Money and life purpose seem to be sometimes circular topics that spiral in opposite directions, at least they seem to have always been for me. What I wanted to do for work was not what I found I must do to make money. Or, when I finally had a little more money, suddenly I’d have…
Category: Books and Literature
Books I read, quotes from literature, poetry by others (usually public domain), and reviews.
The Song of Wandering Aengus
The Song of Wandering Aengus
by William Butler Yeats
“I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
Saving Captain Kirk
Ever since all the reading I did about journal writing recently, I’ve been fascinated with diaries and letters (again – as a teen I soaked up collections of Anne Morrow Lindberg’s letters as well as several memoirs by others, the most unforgettable for me being Jane Goodall’s account of life with the wild chimpanzees, In…
Eternity’s Sunrise
Review: Eternity’s Sunrise: A Way of Keeping a Diary by Marion Milner. This was a satisfying read in that the author was aging at this point and became if possible even more introspective, and it was fascinating to follow the delight she took in seemingly simple things but on a much deeper level.
Books about diaries or personal journals
For many years I’ve kept personal journals. I don’t mean blogs (though I’ve kept a few of those as well in recent years), but paper journals that I write for me alone. Journals (or diaries) have been an important outlet for me since I was a teenager, though I’ve kept them more regularly at some…
The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the Goddess in ancient belief and myth, why She vanished, as well as why women have been treated so abysmally at certain times in history in nearly every culture, this book makes fascinating and disturbing reading. It’s just a theory, mind you, and I find myself hoping he’s…
The argument for fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
In an interview at Alternet titled “Michael Pollan Debunks Food Myths,” author Michael Pollan discusses his new book, In Defense of Food. He talks about why news of the latest scientific nutritional studies is probably not the best source for nutrition information, and how the best eating advice given to Americans in the past five…
Some thoughts on The Universe in a Single Atom
Just some thoughts I’ve had while in the middle of reading a book titled, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. It was written by Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteeenth Dalai Lama, recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize and religious and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. It’s not…
Edgar Allan Poe
Dear Mr. Poe, Thank you for the poetry, the stories, the mystery. Happy Birthday. Respectfully, a fan * * * The Raven (excerpt) And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s…
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, by Jean-Yves Leloup
The existence of the Gospel of Mary was brought to light in Cairo in 1896. Some fifty years later, what are now known as the gnostic gospels were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Jean-Yves Leloup provides here a fascinating interpretation and commentary of the Gospel of Mary, with a few rewarding diversions into other texts, including some surprising revelations, and his alternate translation of excerpts from other gospels.