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Generally I like biographies for the tales of excess etc. Bloke at work emailed me some excerpts from Tony Blackburn's autobiography and it's unintentionally hilarious - he comes across like a real life Alan Partridge: https://storify.com/Eamonn_Forde/tony-blackburn-s-autobiography-compressed-for-stor Got to read that next
Jack Reacher book are mostly written in the third person, but some are first person. The first one (Killing Floor) is in the first person, and it starts with loads of really short sentences, as if it was dictated by a fifty-year-old with high blood pressure at the closing stages of a marathon.
The style of the first one did put me off. Couldn't stand the 'he said' or similar at the end of every turn even though there were only two participants speaking. What on earth was his editor thinking? I mused.
The Long European Reformation: Religion, Political Conflict, and the Search for Conformity, 1350-1750 (European History in Perspective).
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
Just finished reading Down and out in Paris and London by Orwell-fantastically written short memoir-best short book I've read.
Next on the list is Interview with a vampire by Anne Rice seen the film years ago and enjoyed it, so hoping this will be better and a bit of light relief getting back into work.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
I think so, but then they lost it again.
Just finished the Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Mishima. Hard going in places, but an interesting book, slightly reminiscent of crime and punishment. Before that finished the Broken Road, quite sad to hit the end of the original manuscript, but the Mount Athos section that ends the book is fascinating.
Now starting out on & Sons, but have heard conflicting reports and it looks ridiculously long. And then may try some Orhan Pamuk, but already have Foucault's Pendulum lined up on my kindle.
Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzz word that's creeping up. A bit like Pilates. Worthy but for skinny middle-class women... no, it's much more than that. Fashion is cheap; empty talk. There are a lot of cheap magazine articles talking about "mindfulness" and they are 99.9% crap -- this is a really good book (with a CD).
I've been doing "mindfulness" for (quite) a while and modesty aside, I'm not a novice. What I love about 2015 is that there are really excellent teaching resources available that were not around years ago. In guitar terms, 30 years ago there was no YouTube and no accurate transcriptions, and no f*cking internet. If you wanted to learn something you were in the dark and had to rely on natural talent and dumb luck, or a decent teacher who actually knew the song and was able to get it right. In mindfulness terms it was similar: 30 years ago mindfulness was all wrapped up with religious trappings and you had to find a teacher who could actually bloody teach. Today it's much different, there are lots of resources -- but it's like having lots of TAB on the internet: some of it is good but there's a whole bunch of inaccurate transcriptions which will lead you astray.
Here's the current skinny. Mindfulness is a loose translation of a foreign word. It's exact meaning doesn't matter because, e.g. knowing the word "diving" won't tell you what it's like to experience a dive until you do it. Mindfulness is something you do. And I was looking for something I could recommend to my clients which was non-religious, academically rigorous, written in plain English and accessible to people with or without an academic background. This book fits that bill really well. It is mindfulness 101. It is not the last word in the matter but it is a sensible, no-nonsense place to start. It's good TAB.
Why bother?
Feel stressed? Feel anxious? Feel that something about life is on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it? Ever wonder who the f*ck you are? There is a lot to be said for feeling grounded, for feeling stable. That is definitely one of the things that the practice (yeah, you gotta do it) of mindfulness can offer.
PS just in case you fancy delving a bit deeper into the current scientific understanding of "this stuff", then I'd love to mention Sam Harris's "Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion". I read this a while back and it's clear, it's exceptional.
I'm half way through "Wild Tales" Graham Nash's autobiography......just at the point when Stills & Crosby + Mama Cass and Joni Mitchell provide the motivation to make the big move.
Next in line will be Stephen King's "Revival" after I read about it in Rolling Stone last month.
There's things I've had, there's things I wanna have"
my understanding of Mindfulness was part of the package of being involved in Buddhism 25 years ago. Interesting that it has become a buzz word in psychology circles in recent years ( I work to manuals written by clinical psychologists) and, yes, I have seen it in glossy magazines as I've had the Baby Spice guide to Mindfulness quoted at me.
I might see if I can get that ordered up through work, trying to 'get' Mindfulness is a bit of a headache at work and I can't say I've retained that much.
Breakfast of Champions for out and out laughs is my favourite of his books.
If you get seriously into Lovecraft, the Penguin books edition edited by ST Joshi is worth a look, because his introductions and notes genuinely help to understand and enjoy the stories more.