Mon 4 Jul 2011
A reading meme
Posted by PJ under books, meme, reading
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What books are currently on your desk?
I don’t have any books on my desk. There is a cat on my desk. However, on the table next to my reading chair there are these books:
Fairy Paths and Spirit Roads: Exploring Otherworldly Routes in the Old and New Worlds by Paul Devereux. This is a semi-anthropological exploration of landscape features which may be the remnants of “spirit roads” used in ancient religious rituals. Devereux gives directions on how to get to these places and any folk traditions that still cling to them.
The Creole by Ray La Scola. A historical romance from the 1960s.
Lover Revealed by J. R. Ward. A paranormal romance. Great escapism.
By Oak, Ash, & Thorn: Modern Celtic Shamanism by D. J. Conway. A how-to-do-it guide—which generally makes me very skeptical when dealing with something which disappeared two thousand years ago. BUT, I’m fascinated by the hints and fragments of Western shamanism that still exist and how Ms. Conway brings those together to make a coherent, modern tool for self-exploration. Not that I expect to become a shaman. I’m a writer. That’s as close to shamanhood as I expect or want to get. But I have been working on an idea about a prehistoric Western European shaman. There’s only so far Mircea Eliade is going to take a girl.
Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway by Bruce Caron and Jeff Brouws. Beautiful picture-book exploration of this world.
The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists by Irene Taylor and Alan Taylor. A compendium of diary entries for every day of the year on a wide range of subjects and perspectives. I like looking at the entries on the same day that they were written. It’s fascinating to see what someone else was experiencing on that day.
