books!

[bluegreen17]

finally got my eyes checked. apparently i hadn't been since september of '99. yikes. well,the old eyes look healthy,good pressure,etc. i have become a lot more nearsighted,which i rather knew,squinting so much. doc says i probably shouldn't be getting that much more nearsighted in my forties,but i've been getting more nearsighted since age 10. so he wants to do an eye dilation test because of some concern with the lens of the eye.
that'll put me a bit over budget,even though i got one of the cheapest frames,which were $110.

because i'm so nearsighted,though,i don't have to get bifocals just yet. yay!

on the way home,i dropped by the library to drop off some books and gandhi,and ended up bringing another armload home. no movies this time.two wayne dyer books,nietszche's thus spake zarathustra (recommended by osho in his book books i have loved,which i read some of last week. it's a riot! he's a riot! anyhow...),a sociology book called the middle mind,which is about 'unquestioned mediocrity'...haven't read it yet,but i think it's about people who do things because it's popular,everyone else is,it was on tv,and the president said so,etc. i.e.,not using your own discernment;the politics of experience by r.d. laing, and autobiography of a yogi by yogananda. you know,the usual fluff.

actually,there were some free books at work this week and i took two home that were war suspense novels...thought i'd read something different. but i'll bet i'll never do so,because there will probably something else i'm more interested in doing. but what the hell,they were free.

and now i'm going to stop writing because it's time to eat and i break for food.

Comments

weird coinky-dink!

[solarfields.livejournal.com]

They were giving away free books at work today too. Mostly young adult, but I grabbed a couple Madeleine L'Engle that I never read and a book by Scott O'Dell about Sacajawea. Should be easy to read! :D

Re: weird coinky-dink!

[bluegreen17]

ha. that's funny. i wouldn't expect you to get free books where you work,but,hey...cool. did you get wrinkle in time? i reread that just a few years ago and the ending is sooo amazing and beautiful,and the whole book is fun to read,and gives food for thought and for the soul! if not,you must borrow that from the library sometime and read it. that's an order! how i've 'pulled rank' on you i have no idea,but what the hell...

Re: weird coinky-dink!

[solarfields.livejournal.com]

hehe...so you are a northern light now and no longer an aurora?

Yes! I got A Wrinkle in Time! And some other one I had not heard of.

I think someone at work was cleaning out at home and brought in the leftovers, actually. I can't figure how else it happened. :P

borealis and tesseracts

[bluegreen17]

glad you got that book. you can learn about tesseracts...

you know that aurora borealis is northern lights,yes?

Re: borealis and tesseracts

[solarfields.livejournal.com]

I knew they were one and the same, I just thought yor liked the word aurora and you got rid of it!

Re: borealis and tesseracts

[bluegreen17]

oh,i do like aurora(s),the word and the phenomenon(a)?,but i like the phrase 'northern light(s)' too...so,just for a change...

Those fortunate with good eyesight, how I envy you.

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

My eyesight is terrible. I'm glad yours is fine though! Books are awesome. If I didn't have them I don't know what'd I do. ^_^ I friended you, is that okay?

*squint*

[bluegreen17]

actually,my eyes are healthy,which i guess means there dont' seem to be signs of cataracts or glaucoma or whatever,but indeed i am extremely nearsighted! i've been wearing glasses for 35 years. yikes. anyhow...

i've been a booklover for even longer. and i'm thrilled that my teenage neice is also. she even reads nonfiction,bless her,so i can recommend some stuff to her. i've read all sorts of stuff over the years,but i don't read much fiction these days,though i do read a bit of fanfiction.

i'm always flattered when someone friends me,so,yes,it's more than okay.i'm not really into slash that much (though i don't resist reading BOB stories,generally),but maybe there are other things i write about that may interest you.

oh,dear,you're a republican. no,really,i don't like bush or the republican party,but on the other hand,i don't reject folks just because of stuff like that and in fact it's interesting to read other viewpoints.you're not the only republican i connect with on lj! i don't write much political stuff,but occasionally i get snarky or sarcastic or annoyed at bush and some others,and write something here,so as long as you don't take it personally...

bush tends to be a scapegoat for a lot of things i don't like,but if i ever encountered the man in person,i would probably treat him with consideration as i try to do to everyone. i have to remind myself i don't hate him,but some of the things he does,which is different. geez,i hope i haven't offended you already,but hey,i figure better to be straightforward. and other than my love for gandhi and pacifism,i'm not that political on my lj.

yes,i love BOB and have respect for soldiers while at the same time not wishing they have to do what they do...anyhow,i'll shut up now!

thanks for your note and i hope i haven't scared you off. really,i'm quite friendly.

Re: *squint*

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

Ah, you haven't offended me! There is no point in getting riled up over politics, religion, or whatever else. No one is going to change any one's mind.

Sorry it can't be a much longer reply, I'm illegally using a computer. ^_^

Re: *squint*

[bluegreen17]

illegally using a computer? how evil of you!

your icon reminds me that i think i gave my vhs copy of 'saving private ryan' to the library. dang. oh,well,they now have it on dvd,which i can borrow and it will be even better...i'm have a hankering for mellish/adam goldberg at the moment.

Re: *squint*

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

Not evil really...more like sinful. ^_^ Burn me baby. ^_^

Aren't the icons lovely! They were made for me by Yorda, sucha sweet gal. Yow! Now you're speaking my language. I adore that pairing. ^_^

?

[bluegreen17]

which pairing do you mean?

Re: ?

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

Uhm...my mistake. ::giggle:: I think I responded thinking of something else. I met to say I love Goldberg. I'm such a dork. ^_^

[allogenes.livejournal.com]

Laing is always good--I think I have all of his books. :-)

laing

[bluegreen17]

well,i couldn't get into politics of experience,but maybe another time. i'd probably do better with a biography of him at the moment-his ideas intrigue me.

T.P.O.E.

[allogenes.livejournal.com]

His bio is too depressing. Did you read the poetry/Prosem at the end of the book? It is the section called "The Bird of Paradise" and as near as I can tell it is not really part of the rest of the book. It is disturbing at points but it reveals a lot. I also like the quote from the Gospel of Thomas at the beginning...

TPOE is the most disconnected of his books--it is all papers and such from other sources collected together. The others are single pieces written for a single purpose. More connected.

I started reading about him with a chapter in a book summarizing the work of various personality theorists in Psychology. He intrigued me as the only psychologist discussed in that class that seemed to know anything about humans. (As opposed to Freud, Jung, Horney, etc., etc...)

I have an extra copy of Laing's book, Knots if you have an address for me to send it to, I'd gladly mail it. (I actually have three copies...for some unknown reason.) It is a small paperback so it wouldn't cost me anything real to mail it. It may be the best of his books, as it is mostly scripts of one sort or another displaying the "webs of maya" that we humans find ourselves trapped within... No theory, just language traps! :-)

knots

[bluegreen17]

well,how kind of you! i'd be glad to reimburse you for the postage. i'll email you with my address. thanks!

oh,i did scan that 'bird of paradise' chapter and was quite turned off by that. was he tripping when he wrote that? ha. anyhow,'knots' sounds interesting,and he sounds interesting in general.

Re: knots

[allogenes.livejournal.com]

By the end of his life he was a de facto Buddhist, and like a lot of western science/medicine types he brought his tragic sense of depression to that. Knots is less intense than bird of paradise, but it is a description of maya and therefore it contains some pain. The key is to recognize that these are all cautionary tales or reports from the pit of despair. And in the end, escape is possible. (I mean that in a good way!)

No--I don't think he was tripping when he wrote that--I think that he was permanently in that state of consciousness. Most people figure he was schizophrenic himself, perhaps that is why he is one of the few psychiatrists who seems to have really understood them.

When you start reading knots try to listen to the music and the mathematical structure--you'll hear some of your own thoughts, but even more so, you'll hear real pathology from other people that you recognize. And perhaps you'll even understand why it is pathological and how you can disentangle yourself from it. It did help me a while back.

Re: knots

[bluegreen17]

i got your email. thanks. may you be blessed with some good karma for your generousity and helping to spread the laing gospel!

since i have a somewhat tragic sense of depression,perhaps i should stay away from buddhism myself! for a long long time i thought it was the best way to go,but now i think more along the lines of just being a buddha myself,rather than following a religion buddha never created. i like hesse's siddhartha a lot,and it's not buddhist,in my opinion! more like hindu self-realization/enlightenment/whatever the heck you want to call it...

i'm glad to know that escape is possible,in a good way!

the way you suggest i read it makes me think i should just try to absorb and not try too hard to intellectually understand it...if that's what you mean.

anyway,thanks again. it will be a good addition to the scope of things i'm aware of.