and reject the worldly instead of embracing them. Who, after all, can convince anyone of anything by rejection and who can help but create relationships when embracing others?
This ain't rocket science, but the book The Right Stuff is surprisingly good.

CS Lewis wrote some very thoughtful and moving works on Christianity and Faith. I do not agree with every one of his ideas or observations, but he writes a gentle yet firm conviction of our baser natures.
Isaac Asimov writes about the vast potential of the human race, and a future that has moved beyond our petty bigotry of today. Yet his people are still people. He also wrote books in every classification of the library's Dewey decimal System and was a brilliant scientist.
Our founding fathers (and mothers) wrote in a style that is difficult to wade through but contains truth and beauty that we can not often see in today's literalist, graphic or vernacular writing.
SO,
Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
Any Foundation novel, such as Foundations Edge (Isaac Asimov)
Most any of THomas Jefferson's or Benjamin Franklin's writings on man and government.
Peace,
Porz

One of the most mind-opening books I have read is Ali Shariati’s Hajj. Shariati was a sociologist, theologian, teacher, and leader of the insurgent Iranian Shia community whose work helped inspire the progressive wing of the movement that overthrew the shah of Iran in 1978. He studied, absorbed, and transmuted the thought of Sartre and other Western philosophers into a transformative version of Islam. He himself, after several bouts of imprisonment by the Shah’s secret police (the last of which was eighteen months of solitary confinement) was sent into exile in England in 1975. He died a few months later —according to some, assassinated by the Iranian secret police.

His book Hajj is an amazing interpretive guide to the pilgrimage made by millions of Muslims to Mecca. It not only describes with care the physical pathway of the hajj, but imbues every step with deep symbolic, spiritual, and political meaning. It led me to a far deeper understanding of the best possibilities for a renewal of Islam; of how his premature death (along with other factors) had made easier the evolution of the Iranian revolution in a repressive direction; and how religion at its best can fuse spiritual /ceremonial God-connection with compassion for all humanity.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director, The Shalom Center

Ghostbuster:

I too love "The Lottery" - and of course, both "Les Miserables" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" are in my library.

Nikos Kazantzakis - "The Last Temptation of Christ"

Patricia Telesco - "The Urban Pagan"

Audrey Niffenger - "The Time Traveler's Wife"

Sena Jeter Naslund - "Ahab's Wife"

Rudolfo Anaya - "Bless Me Ultima"

Currently reading Starhawk's novel "The Fifth Sacred Thing"

Concerned The Christian Now Liberated, Concerned The Christian Now Liberated,Concerned The Christian Now Liberated :

I merely stated the books I prefer, made no book recommendations to you,mentioned only _one_author and advised a lot of humility. (When confronted with the eloquence and knowledge of a Kolakowski that is the appropriate stance to take.)

But in reply there was only more condescension ("Start slow" "Very easy read") : like an emeritus professor no longer in touch with colleagues and students. His wisdom and knowledge have become ossified and he takes refuge in insult and dogma.

Like the fundamentalist you are, you proseletise incessantly and take it as a personal affront when the targets of your preaching refuse the tenets of your faith. But why should they? Your words are copied and pasted _ad infinitum_and you treat your audience as fools. (The crack towards Athena is a case in point.) I am sure when you did teach, you were more considerate to your students. I only ask you to do the same here.

Athena, Athena, Athena,

I recommended some books for Mary C. to read. She recommended some books for me to read. Hardly pwning!!!

Now sticking a needle in a doll of the CCNL now that would not be nice. Who does those kind of things anyway?

Looks like some avid readers are on this thread, I'll throw out a list of some of my favorites...

"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara

"Whats so Amazing about Grace" by Phil Yancey

"The Shadow University" by Kors and Silverglate

The Lottery" a short story by Shirley Jackson

Farenheit 451

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Silverstein

Lep,
Per our conversation a couple weeks ago, I was surprised to see that Dr. Susan K. Smith noted Jean Valjean in her blog this week. Good call.

GB

Lepi and Wiccan - maybe I will next year. I'm not one for roughing it. I don't even like the cabins at Camp Ramblewood (but I put up with them).

Mary C - I know that we don't agree theologically, but that was a NICE smackdown of CCNL! Virtual terrorist fist-jab!

CCNL - give it up, dude. You were pwned.

PP,
PSG was wonderful. It rained the day after we got there and the day before we left, but inbetween was great...not too hot during the day and cool at night. I really did not even need the hat i brought and only got a slight burn across the shoulders.

I have a First Up tent, water tight and up in two minutes...a tent cot and a battery fan and ceiling light...I so ruffed it. LOL. Well I did have to walk to the coffee shop (who has the world's worst coffee, but best conversations).

Lepi, next year you WILL make it to PSG... the more to share the trip and cost of gas the better. lol...we did stop to pick wild flowers and chase a gopher once...and had to put my foot down on picking up stray puppies and cats..."But Lady K it'll fit in the pod...!"

Oh, I discovered how the Labyrinth is created each year...the woman in charge of it teaches engineering...and with rods and knotted cords a copy of a 3000 year old labyrinth found on a cave wall in Crete is created every year...out of 1000 candles. I bet it is pretty much the same way the "primitives" created it. I loved helping to set it up...a learning experience. Walking it at midnight or at dawn is so amazing.

All you Pagans (and Pagan friendlies)...do yourself a favor and do what is neccessary, come to PSG...I will even make you a good cup of coffee...

Lepi,
I have The Son of a Witch...as soon as I read The Return of the Goddess and some of the MZB's Darkover books... I will get to Wicked and her son.

I want to add a book to my list...Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clasissa Estes, Ph.D.

terra

Mary C,

Start slow with the following two books,

1. Professor Crossan's The Historical Jesus (Harper San Francisco 1993)

(Part of this book is on line- check Google books)

2. and Crossan's Who is Jesus? Very easy read (Westminster John Knox 1999)

No thanks CC,no thanks CC, no thanks CC

I'll stick with Singer, Kolakowski & John Gray on philosophy (latter two history as well) and Tony Judt for modern hist. Martin Goodman "Rome and Jerusalem" & Robin Lane Fox on ancient European, Hugh Kennedy on Islam.

Your reading list is too long, and your 'method' of teaching too brutal. You accuse any and all believers of being brainwashed, without realizing that your weltanschaung testifies to a similar bias.

You should try a little Kolakowski and a _lot_of humility. Incidentally,the Schillebeex (sic) you quote seems derived from Henri Bergson.

Best,
MC

Good one, Mary C! I forgot all about "Jane Eyre". I don't know if I learned much from it, other than to make sure your prospective husband doesn't have his first wife locked in the attic. :D

As for Terry Pratchett, he is suffering from Alzheimer's, and is no longer writing anything of length.

Another great fiction book that I recommend highly is "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.

Mary C, Mary C, Mary C,

Recommended reading to bring your neurons up to date on the history of first to third century Palestine:

Author: Professor JD Crossan, an On Faith Panelist and NT exegete.

In Search of Paul, (with Professor J. Reed)(Harper San Francisco 2004).

Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (Harper San Francisco 2001)

The Birth of Christianity (Harper San Francisco 1999)

The Jesus Controversy : Perspectives in Conflict (Trinity Pr Intl 1999)

Who Is Jesus? (Westminster John Knox 1999)

The Essential Jesus (Book Sales 1998)

Who Killed Jesus? (Harper San Francisco 1996)

Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (Harper San Francisco 1995)

In Parables : The Challenge of the Historical Jesus (Polebridge Press 1994)

The Historical Jesus (Harper San Francisco 1993)

An Inventory of the Jesus Tradition by Chronological Stratification (online)

An Inventory of the Jesus Tradition by Independent Attestation (online)

Common Sayings Tradition in Gospel of Thomas and Q Gospel (online)

Seminar: HJ Materials & Methodology (online)

A Closer Look at the Mustard Seed (online)

Was Jesus Buried? (online)

Alchemy and Accuracy (online)

A Review of John Dominic Crossan's The Birth of Christianity (Harvard Theological Review 2001, reproduced online)

Danny Yee's Book Reviews: The Historical Jesus (online)

Simple Choices? A Response to John Dominic Crossan (online)

I don't think it's necessary to *think* much about: the books that made a difference in your life will still be around, in whatever place you keep your books.

Still around after all these years:

Charlotte Bronte: "Jane Eyre".

What are the four cardinal virtues?Wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage. JE personifies them all. And while the young Jane possesses courage in abundance, the story is about her growing up into the other virtues. Plus, and I differed mightily with my EngLit teacher here, but IMO there is a visitation from the Blessed Virgin in the scene in Jane's bedroom in Thornfield after the real Mrs. Rochester is revealed.

I always aspired to be as brave and truthful as Jane, although to be honest, I did not consider myself little and plain.

"Four Quartets" by TS Eliot. No need to discuss the towering and beautiful meditations within this poetry. Still have my college copy as a matter of fact.

"Responsibilities", "Michael Robartes and the Dancer" WB Yeats. From teenage years, no less! Cannot live without Yeats and the original editions (not that I could afford a first edition as a young girl, now neither!) where the poems first appeared are far superior than any collected version.

More recently I've treasured "Jesus of Nazareth" by B16 as well as philosophical/historical works by Kolakowski and John Gray. But these question was for influential works.

Brian Jacques "Redwall" series is also excellent reading.

Where has Pratchett gone? Since Thud, I think he has been writing/cowriting children's books! "small gods" should be required reading for American Highschoolers.

Terra,

"Wicked" is indeed much more than it seems. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel "Son of a Witch" when I get the chance.

How was PSG? I SO wish I could have gone with you. Next year, gods willing....

Has anyone read Robert Asprin's "Myth-adventures" series?
"Another Fine Myth"
"Myth Conceptions"
"Myth Directions"
"Hit or Myth"
"Mything Persons"
You get the picture - there are a dozen or so books in the series. Truly funny and at the same time thought-provoking.

I also love Terry Pratchett's books.

"Siddharta" by Herman Hesse allowed me to see that the Christianity I was raised in had nothing to do with a relationship with god or spirituality, but was rather, a creation of men to make men act in a manner that was beneficial to the ruling class and priesthoods that served them.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" made me dream we could be more.

"A Clockwork Orange" made me understand that humans could be programmed to do almost anything with the right combination of carrot and stick. Also, that language determines as much about a culture as religion.

Sun Tzu taught me to hold my enemies close, and my friends closer. "Boyd, the Fighter Pilot that Changed the Art of War" taught me to know my enemies as myself, get inside their decision loop, and attack the body, not the sword.

Not a book but a poem, "Sunstone, or Piedra de Sol" by Octavio Paz gave me the gift of transcendant language.

maybe this shall make one difference in one's life, as this has up to now in uncountable lifes.

jazz.intext.googlepages.com/vesairvesait.txt

Hey, Terra! MM! :)

How was it? Was there a break in the constant rain up there? Hardly seems to have stopped all spring. :)

Wiccan and all,
I have been gone on vacation...a week in SouthEast Ohio at a Pagan gathering...Huzzah! Got my spiritual battieries recharged and my life grounded, so maybe I can take folks like Cal Thomas and Chucky Colson with a little humor.

I have the book Wicked...the story of the Wicked Witch in Oz told from her point of view...I am working my way to it. I have been told that it is more then it seems, we shall see.

Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has been on my book shelve since it came out. A book every woman should read...a precautionary tale. In many ways it reminds me of Soylent Green...women are only worth their usfulness to men...like furniture...and people are are only worth their nutritious value. Yuck.

terra

The Book of Job

Don Quixote (Cervantes)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)

i have been trying to post since the 26th-
for some reason my comments are beign held- however- the list keeps gettng longer
let's see if this goes through

The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop
Fifty Years in the Church of Rome-Charles Chiniquy
None Dare Call it Conspiracy- Gary Allen
Recommendation 666-Herb Peters
The Hidden Danger of the Rainbow-Constance Cumby
Fox's Book of Martyrs

Hmmm, again and again and again the Reality Challenged and Obfuscating Jihadist claims to have read every book under "allah's" sun but still cannot come to grips with the obvious flaws and errors of Islam.

One wonders how such a self-appointed elitist with this enormous treasure of book readings, cannot bring her/him self to say to everyone, "I believe in pretty wingie, flying, talking, fictional thingies".

And "I believe that Gabriel did talk to Mo-man in that hot cave".

And "I believe that Sunnis are the great salvation to humankind and that Shiites are
low-lifes who don't deserve to live".

And "I believe in all the warmongering, anti-female, death to the infidel passages in the koran".

Indeed one wonders about the true character and intentions of The Jihadist. But as noted many times before, maybe the fear of imam goon squads dictates the commentaries of The Jihadist.

Hello Soja,

Thanks for you thoughts on Amaryta Sen and India. The country is too complex and too layered to be comprehensively captured by anyone. His “The Argumentative Indian” brings forth a whole new discussion on India then and now in India itself too.

A friend said Amaryta Sen should stick to writing on economics, not on India’s history, culture and identity. As for his previous books such as “Resources, Values and Development”, Choice, Welfare and Measurement” and “Choice of Techniques” only someone like me who read economics as an undergrad could get excited over those.

Your Famous Five inspired, but short of funding and ratted on pre-adventure and thus botched implementation of it made me laugh. Thanks for sharing that adventure that nearly was, but its pre-plans a whole lesson on management, organisation, commitment, espionage, sabotage and higher enforcing authority.

I did read some of Enid Blyton’s books, especially St. Clare and Mallory Towers series. There’s the always hilarious and butt of jokes French teachers, stern but fair and wise headmistress, midnight feasts by the boarders and all that.

Being in all girls’ schools at the primary and secondary level, it is easy to relate to and understand the petty rivalries, misunderstandings, friendships and silly pranks of those girls. Except what we did was ...We were more like the St Trinian’s rather than the St Clare’s girls.

You : “That was the very last time I have tried to act on the ideas derived from a book.”

Capital idea. Look where it got the Soviet Union when they implemented ideas derived from Karl Marx’s book, “The Communist Manifesto” .

Best regards
“J”

Jihadist :

Soja John Thaikattil,
Sydney, Australia

Hello,

In this day and age, with most governments secular by their respective countries Constitutions, politics (as in who gets what, when and how or don't) do poison all religions and their adherents regardless of their core message when push comes to crunch.

Amy Tan’s World on Fire, which came out five years ago, still reminds me how easy it is for ethnic and/or nationalisbtic resentments to rear up and spill out in the public square or globally.

I do have a Bible, the King James version. I must admit it is always the Old Testament and the Proverbs I always love reading when I refer to the Bible. I will reread the New Testament as you asked.

Have you read Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian? It is one of the most interesting books on India I’ve read for a while. If you have, I'd like to know what you think of it.

And what are your favourite books?

Best regards
“J”

June 26, 2008 7:59 AM

====================================

Jihadist

Thank you for the two great books you suggested. I have read neither.

Amy Chua's book it seems touches on a very complex and important topic. I feel somewhat out of my depth even to comment on it. Negative impact of globalization on the ordinary masses while it provides disproportionate wealth to a few is an issue that is dealt with as a serious concern by some groups. I'm aware that such groups of people exist but I'm not familiar with any of them.

As for Amaryta Sen, a Bengali from India, the writer you mentioned: I only knew that he won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998. The book sounds interesting alright. But since I have not read it I cannot offer you an opinion. After watching him on an interview about the book, I can only say there are many opinions about India and his perspective is one of them. None of them, including mine can be called objective, for there is probably no such thing. There *is* such a tradition as peaceful religious debates among spiritual leaders in India. Various schools of Hindu thought debate with each other, Buddhists and Hindus try to beat each other at debates. It was through winning debates that a very famous Hindu won back to Hinduism almost all the Indian converts to Buddhism, to the point of making Buddhism a minority religion in the land of its birth! At least that is what they tell us and that is the way it was in the good ole' days. Peaceful co-existence of various religious groups is a fact.

I'm not an avid reader like you at all. I have mentioned several books when they came to mind while I was posting comments. I must have mentioned Gandhi's autobiography several times since December 06.

I have no favourite books. The only time I remember being crazy about any author in particular was in school: Enid Blyton. Her adventure series inspired me to start living in a fantasy world of my own to the extent I shared it with my friends. We, who called ourselves the Famous Five, decided to run away from home and have an adventure. There was only one minor problem, none of us had any money. Since I was the leader who came up with the idea of the adventure it was my responsibility to raise money. One classmate offered her services, even though she wasn't one of the Famous Five. She had a guava tree at home. She agreed to sell guavas in school to raise funds for our adventure. Unfortunately she didn't get very far because she was reported to the class teacher (by a rival *gang!*) after she had successfully sold just one guava. She had raised all of *five Paisa* for us. The teacher simply told us it was not permitted for students to sell anything in school.

That was the very last time I have tried to act on the ideas derived from a book.

Luckily talking endlessly about our failed adventure became a very good substitute for the adventure itself, even if I remained the butt of all the jokes.

Best wishes
Soja

Tell us about a book or (books) that made a difference in your life.

There have been many books that made a difference in my life, but I remember when I was a teenager on drugs and going nowhere I went into a thrift store with some friends and discovered the poems of Stephen Crane. Why we went into the thrift store I have no idea (probably a friends girlfriend wanted to browse through clothes). But I noticed a shelf of books and picked up the Stephen Crane.

Should the wide world roll away
and leave black night nor God nor man
nor place to stand would be to me essential
if thou were there with thy white arms
and the fall to doom a long way

Something like that (bad memory on my part).

For some reason I thought I could do something like that. Probably because I was in love at the time, high on drugs and naive. Also because the Crane seemed manageable enough. So I started writing poetry.

Then I got for Christmas a book of poems titled "Sleeping on the wing"--an anthology by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell (I believe I have the names right--again, faulty memory).

So I wrote a bunch of poems. After that I moved on to prose. But I still write poetically in the sense that when I write prose I prefer to tackle an idea and give it in a chunk which is as much form as idea.

I never did acquire the vocabulary a poet needs, but I did learn to grasp something of form. And then I decided to concentrate on content to make up for flourishes of vocabulary. So now I write plainly with as much form and content as possible.

I would have to say my reading and writing experience had very little to do with formal schooling. The only positive experience I had in school was when we were reading the book Shane and I put my hand up when the teacher asked what Shane symbolized. I said God and that of course was the correct answer.

All my best by far reading and writing experiences occured out of school. Especially after the Stephen Crane experience. I remember Emily Dickinson made a big impression--in fact I still like to break up thoughts with slants (or if you prefer, dashes) for punctuation.

Another impact was Balzac's quest for the absolute I found at my grandmothers house. I figured I would probably begin to look like the hero of the book (thin with skin streched tight over the face, extremely intense and obsessed). I was pretty much right. Reading and writing has been a fate for me. The both have destroyed my life. I am something, not just anything anyone wants. a writer sort of. No real talent for anything and yet for some reason my life is built around being able to read and write.

Worse fates I suppose. No doubt books can do more than change a life. Books can make one obsessed about writing a book. I have been trying all my life. I have dozens of notebooks, papers. And probably notebooks and papers is all I will be.

One thing I do want to say though: I have a love for French writers. People seem a little too overly fond of bashing the French, but I have had only positive experiences. I remember reading Vernes mysterious Island as a teenager and being quite impressed. I like the Germans too. Russians too. I have shelves and shelves and shopping bags full of books.

But that should be quite enough about my life. Thanks for listening. One more thing though. I think it would be nice to meet more people that feel as fated as I do about books and writing. Even better: to hear words of wisdom about how to turn writing into destiny.

Aah, Terra, glad to see you mention some childhood books, including My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara. Wonderful book - and so much more than just a horse story.

That and its sequel, along with Walter Farley's (The Black Stallion), and Albert Payson Terhune's books (Lad: A Dog) were all pre-teen favorites. They got me interested in animal breeding and breeding theory, which led to an interest in genetics, which led to an interest in evolution...on and on.

Some others - the aforementioned Stranger in a Strange Land, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Many, many more...

Carotta's the thing! The most important book at the moment is the investigative study by linguist Francesco Carotta called "Jesus was Caesar — On the Julian Origins of Christianity", available in English, German, Dutch and soon Spanish. Many people don't know that it's actually peer-reviewed. If you're not only looking for faith but also for answers in terms of the *history* (and origins) of the Christian religion, this is the book to read and use as a trampoline for further studies. Carotta's book will surely need lots of years until it surfaces in the mainstream—especially the US mainstream—, simply because the topic seems so farfetched at first glance, but it's highly recommended.

Merry Meet, Terra! Glad to see you stop by. You'll be pleased to know I've been working on painting Virginia Obama blue. :-)

Right now I'm reading the Dalai Lama's "The Art of Happiness". My sister brought down Karen Armstrong's "Buddha" and Huston Smith's "Why Religion Matters". I grabbed them before she went to the used book store.

There is no such thing as too many books.

Asimov's I Robot was a book that I remember from my childhood...then there were the childhood classics: Treasure Island, Black Beauty, Flicka, Little Woman, Under the Lilac Bush, Doctor Doolittle...

The books I have read have all given me something to think about and ponder. When I was in the third grade I swiped a book from the adult section of the library-Gone with the Wind. I got caught sneaking it back..and had to prove I could read and understand what it said...I did, and the adult section was opened to me.

When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone gave me a lineage to my faith...Starhawk's Spiral Dance gave it substance...The Golden Bough by Frazer, The Great Cosmic Mother by Sjoo and Mor,Diary of a Witch by sybil leek,Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot, Books by Dion Fortune, Raven Gramassi, Buckland, Cunningham, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffery's Pern books,Anne Rice anything,Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells,Pearl Buck, James Mitchner, Harry Potter, The Black Jewel Trilogy by Anne Bishop,The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, Thomas Paine's Common Sense,a book I am reading now- The Return of the Goddess by Elizabeth Cunningham...a novel that is really well written.I am also reading The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama...

I have never known a Pagan that did not have an over abundance of books, on every subject from archeology to zoology.

terra

CCNL - congratulations regarding your many book lists.

The last one on Pagan issues was a pretty good compilation for enthusiasts of Magick. How about coming out of retirement?

You've got the natural instincts of a librarian - but we kind of knew that. Anyway, keep up the good work!

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it......

'Gods from Outer Space', 'Chariots of the Gods', and 'Gold of the Gods' by Erich von Däniken made a difference in my life. My parents had them on the shelf and I read them when I was pretty young. They made me think about big issues like gods, time and space in a way, and at a time, that I wouldn't have otherwise.

I enjoy learning something new and different in the area of philosophical thought, and for me the most inspiring books I've read recently are:

The Great Approach, by Benjamin Creme
The Laws of Life, Maitreya's Teaching, introduced
and edited by Benjamin Creme.

They provide an entirely new and hopeful perspective on the human condition, and insight into possibilities for the future.

I'm really enjoying this topic. We all get to share the books that we love, and there's not all the bickering that tends to come up with the usual topics presented on this site.

The books that have inspired me the most were:

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

"Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset

"The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn

"Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe

Sometimes its a matter of having just the right book appear at just the right time in your life.

Other favorites:

Classics:
Charles Dickens
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte
George Eliot
Edith Wharton
Sir Walter Scott
Alexandre Dumas

Contemporary:
John Irving (Cider House Rules, Widow For One Year,....)
Isabel Allende (Paula, Daughter of Fortune, ....)
Ella Leffland (Breath and Shadows, Rumors of Peace....)
Amy Tan (Saving Fish From Drowning....)
Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon, Love....)
Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni (Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart....)

From a religious perspective (I currently would identify as neo-pagan, although I'm not fond of labels) I was inspired by the following:

Phyllis Curott's "Witch Crafting"
Starhawk's "The Spiral Dance"
Janet & Stewart Ferrar's "The Witch's Goddess" and "The Witch's God"

Actually, all of Starhawk's and Phyllis Curott's books have been inspiring, including Starhawk's novels "Walking to Mercury" and "The Fifth Sacred Thing".

I saw that Wiccan mentioned Sybil Leek. My mother gave me a copy of her "Diary of a Witch" back in the 70's when I was about 14. I found it fascinating, but she was very vague about actual practices. If she had gone into more detail about the "how" of things, I think I would have eaten it up. I guess back in those days, there was much more secrecy as to the content of rituals.

Hello Paganplace,

"Unless there's an Arthur C Clarke book of the same title, that's Asimov, ...chance has it I mentioned that when his name came up, below."

Yes, there is Asimov's novel "Nightfall", and there is Arthur C. Clarke's short story "Nightfall" first published in 1947.

Regards
"J"

Some Pagan groups accepting memberships now:(year founded)- each group has books for sale - Fill your minds and libraries now.

The Druid Order (1717)

Ancient Order of Druids (1781)

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888)

Germanic mysticism
Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft (1907)

Guido von List Society (1908)

Church of the Universal Bond (1912)

Crowleyan Thelema (1930s)

Feri Tradition (1950s)

Feraferia (1957)

Church of All Worlds (1962)

Reformed Druids of North America (1963)

Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (1964)

British Druid Order (1979)

New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (1968)

Church and School of Wicca (1968)

Circle Sanctuary (1974)

Covenant of the Goddess (1975)

Federation of Damanhur (1975)

Radical Faeries (1979) (Interesting!!!)

Aquarian Tabernacle Church (1979)

Rowan Tree Church (1979)

Arician Tradition (Stregheria) (1981)

Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (1985)

Contemporary Witchcraft (1992)

Children of Artemis (1995)

Are you trying to say you're *dealing* with something, here, Concerned?

But the question remains, did the Reality Challenged and Obfuscating Jihadist read Sir Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" or Hirsi Ali's "Infidel"?

And of course there are those lingering flaws and errors of Islam that the Jihadist refuses to deal with.

Hi, J. :)

""Nightfall""

Unless there's an Arthur C Clarke book of the same title, that's Asimov, ...chance has it I mentioned that when his name came up, below.

Anyone noticing the relative silence under the columnists' threads when actually having read a book is involved? :)

For my part, this reminds me how dry my tastes can be. :)

Also how a lot of my very favorites are such a personal attachment I don't feel like posting them to the Net: it'd be like posting the pet names m partner calls me: no one else would actually care, but I'd feel all kinds of exposed, nonetheless. :)

Kind of a poetry person, myself, anyway.

Thanks Jihadist. I'd forgotten Arthur C. Clark. Some of the prose is a bit dense at times but a worthy representative for the science fiction Genre none the less.

No one mentioned Arthur C. Clarke as a favourite sci-fi writer?

His short stories such as "The Nine Billion Names of God", "The Sentinel", "Nightfall", "The Star", "The Song of Distant Earth" are great.

Especially "The Nine Billion Names of God". Quite priceless.

Cheers and out of here.

"J"

Favorite Authors now, is it? Fiction, Webber, nothing like a good space opera with strongly written Characters. Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague De Camp lightened many an evening in my younger days, a pity that the younger generation will have trouble finding them. Asimov's foundation Series was my second favorite series of all time the first being E.E.'Doc Smith's Lensman series. And no one's Fiction writers list is complete without having read at least one of Terry Pratchett's Disc World novels.

Non fiction, William F. Buckley, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, P.J. O'Rourke ht latter of which is Hilarious.

CCNL : "Do we really need books and libraries when there are Google, Yahoo, and AltaVista search engines at your finger tips??"

Concy pussycat!

Where in the world am I going to put all the Jesus Seminarian books and the scientific and technical books you recommended if I don't have my own library? If I ever buy the books you listed and recommended to be read.

"Principles of Polymer Chemistry" by Paul J. Flory sounds like an absolutely thrilling read though, for polymer chemists.

My recommended reading:

* Mad magazine
* Punch magazine

Hello Lepidopteryx,

I have been looking up some of the books and authors you mentioned in your list. Also looking at the books and authors mentioned by others too.

Some many books and authors, so little time. :)

"J"

P.S. Love Toni Morrison too. Met her at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 where she gave a reading and made her sign my copy of "Beloved".

Do we really need books and libraries when there are Google, Yahoo, and AltaVista search engines at your finger tips??

For the AARPies, some added useful books to peruse:

1. Calcuclus and Analytical Geometry by George R. Thomas, Jr.

2. Principles of Polymer Chemistry by Nobel Prize winner Paul J. Flory.

Athena, thanks for mentioning Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. Campbell did a lot to influence the way modern Pagans view Deity. "Hero with 1000 Faces" should be added to my list. Also, "Midsummers NIght Dream," "Beowulf" and "The Road Less Traveled," by Robert Frost.

J,

I'm not familiar with Doris Lessing. I'll have to look her up.
I've read some of LeGuin's Earthsea books, and enjoyed them. I also like Marion Zimmer Bradley's fiction.

My list was by no means exhaustive. I could go on for days. In fact, as I look at other people's lists and see some of my favorites, I think, "How could I have forgotten THAT one?"

Farnaz,

I love Rumi's poetry.
I also love the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, e.e. cummings, Marge Piercy, Roger Kamemetz, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Leonard Cohen, Maxine Kumin, Walt Whitman, John Ashbery, Mary Oliver, William Carlos Williams...

Me too I thought it made wonderful fertilizer athena

Donning my asbestos underwear to name another one... Al Gore's "Earth In The Balance".

Hmmm, again the Reality Challenged and Obfuscating Jihadist claims to have read almost every book under "allah's" sun but still cannot come to grips with the obvious flaws and errors of Islam.

One wonders how such a self-appointed elitist with this enormous treasure of book readings, cannot bring her/him self to say to everyone, "I believe in pretty wingie, flying, talking, fictional thingies".

And "I believe that Gabriel did talk to Mo-man in that hot cave".

And "I believe that Sunnis are the great salvation to humankind and that Shiites are
low-lifes who don't deserve to live".

And "I believe in all the warmongering, anti-female, death to the infidel passages in the koran".

Indeed one wonders about the true character and intentions of The Jihadist.

I am delighted how many times I see "A Wrinkle In Time" mentioned as a favorite. I think the closet thing to a tesseract is the wormhole. Always wanted to try that way of traveling.

When it came to Pagan studies, I started in the first grade. We were allowed to check out three books each week, and I made sure that two of them were guaranteed to be about different myths and fables. I was always fascinated by the folklore of different cultures, and how similar they were beneath the surface. My eleventh grade English teacher had a course on the "hero's journey" that made the different folklore fit together. From there it was an easy step to "The Golden Bough", and Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell, and the realization that we humans are more alike than we think.

Anyone remember Sybil Leek?

Dubliners

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Ulysses

Baldwin, Giovanni's Room, Another Country

Black Boy

The Bluest Eye, Beloved

A Late Divorce

-------------------
Nonfiction: The Sunflower

Forgot these:

Peretz: Everything

Babel: Everything

I.B. Singer, "Satan in Goray," "Enemies; A Love Story"

A lot of books made a difference in my life. I agree with R. Stensalts: A book is a mood. Still, if I had two choose two they would be plays: Hamlet and King Lear.

I still read Hamlet, and I think it reads me. I think Hamlet is an eternal being. He wrote the modern West, and then he wrote me. I don't think anyone will ever be able to tell his story.

Another was "The Sun Also Rises," for different reasons, of course.

"A Wrinkele in Time"

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

These two I read shortly after coming to the US from Iran. Don't ask me how, but I connected with Francie and her love for her father.

Ditto, In Dubious Battle

Rumi--Beginning to end

"Like a Driven Leaf" Still puzzled by the protagonist as are we all, and it's been almost 2,000 years.

Tales from the Ba'al Shem Tov

King Lear

The Oresteia

Oedipus at Colonus

Don Quixote

Gargantua and Pantaguel

Goethe's Faust

The Magic Mountain

"The Pedestrian" by Bradbury

Beowulf: Can't dislodge it from my thoughts. Almost like Hamlet

Midnight's Children

The Master of the Return

Ibsen--everything

Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Molloy

The Birthday Party

Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Benito Cereno

Notes from the Underground

Madame Bovary

Herzog, Mr. Sammler's Planet, Henderson the Rain King, Seize the Day

Wuthering Heights

Salinger, Nine Stories

Rosa and the Shawl, The Messiah of Stockholm, The Puttermesser Papers

Etc.

Ryan Haber,

Plato trying to encourage kings to be a bit more philosophical, or at least to take the advice of philosophers? Now that is a scary thought. We don't want philosophising and pontificating leaders in times of crises,do we. :)

Wisdom in governance is a very good idea, but not quite practiced well in reality. Plato really wants us to think for ourself, regardless whether he agrees with what we think. After all, he was a teacher too.

Best regards
"J"

Jihadist,

Ah ha! And see, that's just the thing about Plato in general, but esp. about the "Republic." It is very difficult sometimes to tell really what Plato thinks. In some dialogs, Socrates is clearly a mouthpiece for his disciple. In others, like the "Republic," that is harder to say.

For instance, Plato has Socrates advocating an pederasty-as-initiation and an arrangement of common marriage or state-sponsored brotheldom. But Plato seems to have been very much a moral traditionalist in all his other writings. An unlikely combination of stances, that. For that matter, elsewhere he has Socrates poo-pooing pederasty as pernicious self-indulgence.

So it's really hard to say.

Did Plato actually think Philosopher-Kings should rule? Maybe, as I suspect at least, he was only trying to encourage kings to be a bit more philosophical, or at least to take the advice of philosophers - to be more like Charlemagne and less like Attila.

Lol. It's hard to say.

Ryan Haber,

Hello. Yes, Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" is great for the reason you gave why you like it. And the tone of her essay is playful too in parts.

I like Plato's "Republic" too, especially his socratic method to make us think and arrive at answers. I only have a small problem with his ideas on society - stratified structure helmed by philosopher-kings.

In may seem such society as broached by Plato will never happen in this day and age, but theocracic or authoritarian regimes are manifestations of governance by "philosopher-kings".

Best regards
"J"

Hmmm, the Reality Challenged and Obfuscating Jihadist claims to have read almost every book under "allah's" sun but still cannot come to grips with the obvious flaws and errors of Islam.

One wonders how such a self-appointed elitist with this enormous treasure of book readings, cannot bring her/him self to say to everyone, "I believe in pretty wingie, flying, talking, fictional thingies".

And "I believe that Gabriel did talk to Mo-man in that hot cave".

And "I believe that Sunnis are the great salvation to humankind and that Shiites are
low-lifes who don't deserve to live".

And "I believe in all the warmongering, anti-female, death to the infidel passages in the koran".

Indeed one wonders about the true character and intentions of The Jihadist.

Jihadist, you mentioned Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own." What a great book! It was the first exposure I had to both a really legitimate sort of specifically women's concern or interest, and also to the connection between the arts and the broader life of the artist.

Someone else mentioned Plato's "Republic," also a great book. Plato is really good at making the reader thinl, more than for giving pat answers. I have at least one friend, a close and good one, who cites the "Republic" as being responsible for his 'waking up' to the life of the mind.