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Loved the e-myth! I am reading "the history of chocolate" and "the best food writing of 2004".

Hey, this librarian can always talk about books. Just finished about half of Dave Eggers What Is the What and about a third of Michael Albert's Parecon: Life After Capitalism. The Eggers book wasn't going fast enough for me and the Albert title was a library loan and I ran out of time.

So, now I'm in a little transition. I usually like to be reading a book that I just can't put down and then another one that just has to be read slowly and deliberately. Alas, I now have three books in the second category - these are being digested slow and easy.

• Mentoring The Tao of Giving and Receiving Wisdom by Al Chung Liang Huang and Jerry Lynch
• World As Lover, World As Self by Joanna Macy (this one is for you deep ecologists and environmentalists)
• Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go Reflections on the Teachings of Zen Master Lin Chi by Thich Nhat Hanh

But, I'm getting ready to pickup in my first category by reading Queen's Shadow Queen of the Orcs by Morgan Howell.

Anybody checked out LibraryThing Local?

Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Human Anatomy & Physiology by Marieb and Hoehn

"The Best of the OjaiPost", of course, you little silly...

** blush **

oh, I'm always in the middle of so many books...here's most of them...with another pile by the bed...what's that saying? too many books, so little time?

Highway 99 - a literary journey through California's Central Valley

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Dante's Inferno - Robert Pinksy translation

Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung? by Ajahn Brahm

Zoo, or Letters not About Love by Viktor Shklovsky (revisiting this post-grad school)

Power vs. Force by David Hawkins

Tyler - You’re reading some heavies there, my friend. I’m curious about Einstein’s Dreams – I’ll check it out.

I read a majority of fun-for-me novels, candy bars so to speak, but I seem to intersperse at about a 1 to 5 ratio, a serious book, an edifying read.

I just returned to interlibrary loan a book about Jean Gebser. Jean was a man who influenced Ken Wilber's understanding of human development and the spiralesque human evolutionary arc. Gebser was an extraordinarily broad and deep searcher for truth and integral wholeness. He studied many disciplines and traditions. Georg Feuerstein has some rich understanding and knowledge of life himself that he conveys in *Structures of Consciousness: The Genius of Jean Gebser: An Introduction and Critique*. Good stuff.

For a fun and rich read, *Shantaram* is a good epic-length novel, mostly set in India, that is based largely on the life of the author. It is an adventure story, of some criminality with the 'Bombay mafia' and of some redemption. Very cool.

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin -The Supremes-the power they wield and the powers that work within and without the law schools that produce and influence them

Hope's Boy by Andrew Bridge-Very touching story written by a Fullbright Scholar
and Harvard Law School grad who was raised in the foster care system
Just started it this afternoon........a good, informative fast read

Unfortunately no time for reading these last few weeks. Tyler is it ok to recommend a movie??

Last night I watched a documentary (2005-ish) “Mondovino”. "Fahrenheit 9/11 for the grape" I remember one reviewer writing. Not necessarily brilliant in terms of filmmaking but definitely interesting in terms of how the globalization and Americanization of this industry has intruded and infected this industry in other parts of the world. Beautiful vineyards and scenery, colorful characters and local politics, Robert Parker with his nose and palette insured for a million bucks, the crass influence of Wine Spectator, mass production, conspiracies, tinges of Fascism in the great Houses….

Also, interesting parallels to Ojai and its fight against Subway – a small town in the South of France basically told Mondavi to go to hell! (Alas, they just moved on to Tuscany). Well worth watching. Makes me want to consciously seek out bottles that are still produced the old-fashioned way.

The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil
For the Cause of Liberty, by Terry Golway
Mayflower, by N. Philbrick
The New Kings of Non-Fiction, Ira Glass, ed.

Temple Grandin is an autistic woman who has become a first-class scientist and author consulting with US Dept. of Agriculture and major cattle feed yards and slaughterhouses to promote more humane -- and effective -- methods. She believes her autism helps her to understand animals -- she thinks the autistic mind is similar in many respects to the sensory-oriented world of animals.

All this and more is the basis for her book, Animals in Translation. But what makes it most fascinating is the light she sheds on our ordinary, non-autistic human consciousness. She uses animal studies, and autistic experience, and ordinary human consciousness as foils which each reflect on the other. So her book ends up casting all kinds of interesting lights on psychology as a whole. A tour de force.

The Snider half-read library, stacked on my bedside table (if there is an earthquake, I'm doomed):

The Ojai: Pink Moment Promises by Patricia Hartmann (over 500 pages - I may never finish)
Crazy in the Kitchen by Louise DeSalvo
Getting Things Done by Ojai's David Allen
Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (so far, nothing on what to do about the book piles)
Naked Playwrighting
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Don't get me started on all the Rolling Stone and Conde Nast magazines I haven't gotten to.

What a Coincidence! I'm just beginning to read the great book david describes above, ANIMALS IN TRANSLATION, by Temple Grandin.

I just finished the most riveting, fascinating memoir, THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN, by Chip St.Clair, the son of one of America's Most Wanted. Imagin finding out one day that everything in your entire life--including your name and date of birth--was a lie, and that the man you called "Dad" was an escaped childkiller who had been on the run for two decades, ever since you were born!

The "butterfly" represents the authors amazing metamorphosis. See www.thebutterflygardenmemoir.com).

Will list the rest of the books on my bed later...

You need a barrier of fat cats sleeping around your head, to save you from the falling books by your bedside!

How can I forget, I'm also reading Suza Yoga books, which although targeted to seniors, are entirely relevant to youngsters in their 30s like me!

once again i am going to let ojaipost readers in on my little dark dirty secret:

I HAVE NOT READ A BOOK SINCE THE INTERNET GOT ROLLING.

my motto?:

if it's not on a screen it ain't important

if Yahoo or Google didn't get it first, I could care less.

Reading books is so "last century"

El - I disagree and find that is exactly what is contributing to short attention spans and an inability to focus on one thing for a long period of time. Read on about the need to exercise the brain in this week's VC Reporter:
http://vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/train_your_brain/5777/

I'm with Lisa! It's amazing El-Altasouraus, that you have a brain left - you must be wearing glasses on your bifocals just to read the "blinking huge Google ads!" Pick up a book, Mi Amour xoxox - and you can start with "The Cat in the Hat!

Ah, my Beloved Dvorahji

You won't believe it but I have had that very book on my night table for at least 5 years and every time I open it I fall asleep.
Which is what I think happens to most people who talk about ALL the books they have at their bedside.
They usually fall asleep whenever they try to read them and after a few months or years they pretend to themselves that they HAVE read them to save themselves from further embarrassment.
I mean books- no ads, no music, just words on a page? Who needs it?

But "Cat in the Hat" movie musical starring Mike Meyers, Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johanssen, with music by Amy Winehouse, now there's a WINNER!!

but now you will have to excuse me as i prepare for my whirlwind book tour, because while i don't read books, i do write them, prolifically i might add and pseudonymously quite often, ranging from critiques of modern culture to knitting manuals (listening ladies?)
My latest is entitled "Books People Are Afraid Not To Have Read", where I cover "Catcher In The Rye", "Valley Of The Dolls", "The Bible (both Testaments)" among others.

Yo El. A, here's a hilarious online article that I think may just tickle your funny bone:
In defense of creative loafing

Except for my darling El-Asscargot, I've never been so intellectually or hysterically seduced than by Franklin Schneider! THANKS be to you Mike - what a HOOOOOT and what a writer! Just adorable! I'm starting on a new book, "Franklin Comes First!" And of course El-Assinine closing in by a second - But I'll call it "Big El-A Comes First Too!"

OK, here is the list of all the books I am trying to read before I fall asleep:

THE GOOD GOOD PIG, by Sy Montgomery. I LOVE this book! Her parents do not approve of her having a pig for a pet either!

RACCOONS ARE THE BRIGHTEST PEOPLE, by Sterling North. I gotta understand these night time visitors better!

Jane Goodall's spiritual memoir, REASON FOR HOPE. She writes:
"Lost in awe at the beauty around me, I must have slipped into a state of heightened awareness...Self was utterly absent: I and the chimpanzees, the earth and trees and air, seemed to merge, to become one with the spirit power of life itself."

Here are some of the books I'm currently reviewing for yoga magazines:

GREEN YOGA by Georg Feuerstein and Brenda Feuerstein (traditional yoga is green, but modern yoga is anything but green!)

THE WOMEN'S YOGA BOOK, by Bobby Clennell (Bobby is a Senior level Iyengar Yoga teacher and professional animator so the book has over 700 illustrations)

YOGA FOR ARTHRITIS by Loren Fishman MD and Ellen Saltonstall (a book that will revolutionize yoga therapy for arthritis)

and I am going back to the parts I skipped the first time in
MY LIFE SO FAR by Jane Fonda (600 pages...zzzzzzzz)

Thanks Mike! I laughed my way through the article you posted!! (Comment #21)

Hey, Suza - that's fun that you are reading a book by Feuerstein. He must be articulate about yoga also, eh. ambo

About that article I thought was so funny. When I read it to myself, I skipped over all the crudities and zeroed in on the funny parts. Alas, just now I tried to read it out loud to a friend whose eyes cannot take the glare of the computer. I then realized that the writer was relying on the trashiest of language. And that is not my cup of tea. So, I must redeem myself and admit that I spoke too soon.

I'm reading "Summers with the Bears: Six Seasons in the North Woods" by Jack Becklund. Originally I saw this book n the Ojai Library. It was in the new book display. This book is about the very friendly relationship between wild bears and a husband and wife who lived near the woods in Minnesota. What sets this book apart is the amazing ease that exists between the bears and the people. They hang out together. They lounge on the household deck together. They kick back and nibble on snacks together. Sometimes a squirel will join the party. As winter closes in the bears go off to do what bears do. But in the spring time, year after year, they return to their human buddies and pick up where they left of. The story is chronicled not only in writing but in many photographs showing the bears and people together. You will hardly believe your eyes! This is living proof of what can be when we treat animals with friendship and kindness. With time, man and beast begins to understand each other.

As Farley Mowat, author of "Never Cry Wolf" says on the back cover:

"Summers with the Bears" is a small miracle in understanding those others who we set apart as 'animals.' Unpretentious, totally honest, utterly revealing, it stands alone in my experience with animal books. It is a fully transparent window into a real world that we are in danger of losing."

Suza, there is a difference between, "relying on the trashiest of language"- and "using it" in a creative, outrageous, brilliant way. Franklin, is no intellectual slouch that needs to "rely" on anything. and I think he was very deft and right-on in using the language he did. However, it's true that it isn't some people's cup of tea - but the man is hilarious and flows in tempo to his own rift.

Suza’s mention of Jane Goodall led me (in a roundabout way) to remember that I had re-read a book a few weeks ago that, while controversial, was an astonishing portrait of a brilliant woman’s life and her many achievements and multiple careers - “Leni Riefenstahl”. I had seen a few documentaries about her years ago (“The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl” is one that stands out) and a few of her movies and documentaries. Any film lover should watch “The Blue Light” “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia” (if, of course, with the latter two, they can get past the fact that they are watching Nazi propaganda material). Especially "Olympia" – unbelievably breathtaking and inescapably mesmerizing. And to think she could have been one of the worlds greatest filmmakers...at a time when women simply were not making movies!!

Whether or not she innocently ended up on the wrong side of history or if she, with full conscience and knowledge of what was going on, chose to support Hitler’s regime with her work is still apparently open to debate. Whatever one comes away feeling, there is no denying that she was a technically brilliant and inspired filmmaker and that she led quite a remarkable life.

I am particularly drawn to (and inspired by!) women who led such bold, adventurous and authentic lives well before they were “supposed to” and without the aid of today's modern conveniences. Some others on my shelves that I can highly recommend:

“West With The Night” by Beryl Markham
“The Lives of Beryl Markham” by Errol Trzebinski
“I Married Adventure: The Lives of Martin and Osa Johsnon” by Osa Johnson
“Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark”
“Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia” by Janet Wallach
"Amazing Traveler Isabella Bird: The Biography of a Victorian Adventurer" by Evelyn Kaye

I stand corrected! Thanks to you (and Mike) I have discovered the wit and wisdom of Franklin Schneider, who I'd never heard of till yesterday.

The Drone Ranger: My life among the cubes

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/2005/cover0826.html

Thanks (and your welcome) #30; I like that article too even though there's no 'colorful' language. (-:-)

since so many of you recommended it, i forced myself to read that article about "creative loafing".... it was not only painfully vulgar, but self-absorbed, self-serving, and eventually just embarrassing..... not to mention way too long.....have none of the participants in this Post any taste whatsoever?

You misunderstood. I was refering to Franklin's writing where he did not resort to "colorful language"

Here's a book we all need:

When The Sun Goes Down:
A Serendipitous Guide to Planning Your Own Funeral
by Betty Breuhaus

I kid you not. It comes highly recommended by Dr. Christian Northrup.

They must be making preparations for their own funeral! I say: Happy Landings to Betty & Christian!

I'm "planning" to continue eating whipped cream & berries with granola...maybe I should write a book on that! Besides, whoever said the sun goies down at a funeral? ...oh well, until we all meet in that yodel yonder...I remain A-L-I-V-E!!! (is that what you call it?)

Hey El-Anonymongous - you want to plan a funeral together?

no D'vorah

I am awaiting some Ojaian, possibly MT, to discover "immortality" much as he has discovered fission, fusion and fractofizzation, and then i will never have to ask anyone to:
"save the last dance for me"

"Have none of the participants in this Post any taste whatsoever?"

wow David, that's some serious generalizing. I suggest you try some face exercises. You'll start to relax that grimace and free up some of those underused neurons in your cortex tissue.

#25, are you the real Ambo Suno?

Hippocrates,

As the lion is known by its claw, I sense that El Hippo is El Anonimo.

Generalization hereby withdrawn.

nope, that was not El A. Thanks for withdrawing your claws David, your star cannot shine while you are on the attack.