2022 Readings

heh, so much derision is thrown at English teachers these days... but you're right, they can be pretty nasty at times, its very likely that most of them have signed pacts to make life harder for interested students... making leisure activities an unnecessary rigmarole of naming meter, reading whilst focusing on very minute sections or rhetorical details, etc etc.

I'm glad to see you're starting off the new year with purpose... just lost 150 days of benefits a while ago, so I guess I'm going to have to work on myself the right way this time around...

Anyways, I picked up a three-volume cover of Mircea Eliade's History of Religious Ideas (varying translators), a close analysis of religious trends by an extremely talented Romanian academic, master essayist, and creative workman. Just read a snipbit if you'd ever feel like it.. reading some of his stuff helped me focus on the type of writer I'd be, decide what form of phrasing to practice when ever speaking or writing to another person or for myself, and plainly entertained me whenever I felt reflective or pensive. A great escape. Although some sections are dense, most of the noteworthy points are expressed pretty clearly, though his verbosity is also pretty admirable. And his overarching idea of an eternal return gets you to, at least for a fleeting second, think about the beauty of a world religion.

 

This is a great thread, i have been reading books too and found it helping.Mostly I read fiction and would recommend books from this video

 

I think I will start my reading with The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton.

 

Any book recommendations I must read before I can die?

 

I am gonna be reading a book named Karma written by Sadhguru.

 

Masters of Mahamudra by Keith Dowwan.

The book describes the lives of 84 crazy wise tantric yogis from ancient times.

 

The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo

 

Finishing up Meditations from Marcus Aurelius, about to start Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.

@FirefromAbove , let me know how Zarathustra turns out, I'm planning on getting it this year.

 

Picked up a sci-fi book (not a classic) entitled Same Same by Peter Mendelian’s. Really interesting so far, I’m about a third through. The writing style is kind of a mix of classical heady sci-fi verbiage mixed with irreverent text lingo. Highly recommend.

Following that up with The Man in the High Castle (a classic) by Philip K Dick. Recommend him for his plethora of vignettes (if you like sci-fi).

 

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy is the first actual book I read start to finish. Great book, decent enough movie, and excellent song about it by Jimmy Buffett (which spoils the book, so read it first).

 

I just got a copy of "Think And Grow Rich", the Napoleon Hill classic.

It talks a great deal about controlling your subconscious mind... so that it can reward you with more optimistic, proactive thinking... super beneficial for any type of goal.

My reading list also includes...

* 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
* Atomic Habits
* Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)

Self-help books (the good ones) are a great starting point for building a healthier, happier, more productive lifestyle. I recommend chasing after them with every spare minute you have. Take notes, copiously... rewrite a whole book word-for-word if you have to.

The more time you spend with these books (and you can spend a lifetime with them), the more their time-tested principles will be chiseled into every fiber of your being.

 

In the same vein : cat's craddle -Kurt Vonnegut Jr
You will never find an author like him, at some point in one of his novel he randomly started describing the length of his character's dick.

 

I mostly read fiction, but I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately. I've been re-reading my own books recently (I'm a romance author). And last night I started re-reading "The Savior's Champion" by Jenna Moreci, because I needed an easy read that will help me turn off my mind before sleep. Reading in bed has really greatly helped my insomnia, but some books make me think too hard and don't help as much.

I'm also reading a book called "Created to be His Help Meet" by Debi Pearl. It's an absolutely terrible, heretical book that I'm reading for the purpose of critical analysis, with plans to do a series of videos about it on my YouTube channel. I want to combat Debi's unbiblical teachings about women and marriage that are deceiving so many women.

I also just got a book called "Faithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture" by Natasha Crain. I'm excited to start that one soon.

 

Lol yeah, it definitely depends on the book. I never used to read before bed, but the last few years I've started having really bad insomnia. My creative mind kicks in right when bedtime hits for some reason, so my mind is so full and running a mile a minute. I got a kindle recently, so I could easily read in bed without bothering my partner, and it's helped soooo much.

Reading my own book recently, however, was having the opposite effect. It's one of my older books, with more flaws than my recent work, so I was reading it too critically. I had to switch to something a little more mindless. A lot of nights I seriously end up reading, like, 3 pages and I'm already falling asleep. Lol a huge change from tossing and turning for hours with my mind remaining hype alert the whole time.