For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:
Book reviews on Yahoo
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:
Book reviews on Yahoo
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:
Book reviews on Yahoo
(This is a cross-post from GOS.)
I first encounter the Tao Te Ching when I was in college. After I graduated I looked for a good version of the book and it took a few years and the help of some Chinese friends but I finally found the perfect book. It is translated by Gia-Fu Feng and illustrated by Jane English. What made this book so unique is that it has the translations but it also has the original in calligraphy on black and white photographs. It is quite simply one of the most beautiful books I own.
The Tao Te Ching was written by Lao Tsu in the 6th Century B.C. There are 81 chapters and approximately 5,000 words. Tao means “the way.” According to Rowena Partee Kryde who founded the Creative Harmonics Institute in Mount Shasta, California there are four basic tenets of traditional Taoism.
1. The way of Tao underlies all things.
2. That human interaction that is harmonious with Tao is spontaneous, effortless, and inexhaustible.
3. That the perfected individual is a sage, free from desire and strife.
4. That the sage conducts government by guiding his people back to a state of harmony with Tao.
The chapters are short but very profound.
Chapter 8
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight: No blame.
Chapter 11
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
Much of the Tao Te Ching is very mystical. It speaks of simplicity in life. It speaks of the unknowable and trying to live with the unknown. It is the opposite of our Western driven world where power and greed are rampant.
When I first read the Tao Te Ching in college one of my art teachers told me that I had the greatest sense of “space” in any artist he had ever taught. He remarked that I knew that what wasn’t there was just as important as what was there. He loved the fact that I didn’t always try and fill my canvas to the brim. I knew how to let the blank spaces be part of my art. The Tao of Art.
I learned that from the Tao Te Ching. I learned that possessions aren’t the important things. I learned that what is inside and how I treat others are infinitely more important then personal power and acquisitions. I can’t say that I even now fully understand the Tao Te Ching but I find in times of great stress that sitting down and reading it soothes me. I learned to love and value nature. I learned balance and harmony. For something of only 5,000 words I found that the Tao Te Ching taught me some of the most important lessons I learned about life.
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:
Book reviews on Yahoo
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try Bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices
Just finished
(started and finished) Taken by Robert Crais. This is the latest in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. For those who don’t know the series, these are two very tough detectives. This novel begins when Cole is contacted by the mother of a young woman who has disappeared and then called with a ransom demand for $500. The mother thinks she has run off with her boyfriend, but the truth is much darker: She has been captured by bajadores: Criminals on both sides of the US-Mexico border who prey on undocumented workers. After that, there’s a lot of action and violence and the plot keeps zipping along. NOTE: There are scenes of torture, not overly graphic, that may be disturbing to some.
Snakes can’t run by Ed Lin A mystery/police procedural set in NYC’s Chinatown in the 1970s. “Snakes” is a slang term for illegal immigrants. Although there is some good atmosphere of Chinatown, the prose (and especially the dialogue) is kind of clunky.
Now reading
Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.
What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads. This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.
The hard SF renaissance ed. by David G. Hartwell. A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.
On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.
Far from the Tree: Parents, children and the search for identity by Andrew Solomon.
The title comes from the phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. This book is about apples (children) who did fall far from the tree (parents). This book got amazing reviews and it grabbed me from the opening:
“There is no such thing as reproduction. When two people decide to have a baby, they engage in an act of production, and the widespread use of the word reproduction for this activity, with its implication that two people are but braiding themselves together, is at best a euphemism to comfort prospective parents before they get in over their heads”
I don’t agree with all that Solomon says, but this is a book to make you think about deep questions of humanity.
Rayburn: A Biography by D. B. Hardeman. A very admiring look at Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the House.
He, she and it by Marge Percy. Really only a couple pages into it, but it’s near future dystopian SF set on Earth.
Just started
Nothing this week
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try Bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices
Just finished
Nothing this week
Now reading
Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.
What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads. This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.
The hard SF renaissance ed. by David G. Hartwell. A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.
On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.
Snakes can’t run by Ed Lin
A mystery/police procedural set in NYC’s Chinatown in the 1970s. “Snakes” is a slang term for illegal immigrants.
Far from the Tree: Parents, children and the search for identity by Andrew Solomon.
The title comes from the phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. This book is about apples (children) who did fall far from the tree (parents). This book got amazing reviews and it grabbed me from the opening:
“There is no such thing as reproduction. When two people decide to have a baby, they engage in an act of production, and the widespread use of the word reproduction for this activity, with its implication that two people are but braiding themselves together, is at best a euphemism to comfort prospective parents before they get in over their heads”
I don’t agree with all that Solomon says, but this is a book to make you think about deep questions of humanity.
Rayburn: A Biography by D. B. Hardeman. A very admiring look at Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the House.
Just started
He, she and it by Marge Percy. Really only a couple pages into it, but it’s near future dystopian SF set on Earth.
For those who are new … we discuss books. I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:
Book reviews on Yahoo