|
Author
|
Topic: What Are You Reading??
|
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:00 AM
 
I havent been able to read much of anything for well over a year. Not sure what happened. Here and there yes, but my mind wanders way too much and i dont finish anything anymore. I used to love reading. Maybe it's a phase. Even online, I start something but usually dont finish. Would like to work my way through this one though.
http://www.jrhaule.net/divine.html#ToC
IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:04 AM
That one looks good, T.  Have you tried audiobooks? There are also plenty of good
videos on youtube and elsewhere
that cover similar material. I hope you're finding what works for you.
IP: Logged |
wheelsofcheese
Newflake Posts:
From:
Registered:
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:08 AM
Hello people! Lots of traffic here today.lol @ Koi. IP: Logged |
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:09 AM
Thanks. Yeah, audio books are a good idea.I think maybe i just need a break so my mind is not letting me focus. For awhile there I couldnt read enough and maybe i got burnt out on the material i was reading. Have never been able to read fiction. IP: Logged |
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:11 AM
Hey wheels!  I fell asleep earlier last night and woke up at midnight. Havent been able to sleep since. Though I'm starting to feel tired again. Might just try to say up. Not sure. lol IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:12 AM
It sounds like you know what you need, T.I hope you're able to find peace and rest now. I know you've been working very hard for very long.
Hi, wheels.
IP: Logged |
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:15 AM
Thanks. That's true.IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:17 AM
 IP: Logged |
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:47 AM
Well, looks like i'm up; just went out and picked up a coffee. 
Now i'll get reading.IP: Logged |
ghanima81
Moderator Posts: 795
From: Maine
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 09:22 AM
Judge away, I'm reading "The Hollow" by Nora Roberts, the second in the Sign of Seven Trilogy. I enjoy her writing style. She incorporates magic and legend with romance, it's a great escape from my stressful job. I'm also reading "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy or Everything your Doctor Won't Tell You" by Vickie Iovine, and have a few other medical books I've been reading for the past few months. I'm with you, BM, obviously not trying to get too spiritual with these, but they are all serving their purposes. I plan to tackle "Why We Suck" by Denis Leary pretty soon. IP: Logged |
blue moon
Knowflake Posts: 1344
From: U.K
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 09:55 AM
I'd tackle Denis Leary if he let me (I'm resisting a crass pun on the title of his book...).Who's to say what's junk? Catherine Cookson's family sagas aren't classic literature but they are full of earthly wisdom. She's a story-teller in the old tradition. I read her biography once ~ she dictated the books and got her secretary to write them down. IP: Logged |
wheelsofcheese
Newflake Posts:
From:
Registered:
|
posted April 07, 2009 10:18 AM
Denis Leary ripped off Bill Hicks' stand-up material when Hicks had terminal cancer so I'm not too great a fan of his. He is quite sexy though, (if you like plagiarists. )IP: Logged |
amowls
Newflake Posts: 4
From: Falls Church, VA, USA
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 10:23 AM
I always start books and never finish them (9th house Sun & Mercury? Sag Mars? who knows). I've started Gravity's Rainbow, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, World War Z, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Emma and Handmaid's Tale.Lol. IP: Logged |
LEXX
Knowflake Posts: 9742
From: Still out looking for Schrodinger's cat.......& LEXIGRAMMING.♥.. is my Passion!
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 05:46 PM
page 118
from The Screwtape Letters
quote:
He's a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the seashore. Out to sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are 'pleasures for evermore'. Ugh! I don't think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Misteric Vision. He's vulgar, Wormwood. He has a bourgeois mind.
There are other passages, but tend to be a bit too graphic and impolitely explicit to post here!  ------------------
A show of envy is an insult to oneself. ~Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.
~William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693 IP: Logged |
teaselbaby
Newflake Posts: 5
From: Ohio
Registered: Jul 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 06:42 PM
I read An Unquiet Mind, last year. Good book.  quote:
I havent been able to read much of anything for well over a year. Not sure what happened. Here and there yes, but my mind wanders way too much and i dont finish anything anymore. I used to love reading. Maybe it's a phase. Even online, I start something but usually dont finish.
I've had the same problem.  I love to read, but have been having trouble focusing (with the exception being when I had a couple of bad colds, and got through the books Twilight and New Moon - neither one impressed me, but it was nice to be able to focus for a little while). I'm working my way through How To Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer and A Trip to the Beach. I really should try to finish the last two books in the Golden Compass trilogy. *edit: Oh, and I'm also reading The Spell of the Sensuous, by David Abram. I want to get this book back out of the library, when I can give it more attention.
IP: Logged |
teaselbaby
Newflake Posts: 5
From: Ohio
Registered: Jul 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 06:54 PM
Another book I enjoyed in December, was The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.IP: Logged |
Chryseis
unregistered
|
posted April 07, 2009 07:15 PM
Hi everyone!I just finished reading 'The Way of Wyrd', by Brian Bates. It's out of print(possibly about 30-40yrs old) and I had to order it in from the State Library - would cost me $150 if it wasn't returned. I read it when I was young and it's classified as junior fiction. The author talks about this classification in his prologue but also said that he had, as part of his academic profession, researched archaic documents in Britain and that it was a story built over evidence. There's a website and a following I noticed a couple of years ago when I was trying to access the book then. Yeah its about a young Roman Catholic scribe that has to go and spend time with a pagan in order to record their beliefs and practices so that the christian priests could better understand their line of approach for conversion. The interesting thing that takes 'Brand' by surprise is that the pagan guide is actually a highly regarded sorcerer that lives totally in communion with nature and the concept of a web of wyrd. I didn't find it as fascinating the second time round but still enjoyed the revisit. I'm going to look for another book that I read a long time ago, 'Godric'. From memory I think he is an historical figure, English as well, and a saint perhaps. Anyway, it was very similar from memory, and I enjoyed it enough to remember it as special. IP: Logged |
Node
Knowflake Posts: 1816
From: 1,981 mi East of Truth or Consequences NM
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 07, 2009 07:18 PM
quote:
I had no idea we had such ambitious readers here!
One of the first things I noticed about LLanders is how well read they are. I've used recommendations constantly always worth the library check out... quote:
The Hollow" by Nora Roberts..ghanima
I especially like her writing as J.D. Robb, The 'In Death' series... futuristic CSI, Cop. Textured characters are her forte.
IP: Logged |
26taurus
unregistered
|
posted April 08, 2009 12:57 AM
teasel,
IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 08, 2009 01:40 AM
This book I'm reading, "The Practice of the Presence of God" is all about how we can be spiritual even in the midst of our so-called worldly activities, and that, with a little practice, our work can become a joy and a prayer, rather than a source of stress. It is unfortuneate that people stress out all day, and then seek comfort in momentary pleasures which offer no lasting support. Then they get up and go and do it again, day after day. What this marvelous little book is saying is that we can very easily cultivate an awareness of God's presence, which can grow brighter and stronger every single day, until those otherwise mundane chores we perform become the most enjoyable and deeply gratifying experiences of God's love. Just in the past few days, I have learned to encourage myself to do a number of chores with joy, and with a sense that I am performing a spiritual service, -- chores which I used to do only begrudgingly, or not at all. It doesnt matter how insignificant the task may seem. If it is done for the love of God it can become deeply meaningful and profoundly useful in the larger scheme of things. And when we have firmly established this practice in our hearts, then, the more difficult a task is, the more joy we can find in offering it up to God. In this way, one may even gain access to the highest bliss through something so (apparently) stressful -- nay, agonizing, -- as being nailed to a cross.
IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 08, 2009 01:59 AM
A Mystic is one who intuitively perceives the Truth and, without mental process, arrives at Spiritual Realization. Our great religions have been given by a few who climbed the heights of spiritual vision and caught a fleeting glimpse of Ultimate Reality... The Mystic does not read human thought, but rather senses the atmosphere of God. The Mystics of every age have seen, sensed and taught THE SAME TRUTH. All the mystic experience throughout the ages have revealed One Truth. The teaching of the mystics has been that there should be conscious courting of Divine Presence. We need a "conscious receptivity" to it, although a balanced one... It is through the teachings of the illumined that the Spiritual Universe reveals Itself, imparting to us what we know about God. Jesus taught a Power transcendant, triumphant, absolute, positive, against which lesser laws meant nothing. By Its very Presence It heals. The mystics did not contend or argue with people. There was nothing to argue about. THEY SAW and KNEW. They are the great revealers to man of the nature of the Universe, and the relationship of man to God.~ Ernest Holmes, "The Science of Mind" IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 08, 2009 02:04 AM
Whenever he considered doing some good deed, he always consulted God about it, saying, "Lord, I will never be able to do that if You don't help me." Immediately, he would be given more than enough strength. When he sinned, he confessed it to God with these words: "I can do nothing better without You. Please keep me from falling and correct the mistakes I make." After that, he did not feel guilty about sin. Brother Lawrence pointed out that he spoke very simply and frankly to God. He asked for help with things as he needed it, and his experience had been that God never failed to respond.
~ The Practice of The Presence of God
IP: Logged |
ghanima81
Moderator Posts: 795
From: Maine
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted April 08, 2009 09:13 AM
If that's what you or others want to do, HSC, then sure. I see where you are coming from. But not everybody wants that. I don't see anything wrong with a little escapism. Not everything in life has to be about a quest for spirituality or enlightenment, nor does it all have to be about superficial escapes. There is a balance, and there is nothing wrong with finding one. I'm sorry, but I find your words in this thread condescending and rude, in a sugarcoated kind of way. Maybe I'm off base, but it seems that you don't respect people unless they are on the same path as you are, and that just seems like the opposite of what you say you are trying to do. A way to love people for who they are and show them that respect is not to continue to bring up reasons why your way of thinking is right and not at least say "okay, I see your point, and if it makes you happy, then that is good enough for me". Just my opinion. Your way makes you happy, and that's good enough for me. Node, I have read a few of those and really enjoyed them as well. I agree, she has a way of creating a character that seems very complete and real. Every time I finish one of her books, I want to continue the persons story, I wish it wasn't over because they have become like a friend.
IP: Logged |
librarising
Knowflake Posts: 113
From:
Registered: May 2009
|
posted April 08, 2009 09:28 AM
And the Band Played OnIP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Newflake Posts: 2
From:
Registered: Nov 2010
|
posted April 09, 2009 09:41 AM
Ghani, I appreciate the effort I see you making here to communicate your opinion fairly. I do not agree that I am seeing things in black and white. I see value in many paths, and I have said in this thread that I see the value in occassional escapism. But it is true that my words are relatively uncompromising in support of what I see to be virtuous ideals, and I think that's alright. I see value in having high ideals and in promoting them in no uncertain terms. If that makes someone else feel challenged, I would argue that the challenge they experience is their business, and not my own. Just as it is no reflection on me if, when I make efforts at diplomacy without sacrificing my values, it appears to them as "sugar-coating". I do not wish to appear inflexible, but there are some things which I must not waver in support of. I hope you can respect that. Peace.IP: Logged |
Lindaland
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
