Open Thread: Reading Recommendations
Tell me what you're reading!
This month for the open discussion thread, I’d love to hear who you are reading.
One of the unfortunate downsides of being both a writer and a publisher is that most of my reading is work-related. Especially in the past few months, I’ve had very little time to read for pleasure or even to read things that are super interesting to me because they aren’t directly related to my research for this manuscript.
The manuscript is almost done, by the way. And when it’s done I’ll get to read more, and so I’ll use this list as a guide to find good stuff to read.
Also, many of you who are subscribed to this substack have substacks of your own, and I think I’m probably not following them yet. So, please also feel free to promote yours in the comments. Don’t be shy about it, seriously. Once I have time to read more, I’d like to be reading you, too!
So, again, tell me—and everyone else—what books, blogs, and writers you’ve been reading. I’m currently reading Gordon White’s latest book, Ani.Mystic, in the very tiny amount of free reading time I currently have. It’s really fantastic, and will tell you all about it once I finally have the time to finish it.
Be well!
As a retired librarian, my favorite question to ask or answer has always been “What are you reading?” My current hard book is Bobby Kennedy Junior’s ‘The Real Anthony Fauci.’ It is brutal and hard to stomach but so well documented as to be undeniable. Medium hard is ‘Hillbilly Elegy, a Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis.’ Discusses the economic and cultural decline of the descendants of Scotch Irish immigrants to the US (Appalachian/Rust Belt). They are known for their toughness, feuds, loyalty to family, gun-toting, fighting spirit and mistrust of all authority. The author is a child of this culture and describes his life among the hillbillies in honest and thorough detail. When economic survival in their mountain homes forced mass movement to the northern steel mills, their roughneck character persisted. When those industries also declined, closed and moved away, these these folks were left holding fistfuls of nothing. Similar to black migration from the Deep South to jobs in midwestern auto industry.
Currently with active bookmarks:
Prolegomena To The Study If Greek Religion- Jane Ellen Harrison-
The Dream Of Arcadia - Van Wyck Brooks
The House Of The Net- The Magical Symbolism of the Hieroglyphs- Wendy Berg
Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health- Ivan Illich
Iamblicus- On The Mysteries
Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History- Lucien X. Polastron
Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives- The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Changeling- Aidan Wachter.