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Read a good book lately?????????

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ralphm

unfortunately i have not read much good fiction lately-however someone just gave me a copy of one of carlos casteneda's last books-the active side of infinity which i look forward to reading.accordding to some it qualifies as fiction. anyone has comments on his last few books?



In the world in general and in this nation
May not even the names disease, famine, war, and suffering be heard.
May virtuous qualities, merit, and prosperity greatly increase
And may continuous good fortune and subline well-being perfectly arise.

WalkerInTheWoods

I have just started reading The Hobbit by Tolkien. I watched the Lord of the Rings movie and afterwards had to run out and buy all the books as well as The Hobbit. I must say that I am enjoying it. The writing style is so nice and easy to read, very enjoyable. Different than what I am use to.

Before this I had been reading the Necroscope series By Brian Lumley. This is about a man who has the gift to talk to the dead. He also learns a few other gifts. There are two organizations, one British the other Russian. They are people with special gifts (see the future, etc) who work for their countries, the British to protect against the bad guys and the Russians basicly to take over the world. Now throw in some vampires, who are not the  typical Hollywood vampires, and you have a good story.

Seems I have a little bit different taste than others on here.

Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

Ryno

I dont think this book is fiction but Mutant Message Down Under is a good book. It is about an aboriginal walkabout that a Woman from America is invited to attend. I think it is supposed to be a true account. Nevertheless a very good story. Sorry I cant remember the Authors Name.


Qui-Gon Jinn

I was actually thinking of starting a topic on books, and well, I was gonna ask if any of you have read "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman...

   ..I´m reading it now, for the 2nd time (!)   ...never read a book twice before, and I know I´ll be reading this masterpiece plenty of times more in the future, there is gold for everyone!!´

 Any of you read any other Dan Millman books?   oops, 2nd half in the WC between Sweden-Nigeria starts now, gotta go....  Go Sweden ;)



- Your focus determines your reality -

steveb

Greetings all,

   A good book I'd recommend, (not really fiction)"Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanance", written by Robert Pursig. every time i hear the word "quality" I think of this book. May sound strange but the book nasn't got that much to do with Zen,or motercycle maintanance for that matter.

Regards  Steve


PeacefulWarrior

The Hobbit is a wondeful novel, as are all of Tolkeins books...

Qui-GOnn, what is "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman about...wat kind of book is it?  GIve us a synsopsis if you can...

I started reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" but never got around to finishing it, but what I had read was very good up to that point.

Here are a few other great books of fiction, has anyone read any of them?:

The Education of Little Tree- Forest Carter
Enders Game- by Orson Scott Card
Tuesdays with Morey- author?
Collected poetry of William Blake (not really fiction, but I love Blake's poems!)



fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

Joe

Cool topic... steveb - "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is an absolutely awesome book, one of my top ten best books ever. Not only a great story, but a direct path through the heart of philosophy and personal psychology.

I just recently sent an email around to some work mates with a related question, "What are the Top 10 best books you've ever read?". It was awesome to hear about so many outstanding books that I'd never considered before (it became my reading list for this year). Mine included:

- "Imitation of Christ", Thomas A'Kempis. Medieval monk's counsel on spiritual ascent.
- "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", Stephen Covey. Personal and character transformation.
- "Voltaire's Bastards", John Raston Saul. Outstanding critique on modern political, social and corporate rationalisation. Dense reading.
- "A Brief History of Time", Hawking. Pop physics, written by a master.
- "Maha Yoga", 'Who' (Laksmana Sharma). Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, late Indian sage/avatar.
- "Zen & Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Robert Pirsig. Auto-biography & deep philosophical narrative.

Slightly lower on the list would be :
- "Sein Language", Jerry Seinfeld. My kind of humour.
- "The Day After Tomorrow", Folsom. Fiction - top action/suspense novel of post-WW2 world conspiracy.
- "The Mind of God", Paul Davies. Physicist's theory on the nature/being of God, based on evidence and scientific method.
- "Bravo Two Zero", Andy McNabb. Visceral and eye-opening account of covert SAS mission in Iraq during Desert Storm.
- "Initiation Into Hermetics", Bardon. For obvious reasons. Not a fireside novel, but a monumental practical manual for hermetic self-mastery.
...could go on for quite a bit.

Sorry to just blurt out a list of books like that. I'd sincerely love to hear about other people's "best books ever", especially on a forum like this, where there'd be so much great knowledge and learning just floating around in people's minds.

All the best,
Joe


kakkarot

lately? no. i haven't read a book for years.

but i read some really good books while in highschool. want a list?
by R. A. Salvatore, the Drizzt Do'Urden series of books (really good)
 Homeland
 Sojourn
 Exile
 The Crystal Shard
 Streams of Silver
 The Halfling's Gem
 Legacy
 Starless Nights
 Seige of Darkness

and the dragon lance series that follows the majere twins and the others.

Secret of Secrets

Qui-Gon Jinn

Daniel, your wish - my law ;)

To make it easy for me, I´ll give you this URL I just sailed into, it´ll give you some inlook as to what the book is ´about´...   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~paulma/wayofthe.htm

 But to me, this work is to valuable to put into words, sounds goofy perhaps, but even so it has meant a great deal to me..   so, if you bump into it, you know what to do ;)

   Be well //Richard





- Your focus determines your reality -

PeacefulWarrior

Teaching reading to people who hate books is like teaching swimming to people who hate water

Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught.      

The person who doesn't read is no better off than the person who can't read.
-  Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 296




fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

Ryno

Daniel, I agree with your last post very much. My father always was trying to get me to read books when I was younger. I hated to read. He would give me $20 dollars for every book that I read on one condition. It had to be a book that he picked for me. Being that I was a teenager at the time I thought it would be an easy way to get some extra money. What I didnt know was that he was going to test me afterwards to see if I really did read the book. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, now that I look back at it, that was probably the best thing my dad ever did for me. He introduced me to some really great books that have helped shape who I am today. It sounds mushy but books really do have a way of stimulating your mind in a way that nothing else can. I wish I could get people in my life to read more because I really do believe that it does something magical to your brain. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to share my story with everyone.:)


justinh

Hi,

Right now I am reading the Star Wars New Jedi Order series.  I never really read very many sci-fi books, but kept hearing my friends chat about them everyday.  So, eventually I picked them up and, lets see, 7 books later, I am still going strong.  R.A. Salvatore wrote the series opener, followed by Michael Stackpole, Greg Keyes, and Troy Denning, and a bunch of others.

The story shows modern day conflicts in a sci-fi light...an alien race enters the galaxy and decides to cleanse it of the "infidels" and their "abominations".
This relates to the modern day wars going on with the Taliban and their outrageous beliefs.

In a nutshell,  the species is called the Yuuzhan Vong and they believe that all technology, machines, droids are blasphemy against their gods, and that the gods have deemed their race's mission to take over this new galaxy... that it is somehow theirs for the taking (think of the land disputes in the middle east right now and you get the picture).

The aliens rely on pure biological means.... they "grow" their ships out of a coral substance, genetically engineer creatures for war, seed entire planets with disease, manipulate gravity to propel and shield their ships, and communicate across space using telepathic creatures.

There's a lot of creativity in the series, and the dialog in most books of the series is excellent.  The characters are in constant debate over whether their abilities are to be used for attack or defense, and just where the line should be drawn.

Anyway, check it out if it sounds interesting...

Here's some other stuff on my shelf that I have read/been meaning to read:

Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett
The Mind's I by same
Artificial Minds by Stan Franklin
Mind Children by Hans Moravec
The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky

The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
Wake up to your Life by Ken McLeod
Awakening the Buddhist Heart by  Lama Surya Das

The Inner Game of Work by W. Timothy Gallwey

Finally, I just got a really good book the other night called
Wheels of Life: A User's Guide to the Chakra System which goes over
each chakra with what it means, how it works, and ways to stimulate it.

I am really fascinated by all aspects of consciousness and morality.
Anyway, happy reading...

Later,
Justin


PeacefulWarrior

Ryno-
thanks for sharing you personal experience with us.  Just tonight, in fact, while I was hanging out with a few friends of mine I was thinking about the fact that I have very few friends my age who read for fun.  If they are not in school they simply do not read for pleasure.  I find reading before I go to bed to be not only relaxing, but enlightening.  Non-fiction, fiction, poetry and scriptures....it's all rewarding in different ways!

JustinH- those StarWar books sound interesting....tell us more about the novel "Wake Up to Your Life", that sounds rather interesting...

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

Qui-Gon Jinn

Hey Dan, I didn´t know it was possible to change ones name once registered...  and why did you choose to name yourself Peaceful Warrior?

  A ´heavy title´ to carry, which only a few accomplishes...  well actually enlightenment is about removing the weight on ones shoulders..   there is a short but powerful story about ´enlightenment´ and it goes something like this; ...

... Milarepa had searched everywhere for enlightenment, but couldn´t find any answer - until the day he saw an old man who walked slowly down a mountain path, carrying a heavy sack.  Milarepa senced right away that this old man knew the secret he so desperately had been searching for all this years.
- "Old man, be kind and tell me, what you know. What is enlightenment?"
 
The old man smiled at him for a moment, and then threw the heavy sack  from his shoulders and stood straight.

"Yes, I see!" Milarepa shouted.  "Take my lasting gratitude, but be so kind and let me ask you another question: What comes after the enlightenment?"

  Again smiling, the old man took the heavy sack up from the ground, threw it over his shoulders, and walked away"

 Doesn´t have to be more ´complicated´ than that......
 
     Be well //Richard

- Your focus determines your reality -

PeacefulWarrior

Thanks for the story Richard, I like that a lot.  It reminded me of another short metaphorical tale that goes something like this:  There was a young man who traveled from from village to village seeking out the most wise and spiritual individuals as teachers..  He had come to a small village and found an old peasant woman tending her small garden.  He approached her and informed her that he was looking for the most righteous man in the village.  She pointed towards the town first and there the man saw the village people trading in the town center.  Next to every person, besides the little children, he saw a demon.  He knew that none of those people were the ones he was looking for.  The woman then indicated to a  mountain nearby and there the young man saw a haggard old man hiking up the mountain.  Surrounding him were at least a dozen huge demons.  They looked terrible and evil.  "That's the man you are looking for" she stated simply.  "But that's not possible" the young man said looking at the woman in disebelief.  "Look how many demons he has around him, he must be an evil, evil man" he said.  The old woman then turned and faced him, "Oh no, you are mistaken" she pointed back towards the town, "Those people are so weak minded that they require only one small demon the tempt them and keep them in submission".  She then turned towards the old man, "But look at him, he is surrounded by the oldest, most terrible demons and they still can't break him.  And there he is, hiking up that narrow, steep path like he does every day to pray and meditate at the summit."

Anyway, the story goes something like that.  It's kind of the "opposition in all things" deal, the more powerful and good you become the harder the opposition tries you.  I like that story because it reminds me that when I am making the most headway in my life is when I am likely to face the most oppisition.  

And the reason I chose the name Peaceful Warrior is because I fight daily with the opposition andI try to use the correct weapons: love, patience, virtue, honesty, faith, etc.

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

justinh

PW,

I hadn't read Wake Up To Your Life Yet, but here's the gist of it:

"How to live life with equanimity, loving kindness, compassion, and joy"
"How to cut through obsessions with the external world, relationships, harmful emotions, pleasure, power, and self"
"Tried-and-true methods for cultivating active attention with your body and mind"

Inside it seems to talk about the following good stuff:
A good introduction to Buddhism
Dismantling your attachment to conventional "success"
A big section on karma
A bunch of other stuff relating to emotion and beliefs

The guy who wrote it is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who consults in Los Angeles.

Actually, I had never gotten very deep into this book, but now, it seems as if it were exactly the kind of information I have been searching for!  ;)

Thanks,
Justin


PeacefulWarrior

I am definetly going to have to get my hands on that one.  I have a peice of paper taped on the wall next to my bed with all the books I am need to buy/borrow/steal (just kidding about the stealing part http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile.gif" border=0> )  Anyone here a poetry fan?  I love poetry...maybe we could post some of our favorite poems.  I love to read poetry to my soon to be wife.  I also write some too, but nothing I feel is great yet.  Here is one of the poems I have written for my sweetheart Sarah:

Essence of Lovers
for Sarah

Night falls and thoughts become fluid
Shimmering and dripping into the basin of my soul

If only I could emerge within you
And drown your doubts in joy

Words cease and thoughts mystify
Together all our fears shall cease

Love permeating the etheric air
I set off to find you standing in your dreams
Rejoicing in our new discovery we fly
Commencing the sweet matrimony of souls
We bend and blend together, forevermore

-D. Todd

I usually don't like to share my poems with anyone, but I feel comfortable sharing this with you all.
-Dan

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

Qui-Gon Jinn

Hey Dan, I liked your story to...  some people just won´t break whatever the burden put on them, in this case demons....  and they are truly peaceful warriors, in a way...
 Keep using the weapons you mentioned my friend!´



- Your focus determines your reality -

PeacefulWarrior

Has anybody read "What Dreams May Come?"  I would like to hear a review from someone within the forum.

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

PeacefulWarrior

I just wanted to know if any of you enjoy classic literature- I enjoy english authors such as Charles Dickens immensely.  I think it also gives one a great lesson in history as well as providing great pleasure...

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

Oliver

Hi,

I don't read that much fiction, but for school we recently read "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, which I found a good book.

It's about a couple of children growing up in the 1930's and their father is a lawyer who defends a black man in court for a crime he didn't commit, so the children have to learn how to cope with living in a racist society while growing up.  Its a good book. http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile.gif" border=0>

Oliver

PeacefulWarrior

Yes, I have read "To Kill a Mockingbird", it's a great story, a classic.  It's often read at the high school level for obvious reasons.  THanks for sharing that with us!

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum

PeacefulWarrior

I would like to hear about some of the books you are all reading these days...anything interesting.  Any books that are really fun, different or simply great?  I recently read a very extraordinary book by an author name Denis Johnson entitled "Jesus' Son".  It's basically about a herion addict and his journey of redemption...sort of, it's very difficult to categorize or summarize a short novel like this.  It's very short and only took me a couple of hours to read.  They also made a film out of it...

Anyway, let's talk about books, that is if you are a reader (and I think most of you here are)

fides quaerens intellectum
We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring, we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Elliot
---------------
fides quaerens intellectum