What are you reading at the moment?

[Ade Sundog]

I thought that i'd try re-reading 'The Stand' by Stephen King , and guess what ? i found it as tedious as i did when i read it all those years ago , i wonder if i gave up at the same page? .

Re-read 'The Northern Tradition' by Pete Jennings . Groovy .

Gave up reading 'Lud-in-the-Mist' by Hope Mirrlees. Why did i buy this!!! Forgotten classic??? Best forgotten twee dross .

It's unlike me to give up reading a book , i have real stamina usually , maybe my tolerance threshold is lower as i'm now in codgerdom .

Anyway , now reading 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebbecca Solnit , so far , so brilliant .

[Cradlehag]

I understand as I also have book stamina ~ I don't give up easily! I've come to think that it's not worth putting yourself through misery though ~ there are so many books around we probably can't like them all!

[Tynan Elder Oak]

My goodness, you sound like me! I have books under my pillow to read at bedtime, books in my work bag to read when I get a minute and books in hte living room to read when sitting with boys watching Top Gear and I need to be 'social' hah ha! I am reading Judy Cavanaghs The Magicians Apprentice... I am really enjoying it after having read the other 6 of hers. Now where did I put my glasses?

[Cradlehag]

I am also an adept at losing my glasses

[Tynan Elder Oak]

Hi there Cradlehag..... Not about books but! I notice you are near rollright. I go there quite often with the grove members and of course my family as we live nearby. I used to live in a tiny village, more of a hamlet, called Chesteron with a very notable windmill, just on the other side of Burton Dassett Hills and the wonderful well, a hub for ley lines.....

[HinduDruid]

I am also an adept at losing my glasses

That's why I got lasik surgery! So I could read more books without my eyes drying out from extensive contacts wearing...

I won't share how many books I have that are on the to-read list, it's ridiculous and embarrassing! In my defense, I got many for free and I donate extensively to the local library

Wonder if it would be feasible and worthwhile to add a books networking feature here like LivingSocial or GoodReads so that folks could offer reviews and ratings as well as note what they have read and are reading. Thoughts?

[Tynan Elder Oak]

I think there was some kind of move to do reviews etc..... it will be on ht e list somewhere... I don't recall these kind of things too easily.
I know too that at one point there was some kind of book exchange mentioned... that seems like a really good idea, but if they are books relating to druidry I tend to keep them for the Grove library so that no one has to go out and buy too many books.

That said it could be a good way of sourcing alternative material that we don't have.

[Ade Sundog]

The Book Swap Thang is here :

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31684&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Hope that you find your glasses

[HinduDruid]

Hi,

I love the thought of book swapping, but LivingSocial and Book Reads are more like catalogs of books so that you and friends can see what you've all read and post reviews.

I thought maybe it would be useful considering so many of us read a variety of books esp. spiritual. And I was surprised how many love Pratchett, who I am now interested in reading!

[Aengus]

Hey all

Right now I am reading "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman and the poems of Robert Frost. Good stuff!

Cheers!

[Tynan Elder Oak]

I really like some of his stuff... very evocative.

[Kernos]

I am currently reading the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, a superior non-Tolkienian fantasy. I am almost finished with book 2.

[Tynan Elder Oak]

can you describe it in a bit more detail it sounds interesting.

[Andeg Myeengun]

Currently on The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll (a true spy story) as well as my school books.

[Corwen]

The Axminster Tools catalogue... I want a new drawknife.

Crafty people, why buy tools anywhere else?
http://www.axminster.co.uk

[Ade Sundog]

"The way for the Millennium" , a guide book to a footpath in North Staffordshire , which i hope one day to cycle along . Some interesting things along the way . Groovy

[Zylah]

'A History of God' by Karen Armstrong - very interesting and reader-friendly. 'Pandora' by Anne Rice - disturbing and vivid, but then she's brilliant, no more needs to be said! Otherwise I've been overrun with textbooks lately

[skydove]

Treated myself to Prophet Priest and King by Ross Nichols, after listening to his words in the gwersi It was wonderful to read the poems in print they jump out at me with recognition now, some lovely woodcut illustrations too.

[Ade Sundog]

Just finished 'Out of the silent planet' by C.S.Lewis . Fantastic .

[Badger Bob]

I am reading a few things at the moment, a friend has asked me for an opinion on a couple of books she has recently bought so I am reading "Meditation for Life" by Martine Batchelor and "How to Meditate" by Kathleen McDonald. Both of these are written from a Buddhist perspective and McDonald is firmly in the Tibetan Lam-Rim (Gradual Path) tradition. Batchelor has written a good easy to understand book which takes meditation from the very beginning stages up to visualisation and mindfulness while cooking (Gordon Ramsay take note!). Again it is a book from a Buddhist author (Korean Son/Zen) but there is less emphasis on the religious aspects of meditation and more on the process of examining the mind which is just as applicable to Druidry or contemplative Christianity. The photography is sumptuous as well. The McDonald book has less information on how to meditate (paradoxically) and more actual meditations on subjects from the Lam Rim such as "the precious human rebirth" or "meditating on emptiness". There is a fair bit of religious information in here as well, prayers and prostrations, deity and purification practices so I would say it is of limited use to a non-Gelug Tibetan Buddhist.

Next on my reading tower (it has gone waaaay past being a pile) is a re-reading of Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled" and a new translation of the Mabinogion I have been meaning to read for a while.

PS Off Topic - Wintersundog, when did you change your sig to the lyrics from my all-time favourite album? I was listening to "Winter Wine" when I saw it...almost spooky!