48
Followers
28
Following
Musings of a Book Addict
I'm married to a scavenger of sorts and he often totes home rescued boxes of books that I paw through with shiny, hungry eyes. I pull out the odd and interesting and add them to my teetering stack.
Currently reading
The Hound of the Baskervilles
E.B. White: A Biography
Murder on the Orient Express
There Is Nothing Wrong with You: Going Beyond Self-Hate
Living Buddha, Living Christ
No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger
The Snare of the Hunter
Paintings of Henry Miller
Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul
Pentimento (Back Bay Books)
Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolut
As far as Terrence McKenna books go, this one is actually the easiest to read. His writing can be dense, but also filled with beautiful metaphors. I find it fascinating that someone who talked so much about "destroying the ego" through hallucinogens, also believed that all the "messages" he received while taking "heroic trips" were true for every single person on the planet. Instead of paying attention to what he was bringing personally to his trips, he chose to remain OUTSIDE of himself to interpret them. Ironically, he believed that if you closed your eyes while tripping, the message would be "pure" and "devoid of outside distractions" but he completely ignores his own inner psyche - including his own psychological baggage and YES, HIS EGO. So in the end, it was difficult to wade through all his theories to get to the beauty. It's there - he has some real gems of thought and vision, but they are completely mired in fundamentalist demands that all people need to take hallucinations on a regular basis. I do wish that he had lived to see 2012, since he was so obsessed with what the world would be like on that "fateful Mayan deadline." I have tried many times to connect with Terence McKenna, but it looks like I'll be sticking to my favorite authors Tom Robbins for the metaphoric gems and chaotic beauty I crave.