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Currently Reading
RuddyDuck9
MD, USA Veteran
So I'm in three book clubs (we meet both in person and online) and am pretty much that weirdo who can't stop reading multiple books at once. Anyone want to chip in the books they are loving right now?
I just got to the bit in DuMaurier's Rebecca where they found the wife's ship..... 
This book just went from typical Jane Eyre style romance to unexpected thriller.... !! Did anyone else who has read it make the Maxim/ Rochester connection?
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I read a lot, too, usually many different types of books. Right now I am reading Stephen King "End of Watch" which is the last book in a trilogy. Crime/mystery, series is very good.
Also currently working on
Room by Emma Donague (just started but excellent, about a woman being held in a room and she has a little boy with her, and she tries to make his world ok)
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (I am not generally a big Tolle fan but several quotes I saw from this book made me cry on a blog so I bought it)
The Sanity We are Born With: A Buddhist Approach to Psychology by Chogyam Trungpa
Radical Compassion (which is a collection of authors)
I'm also reading a couple that are more projects where you read and then work on something. Like Spark Joy, which is for organizing the home and getting rid of clutter. And another on low carbohydrate endurance racing, lol
I jump around a lot. It'll take me half the summer to finish these, lol.
Am reading Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
I jump around a lot, too. I always have books stacked around the house. We read "Room" for one of my groups at the beginning of the year, and it really was a fantastic study in psychology, congitive formation in youngsters, and PTSD/ trauma. I have the movie, too, which I felt did a good job of portraying the book, but of course the book is able to cover so much more than what a film could ever show.
On my various stacks I have: Rebecca (DuMaurier), Drangonquest (McCeffrey), The Other (Tryon), a study on happiness by HHDL, She's Come Undone (Lamb), Fried Green Tomatoes (Flagg).... I don't know that I necessarily need to keep going....
I can't just read one book at a time.
@karasti Endurance racing, eh? Do you race?
@Kerome is that a good book for beginners, or is the title misleading?
@RuddyDuck9 I run in races, I wouldn't say I race, lol (since I am in no way competing to win). But they are trail races and much longer time wise than road races, so taking in calories becomes a big issues when you are talking 8+ hours. There are a few runners in the groups I'm in who are fat adapted, and they can run much longer without fueling, and without ever "bonking" from running out of glucose because their bodies are trained to burn fat (in a nutshell, it's a bit more complex than that). It's something I am looking at, because I have a hard time eating when I run, especially when it's hot, and I'd like to move up to longer distances but I have to figure out how to handle the eating part before I can do that.
The Marshmallow Test (understanding Self-Control and how to master it) - Walter Mischel
In the Light of Death (Spiritual Insights to Help You Live with Death and Bereavement) - Timothy Freke
The Feminine Face of Buddhism - Gill Farrer-Halls
First Aid at Work - Ashbury Training (revising for professional reasons: I am a First-Aider at work....)
You know what, I've been meaning to read Rebecca ever since I read The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follet, in which they use it to decipher codes in WWII. It sounded really good.
I'm currently taking a break from heavy-reading and right now I'm reading Idol of Blood by Jane Kindred (don't judge me).
Fax Me A Bagel by Sharon Kahn.
From the review by Alan M Dershowitz, "Smart and not too schmaltzy, it brings the dill pickles of the Lower East Side to a small town in Texas".
@karasti have you tried those gel packs? They are nutrient rich and you basically swallow them whole like jello. They don't rumble around in your belly like a rock, which is good, but they keep you from passing out. You can get them online or at any sports-enthusiast store (i think...)
@grackle Fax me a Bagel?
I must know more about this one!
I don't read books any more.
...art thou....?
(I know what 'wherefore' means.... I'm English. Shakespeare an' me, we is like dat.... )
I'm sorry @federica
(places foot in mouth) (or wait... i'm typing, so I'll put my keyboard in.... no... anyhow, I'm sorry for being a dolt.) 
Love the squirrel.
Speaking of Billy S, my hubs & I saw a local production of Much Ado this past weekend and it was pretty good, but the finer points of the play were all but lost. Cute flapper-style staging though.
I was recently put on long term disability due to two significant health issues. Plenty of time to fill but unable to walk or stand for extended periods. Time spent drawing, reading, trying to learn French using an online program. Finished a novel by Charles Bukowski called Ham on Rye. An autobiographical novel about growing up in Los Angeles in the 30s and 40s. His odyssey from an abused child to a a young adult drunk who trusts nobody. Sad but fascinating. Watched youtube interviews with him from later in life after reading the book.
I've been reading, over the past months, 'The Art of Happiness - HH. The Dalai Lama', 'The Monk who sold his ferrari', 'the heart of the buddha's teachings - Thich Naht Hanh', Buddhism without beliefs: the contemporary guide to awakening', 'An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics', 'Buddhism Plain and Simple', 'The Dhammapada' and currently 'The Miracle of Mindfulness - Thich Naht Hanh'
I've been reading a lot, I would say! this is alongside large volumes of coursework in which I always have
Flat Spin by David Freed
It's since I got the internet and a widescreen TV.
I have still got lots of Buddhist books, but that's all on the internet too.
Me too @SpinyNorman ^^.
I like reading encyclopaedias
I iz so nerd.
... so Wikipedia is the better choice ...
You can even write online Buddhist books collaboratively, here is one I started ... all welcome to contribute ...
http://opcoa.st/0fKny
The end of Rebecca is one part delicious, one part shocking, and three parts ghastly. It's a great twist, but I just can't sympathize with the characters, now. I've moved on to a mercy by Toni Morrison, which is historical fiction from a slave narrative pov.
Browsing through Boundless Healing by Tulku Thondup. I like the first part which is basically inspiration or motivation to meditation but the actual healing meditation in the book is far too detailed for me. (Or perhaps I'm just lazy but I'd rather stay in the TNH army than dabble in the complex Tibetan Buddhist meditations. Sure it is a profound meditation and if you really learn it and immerse yourself in it will be worth it but the amount of details in it is rather impressive.)
I do like his writing but maybe that is not what matters here..
@Shim what matters is what you need from it. How is the healing med. complicated? I think if I was trying to do a sit and had to keep looking back at instructions I'd probably give up on it. I'm all for study, but maybe this one is just too complex for us at our current stage?
Just finished re-reading Ajahn Sumedho's The Sound of Silence. Currently reading Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhism by Venerable Analayo.
@Lonely_Traveller what spurred you to read Silence again? I'm almost never able to get time for a second read.
I'm unemployed due to Schizophrenia so have plenty of time to read and meditate. My Thai Forest Tradition books are well battered, I've read all the books several times - its my main traditional input. I find Ajahn Sumedho a very clear and humorous teacher so he's worth reading again and again. If I wasn't reading I'd only be wasting my time playing Elder Scrolls Online or some other MMORPG.
@Lonely_Traveller I respond well to clear and humorous, as well. I have never read anythign by A. Sumedho, but your description sounds well worth it!
The meditation had 12 stages, ranging from visualising your intestines to making some kind of lotus movements with your hands and some of the stages had alternative versions. It probably depends on the practicioner, if I was a committed Vajrayana person I'd be used to that kind of meditation or at least well-prepared - but I am not. (And I can't do two things at the same time! At least not read a book and meditate. I've tried. (Even if the meditation instruction is one paragraph long I have to keep looking at it several times during the sit... Maybe that's were the two hours would be spent.)
Ironically, I've also read The Healing Power of Mind by Tulku Thondup which has several healing meditations but I thought they were a bit too 'simple'. Or how should I put it, it felt a bit like a recipe book. Add a grain of this and that. However, I did like the book, I kind of miss it now... Just couldn't fully grok the meditations. But now having read - or browsed through - Boundless Healing I can't help wondering what's the point with those simple meditations if you need the hugely detailed one with 12 stages and 2 hours... Whatever floats your goat, I guess. (Or maybe I'm just looking for a quick fix...)
And still, both of those books kind of inspired me to get back to the Buddhist practices again so there must be something in them. Go figure.
(But I'm an on-off non-Buddhist. What inspires me might not inspire the real ones.)
aren't we all a bit on and off? I call myself a follower of Buddhism even if I fail at it every day.
Sure we are! But I'm happily on the 'off' side most of the time. I just dabble in the practices every now and then. (I've given up on most of the philosophy...)
So now I'm just trying to find a book that gives me a quick fix spiritual practice that provides me everything I need and doesn't require any serious commitments. Oh well...
@Shim I think if you're not into anything that requires commitment, then perhaps what you really need is athiesm?
I think you're either in it or you're not. Only you can say for sure though! :P
I admire your honesty, @Shim. Just knowing that what you've studied about Buddhism thus far has drawn you to it and are already getting something constructive from it in your life. I shy away from all the repetitive stuff in Buddhist study because it's just crazy to me in a sense. I think I get it without poring over every book or YT video in existence plus I don't have the stamina for that.
I've read quite a few books about Buddhism, but the one I consider my go-to - my bible of sorts, is the biography written by Master TNH...it's called Old Path White Clouds. fwiw.
I've just started "The Mindfulness Survival Kit; Five Essential Practises" by Thich Nhat Hanh
@dhammachick Thanks for the mention of the book. Just ordered it online.
How many books has TNH written? He's very prolific!
I just ordered Stephen Batchelor's new book, "After Buddhism", that analyses the corpus of the Buddha's teachings from the perspective of his "Secular Buddhism". I attended a retreat he lead a few years ago, and I think some the material in lectures he gave there, which were excellent and very insightful, will be in the book. His explanations for some key concepts like "no self" are simple and direct, easier to understand than the more traditional way of explaining things. According to the reviews, though, it's a very scholarly book, and discusses controversies in the interpretation of the Pali Canon.
Sounds interesting.
I like Batchelor's thinking. One of the first books I ever read about Buddhism was his "Living With the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil." I had no idea what to expect, but once I started reading it, I was that much more drawn in to discovering more about Buddhism. I just put a hold on "After Buddhism" and "Living With the Devil" - my library has quite a few of his books available.
Ha, so I'm not the only one! It seems a lot of Buddhists love to delve deep into the philosophy, read every book about it and watch every video but that has always made me even more confused. To each their own, I guess.
Plenty! (I wonder if there is anyone who keeps count..) Actually most of his books are based on his talks (written down by his students if I'm correct) which are also freely available on the internet so you don't need to read all of them, but on the other hand, at least there is a TNH book for everyone and every situation. (I just purchased a couple of his books since I don't have any at the moment after getting rid of my small Buddhist book collection a year or so ago...)
Inxdeed, I really like TNH's writings. They are easy to read, thought provoking and maybe it's just me, but I can really feel the love and care he puts into his words.
I just started Dead Souls by Gogol.
(I'm a Russian lit junkie...)
We look forward to a review.
I recently finished "After Buddhism" as a follow up to to reading "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist". Both were excellent books. I am currently working in "Don't be a Jerk" by Brad Warner. Both authors have insightful teachings on Buddhist practice in our modern society.
I just started reading a version of the Christian Bible which includes only the "red" text: words which are meant to have been spoken by Jesus of Naz in his day. I like the idea of this because it's like listening to a Buddha instead of listening to a follower of a Buddha. I also really love the idea of skipping all those neverending genaeology bits that you can't escape from in the Pentateuch. Those are difficult for me to get through. Anyhow, what I'm finding is that the "words of Jesus" are not as loving and clean as i originally thought they would be.
_For example: "...and if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell..." from the book of Matthew, section 4, I believe. _
So I get that this is literature, and that this is a metaphor for didactic purposes. And I get that a bad weed can ruin an entire crop or what have you... but I didn't realize that the teachings were this specifically tough. Like... straighten up or else, son!
I'm currently rereading The Brothers Karamazov. One of my favourite books.
Who's your favourite character? I usually don't like holy-holy-holy characters, but Alyosha is just so great.
Empty Cloud, The autobiography of Xu Yun translated by Charles Luk.
Alyosha is definitely my favourite. I really like Fr. Zosima's character, as well. I also have a soft spot for Ivan.
Of course, us Jews today still bear the karma of that action, be it with Christians who tell us "the Jews killed Jesus" (Pontius Pilate was a Roman but whatever), being told every Jew is responsible for the death of every Palestinian that has ever existed (even though I'm Australian and not Israeli and have never BEEN to Israel) and often have to think through our actions because what we do gets every other Jew judged. Is this a fair outcome? It depends on the individual and collective karma of the Sanhedrin, Jews and Israel IMO.
I have the unique position of having a Jewish mother and a Catholic father (yes, the guilt is strong in this one
). I was raised a Catholic and only embraced my Jewishness as an adult in my late 20's. So I can see both sides of the situation. However, it is because of this perspective that I think @RuddyDuck9 is correct in the assessment of Jesus as a tough love teacher.
Just my 0.02 though, YMMV.
_ /\ _
Bravo
Outstanding understanding of how to read and digest. There is for some of us a tendency to cram, a sort of spiritual hunger ... Nutrition however requires chewing ...
Well battered and deep fried. Yum.
Ohh, I forgot about Zosima! Love him, too. As well as Ivan. He always reminds me of my brother.
Just picked up Radical Dharma by angel Kyodo williams. I read an excerpt by her in BuddhaDharma magazine for summer. i quite enjoyed it and was interested in what else she has to suggest for dealing with the race issues we are seeing. I just started it, but so far I really enjoy what she says and her writing style. Something she said that has been on my mind a lot lately:
"More poignantly, our challenge, our responsibility, our deep resounding call is to be at the forefront of this overdue evolutionary thrust forward. Why? Because we chose to position ourselves as the standard-bearers of an ethical high ground. And we have the tools and teachings to do so."