Currently Reading:
One Hundred Poems from the Chinese, Kenneth Rexroth
A continuation of my exploration into this wonderful poetry/culture, features the works of Tu Fu. Not sure I like these selections as much so far, but a long way to go.
Bogombo Snuff Box, Kurt Vonnegut
Thanks to Michelle for this
one! A wonderful collection of short
stories Vonnegut wrote for magazines in the 50’s and 60’s. The introduction alone is worth the time. Definitely a curiosity piece for Vonnegut
fans, but then, I am one J
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Pablo Neruda
I picked this one up because the book itself was NEAT, it has those pages that don’t line up, and illustrations by Picasso…thanks Megabooks!
Read:
The Message Remix, Eugene Peterson
Ok so I’ve only read part of this, but since I don’t have a copy right now I’m putting this on the read list, I will be reading this on and off indefinitely! Yeah dude! This book is really chill, face on me! (as the nashvillians would put it) Seriously though…I’ve enjoyed and been refreshed by this gracefully worded take on the Bible. It’s so cool to see things you’ve seen all your life and glossed over, in words you’d actually say and have meaning nowadays!
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Wow! A great book…Kurt Vonnegut has a lot to say about religion, human character…all sorts of things, all couched in an easy to read novel form. Neat neat neat!
African Poems and Love Songs,
Peter Pauper Press,
This one didn’t have as profound
an effect on me as the Jade Flute, but still well worth the .45 cents I spent
on it…a neat glimpse of this culture!
Transformations, Anne Sexton
Wow…what a neat surprise, a
forward by Kurt Vonnegut, clever illustrations, colored in and underlined by a
previous owner! Another
great Megabooks find (south on 8th ave. anyone in
The Jade Flute – Chinese Poems in Prose, Peter Pauper Press, Li Po, Tu Fu, etc…
Wow! I highlighted
the ones I especially liked…and found several of them came from those two
authors, I’m Definitely getting more of their
work…ends up, there’s a book on Amazon that’s a collection of both of their
stuff! Anyway…for some reason this stuff
rocks my world. It’s so simple, and
contemplative and well expressed. They
don’t need extra words like I do, just simple beauty, it’s inspiring, and
brings me peace. I also love the look of
the book, it’s a tiny volume that could fit in your pocket, with awesome prints
that would be worth the price themselves to cut out and hang on the wall. And I got it for 40 cents trade in at Megabooks.
Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
The most/only disappointing Vonnegut read so far. The book was just filled with little things that made it hard to read…and was rather plodding, redundant, and just plain boring…how very odd. I guess at the time it was written maybe it had some great stuff to say about humanity but, it all seemed old hat today…
Rainer Maria Rilke – Selected Poems – Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
Did you know that the unicorn was created out of a foal who gazed upon the utmost purity of the Virgin Mary and thus sprouted a horn and became the perfect creature that it is? Lol I finally finished this one, not sure I was ready for it…it took me three tries with months in between. Some really really good ones, mostly stuff that was too murky and deep for me to navigate. Part of it could be translation issues? Part of it is me just liking accessible stuff…heck I always skipped great literature and read young adult novels.
Loving Through Heartsongs - Mattie J. T. Stepanek
Brandi gave me this…it’s helping
me get over my Oprah bias. Wow, just
pulling this out gets STRONG reactions from people, there’s
a lot of folks that really hate this kid!!!
Weird…it’s been a very pleasant read so far. I guess it is odd to think that all of this came
from a little kid, but at the same time sometimes it Only
seems like it could have. Either way
there’s some neat simple stuff here I guess.
The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
Interesting. A lot of good stuff here. I love the parts about how we’re programmed into a losing situation by basing our self worth on the approval/disapproval of others. And the parts about living like a child. I wonder though…the author bases everything on being happy, on loving self, on doing what we want first…and I’m so close to this place, but I still see it as backwards…I believe we can be happy and love ourselves, but we have to be plugged into a higher source and ultimately doing those things for something outside of ourselves…or maybe it’s all the same thing?!
Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller
Harder to read that Blue like Jazz…probably because it delves into deeper topics. On second glance though it has some neat stuff to say about relationships with eachother and with God, and scripture and…the like. Rather deep, not so easy to read, but a good read if you’re into that stuff.
The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
You’ve gotta
wonder a little bit about a book that has a recommendation by an M.D. on the
cover “I couldn’t put it down.” Sure
enough it was quite a brain trip, at times more research paper than novel… That said, it made
for some great conversations and thoughts over the past few weeks. Strangely it mirrored some events in my life,
and discoveries lately so it helped me think about things. The way it was structured kind of led you to
believe you were ‘discovering’ the insights along with the character in the
book so that was neat. It was a little
goofy…like, you make your eyes go out of focus to see everyone’s mystical
energy…don’t get me wrong I think there’s a lot to this ‘energy’ bit that we
don’t’ understand, but…making our eyes go out of focus to see it? Come on now,
that’s how you do magic eye puzzles.
And then it made me sad b/c at the end of the book the author talks
about how we should pay people to explain the insights to us, and then ends the
book with a plug for his $30 newsletter…there’s this grand buildup of
‘spiritual evolution’ that leads to the point where we’re all enlightened
enough to…pay this guy more money lol! Anyway if you’re interested in metaphysics,
post modern theology, and the like it’s an interesting read. It had some stuff about interpersonal
relationships that is really helpful I think.
Good Poems, a collection from the Writer’s Almanac radio series by Garrison Keilor
I’m in love with this! What great, simple American reflections. The introduction is amazing even…Keilor’s discussion of poetry, and what makes it good, is
really right up my alley. This book was
Awesome! It’s hard to pick out favorites, depending on
my mood I can see myself enjoying almost all of these poems a lot.
The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
It’s true, I find more truth in works of fiction. This book is amazing, simple, touching, and true. It’ll only take you half an hour to read. It’s half an hour that could not be better spent. Thanks Noah for enriching my life by letting me borrow this!
On the Road – Keruac
“…never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, or actual night, the hell of it, the senseless nightmare road. All of it inside endless and beginingless emptiness. Pitiful forms of ignorance.” On The Road, Jack Kerouac, p. 253-254
That’s about it really. I’ve heard so many people tell me how great and free and fun this book is. It honestly was really hard to get through and sad for me. It was especially hard as I’d been compared to a character who leaves wives and children all over the country, is a crazy addict, a bad friend, and a womanizer…maybe those are all things I have the potential to be I don’t know but all the same, this book was hard for me to read.
Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
Wow! A down to earth book about, all kinds of things…just all kinds of good things about life and, love and…wow. This guy believes in Jesus but, this sure doesn’t read like a ‘Christian’ book. He shares my perplexity with a lot of aspects of Christianity, and at the same time shines a down to earth light on things that just…is great to read, and makes sense in your gut and makes you feel whole. It hit me a lot where I was already at, and helped me understand, so maybe that’s why I loved it so much, but…it’s really well written so I would strongly recommend it to anyone on that merit alone! And, it might just rock your world like it did mine!
The Gunslinger -- Stephen King
King is one of my favorite writers for movies (Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption…), this was the first book of his I’d read. It painted an amazingly vivid picture. Sometimes I want to run ahead, to know more information than he’s providing. It definitely had a great style to it. I can see that a certain kind of person (my friend noah for instance) would find this to be the greatest book ever, it’s really good! But…for me it was a little mysterious, I’m dumb I like stuff spelled out for me, and video games that are super easy…and paint by number haha, ok no not really I painted outside the lines.
Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut
A fictive autobiography of an unsuccessful artist. This novel, not only intertwines with
Vonnegut’s other books, it has a lot of really profound stuff to say about war,
art, and human nature. It’s really just
the story of an old dude…but it’s an extremely satisfying read. I highly recommend it. Maybe my favorite
fiction book this year, and it’s not really about all that much!
One, Richard Bach
Really interesting thoughts on metaphysics, religion and the power of choices, all couched in novel form. A really interesting way to learn some things and expand your mind!
Deadeye Dick, Kurt Vonnegut
To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life.
I have caught life. I have come down with life. I was a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness, and then a little peephole opened quite suddenly. Light and sound poured in. voices began to describe me and my surroundings. Nothing they said could be appealed. They said I was a boy named Rudolph Waltz, and that was that. Deadeye Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, p. 1
This tales is bleak, and sad. A story of life…and people, and how sad and empty and hateful it can be when people turn their backs on eachother. It doesn’t have shining profound moments like most Vonnegut books, it’s not about that. It’s a tale of life the way it is, or can be steady and sad. A good read as always, and it fits into Vonnegut’s catalogue nicely, it’s always amazing to see his characters step in and out of each book as bit parts in the background. This man had a lot of foresight to plan something like that out!
This book motivates me to infect those around me with encouragement, and makes me realize the power of the times when I haven’t. It’s funny how fiction can teach me stuff like that more powerfully than nonfiction sometimes.
Japanese Death Poems –
Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death – Yoel Hoffman
I’ve quoted this a lot in my blog, and written a few into my planner. It starts with a great history/poetry section by the editor. It really helped me understand some things about Haiku and Japanese culture that enabled me to understand the poetry better. But it still came down to the basic reason I bought it. Anyone who can sum up their life and death in 17 syllables deserves my attention! It was really neat to see a lot of truth that’s outside my western mindset. A good read! I’m passing this one on to a friend Daniel.
Black Majesty - John W. Vandercook
A biography of
Henry Christophe the first king of an independent
Illusions, The adventures of a reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
Wow! I’ll share some quotes from this sometime. I wanted to hug Enoch for giving me this book. It’s a novel, but it’s the most amazing book of…’how to look at the worldedness’ at the same time. I don’t believe everything it says but, it doesn’t even want me to! And some of it is just…gracefully profound. It’ll change your life.
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Wow! Kurt’s gone and done it again. Read it…its’ just chock full of truth about our culture, all set in an easy and fun style to read. I love this guy!
White Noise – Don DeLilo
It starts slow, very very slow. I didn’t’ honestly ‘get’ the book until I read the dust jacket when I was done. I think it’s very successful at achieving what, the writer on the dust jacket at least thinks the author is trying to achieve, which is to portray the mind numbing emptiness of our TV/radio/advertising filled culture. The writing style will do that to you. That said, by halfway through section two I was hooked and read the rest in one sitting, it left me feeling very depressed and kinda sad to see the world the way the author does. It was a powerful book and in that sense ‘good’.
A New Kind of Christian – Brian D. McLaren
“The fact that thinking and
analyzing seem to be synonymous suggests how successful modernity has been at
marginalizing all other forms of thought—imagination, intuition, pattern
recognition, systems thinking and so on.” – p 17. This book very thoughtfully and analytically
laid out the idea that we shouldn’t restrict ourselves to thought and analysis.
Obviously the logical foundation is a
little shaky! It had some good stuff to
say though, not sure I’d recommend it to anyone, unless you’re a pastor who’s
struggling with modernity. Other than
that, have a good convo with one of my friends or myself and you’ll have what
you need to know! I’d come up with this
stuff on my own a long time ago and didn’t’ know it was a revolution…but then,
it did say some stuff well. I have mixed
feelings about it.
Two Against the North – Farley Mowat
A mind bludgeoning collection of lists and adjectives. Two boys act stupid, go north in the cold and snow, survive and come home. There I’ve saved you reading it! Unless you love lots of adjectives and lists…then, this book is a priceless treasure!
Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
What can I say, my parents named me after this guy, then handed me this series to read. I didn’t have TV as a kid so I read all the time, probably read this whole series 15 times. Now my lovely momma gave them to me in one hardback volume, and in the author’s preferred order. I’m moving slowly, but excited to read them in the ‘real’ order for the first time. It’s a lovely edition with great chapter art and the works. I read most of this in the bathroom…lol, some stuff in the Last Battle really resonates with where I’m at in life right now.
Bunny Suicides – Andy Riley
This book is genius. Just amazing. It’s the kind of thing that makes you want to stop writing or coming up with ideas because, these are better than anything you could ever think of! Really, even if you’re not into dark humor (which is my favorite kind hee hee) this book is just too funny. I read it while standing in borders though, I need to invest some more time to study its artful mastery!!!
Next:
More poetry? Stalled, someone give me some ideas
Books on
The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
Travel books by -- Paul Theroux
Urban living books by -- John Perkins
No compromise – Melody Greene
the
Power of One.
The
Blindness - by Jose Saramago
Iron John by Robert Bly
Anything Vonnegut I can get my hands on.