You are currently Absolutely
Elsewhere:
Books Are
Life
Forget the tv,
the web, the mall. When I want to relax, to go someplace else, to
be somebody else, or to learn something about the world I still pick up
those musty collections of bound bits of paper called books. I'll
admit it, I'm a bibliophile. Some of my best friends are books, or
characters in them. I've fought in wars from Roman times on up--
even some that never existed-- with the help of books. And I won
them all. Except the War of the Roses. But that's a different
story. I've explored the outer reaches of my mind and the inner reaches
of the universe, and I've stood on Walden pond on a clear winter day.
Here you'll find informative books, fiction books, books that made me stop
and think, books that have made it impossible for me to communicate with
people who haven't read them, books that have made me able to communicate
with anything at all. I'll always be adding to them. Take note
that while some of these books are intended to be further reading for specific
essays or topics on this site, most are just books that have caught my
heart. I take no responsibility for the relevance of these books
in your life. I just love them.
Books
that imitate life, examine life, or are just plain facinating
Fantasy and Science Fiction
By David Brin:
The Uplift Series,
Sundiver, Startide Rising,
and the Uplift War
Brightness Reef
These books take place in
a future civilization where the Universe is full of intricate clans of
aliens who have been uplifting sentient species since time began.
And the wolfling clan of Earth; humans, chimps and dolphins, who brought
themselves to the stars the hard way, is fighting for survival and trying
to find a place in a hostile universe.
by Zenna Henderson:
The People Stories and other
shorts:
Pilgrimage, Ingathering
(later collection), The Anything Box, Holding Wonder
The stories of the People and the other short stories in
these anthologies are incredibly different science fiction, and they're
also an incredible pick-me-up. It's great to read something by an
author who really has faith in the human race, even if she recognizes their
weaknesses, and these are some of them. The People are a race of
human-like aliens who fled to Earth when their planet was destroyed, and
have been hiding among us and trying to help us since the turn of the century.
Simple premise; wonderful outcomes.
by Robert Holdstock:
Mythago Wood, Lavondyss,
and the Hollowing
These books explore myth,
reality, and the human subconscious, but they're also captivating adventures
set in a mythical world that is three square miles of forest in England.
by P.C. Hodgell:
The Kencyrath Books
God Stalk, Dark of the
Moon, Shadow Mask (?)
Gothic (as in gothic novels,
not people dressed in black with pale faces) adventure fantasy done well,
in a new and refreshing way. They're hard to find, but once you read
them, you'll never stop thinking about the world of Rathillien and the
thousand gods of the city of Tai-Tastigon. NOT your everyday fanstasy
series, no elves, no great Quests just and a dark, beautiful world,
intriguing characters and a sly sense of humor.
by Guy Gavriel
Kay:
Tigana, A Song for Arbonne,
and the Lions of Al-Rassan
They're not adventure fantasy,
even though there's adventure, they're not sword and sorcery, though they
have both, and they're not High Fantasy, they're historical fantasy.
In each book, Gavriel Kay has created intricate worlds that mirror those
of medieval Italy, Provence, and Spain, and peopled them with grand characters.
Each is an amazing, heady, passionate exploration into history and humans,
and also just a damned good read.
William Shakespeare
Read the plays, go to the productions,
study them, live them, breathe them. The man was a genius, and his
plays are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote them.
I started reading them in seventh grade; they're not hard to understand
if you keep at them and remember to speak the words out loud.
Try Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing,
the Taming of the Shrew, and Henry V for starters. I suggest
these because you can find movies of each, and they are some of the best
of each of his categories: tragedy, tragi-comedy, comedy and history.
Philosophy
Thoreau
Walden, On the Duty of
Civil Disobedience, and anything else you can find
Plato
The Trial of Socrates,
the Phaedo, the Credo, the Republic, the Gorgias
Kafka
The Judgement, Metamorphosis,
In the Penal Colony, and other stories
Novels: The Trial
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter From Birmingham Jail; Strength to Love (Collected Sermons)
Books
of scholarship
Ethnographies and Histories and
other books on People
The Navajo
by Clyde Kluckhon
a good ethnography of a
fascinating group of people
The History of the English-Speaking Peoples
by Sir Winston Churchill
Remember to take into account that this is a prime minister of Britian who's writing this account, but his style is amazing, and he really makes
centuries of history and dead people come back to life.
Herbology
The Complete Book of Herbs
by Lesley Bremness
The New Age Herbalist
ed. by Richard Mabey
Herbal Medicine: the Natural Way to
Get Well and Stay Well
by Dian Dincin Buchman
Mother Nature's Herbal
by Judy Griffin
Books on the Occult and
the Pagan
Tarot
Back to the
Obligatory Tarot
Wicca
Margot Adler
Drawing Down the Moon
D. J. Conway
Moon Magick, Celtic Magick, and
Maiden, Mother, Crone
Scott Cunningham
Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner
And finally, of course
Written and designed by Kat, Sinister Produce Ink,
1998