Today is for those who have wanted to peep in on my reading. I have to disappoint you though, these books are mostly about religion and not about sex. Not sure which is the most controversial these days though…

You have seen my “chaotic” writing, in the sense that I may write about tentacles one day and saints the next. But you have not seen the books I read, unless you follow my Goodreads page, and even that is pretty terse and doesn’t include rereads. It will perhaps not surprise you that this is pretty chaotic too: Both in the subject matter, but even more in the haphazard way I keep grazing the books.

I am in the habit of reading a large number of books at the same time, some of which I finish and others not. With e-books it has become much easier to get back to where I left, so now there is no limit to the fragmentation. Still, entirely random it is not.

For instance, I have read 83% of The Way of Perfection by St Teresa of Avila (also called Teresa of Jesus, although I like to think all Christian saints could be called “of Jesus”. ^_^) This book is one I read on the commute bus most workdays, in the morning. The books is quite intense in its brightness, and I willingly choose to go through it slowly, so that I can be reminded of it regularly for a long time. Still, we approach the home stretch. This is a book I will probably read again if I live long enough, but not immediately. With my fairly good memory, I need some time before I can actually see the text a second time, rather than simply remember it while skimming.

The last book I completed was The Nine Dimensions: Revealing the Laws of Eternity, by Ryuho Okawa. Despite the name which implies it is a follow-up or companion books to the original Laws of Eternity, it is simply a new translation with some marginal added material. One of the earliest books by Okawa, it is also one of my favorites. In this book there is some mention toward the end of his “new” deity El Cantare (of which he says the historical Buddha was one incarnation), but there is none of the “I am God and your Savior, the greatest of the great” until the more recently added afterword, which has a certain taste of that.

The book teaches that the Spirit World is not a geographical place you travel to, as much as a state of mind. Heaven or Hell are within us, and we in them, already in this life. Various levels of enlightenment correspond to various spiritual planes or dimensions, and we are there now. What happens at death is that we can no longer hide who we are. Our thoughts will manifest instantly, clearly visible. For some, this will be Hell. For others, it will be Heaven. This seems like a wonderful teaching to me, as it will get people involved with what really mattes, rather than rituals and appearances. So if Happy Science remained like that, it would be a worthy contender as a religion, although in my view there is no reason why the same principle could not be applied to Christianity, for example.

The Fullness of God is the book by Frithjof Schuon on Christianity. I wrote about Schuon in late January, when I started on this book. I have come pretty exactly halfway through it. The problem with Schuon is that he is so high, high above me that I cannot really screen him for heresies or even factual mistakes. It would be like a high school student trying to figure out whether Albert Einstein made a mistake in his general theory of relativity. I suppose there may be high schoolers like that, but I am not one of them. Nor am I one of the people who can evaluate Frithjof Schuon. I can admire him, but I am not sure whether I can believe him. Some of what he says I can understand, but some I cannot follow. Since he uses a method of direct intellection rather than logic much of the time, one either sees what he sees, or not. If not, then one either recognizes it with the heart, or not. If not that, one either believes it, or not. It is this latter situation I would rather avoid. If I cannot see it for myself or understand it, I am more inclined to just pass it by without judgment.

In dramatic contrast to the above, we have Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. In case it was not obvious from the title, this is a parody of a biography of Jesus Christ. That said, while it is horribly irreverent and not family-friendly at all, about a quarter through the book it is quite likable. While the child and teenage Jesus is portrayed as more human than most pious fantasies about this part of his life, he is definitely a good guy. As a teen, the chaste and responsible Joshua (Jesus) is contrasted by his pal Biff who is not exactly evil but is definitely an example of fallen human nature. Not really a religious book and I have no idea whether I am going to complete reading it. It is not impossible though.

Valhalla by Jennifer S Willis is a book I started on, but which failed to pull me along. It is a fiction based on Norse Mythology, reinterpreted into contemporary America. Not a bad concept, but somehow it slid down on my list after only 9%. I think the problem is that I see it only as entertainment, and The Sims 3 is more entertaining than books. A book needs to have something more to compete these days. If I find time for entertainment (and most days I do) it will probably not be a book, unless it is awesome. Books are for learning. (Not that I can’t learn from games too, but I mean more theoretical learning.)

Speaking of non-fiction books again, there’s The world in 2050 published by The Economist magazine. I have referred to that magazine repeatedly over the years. It may sound like some sort of accounting magazine, but actually this British weekly has a wider approach that also includes technology, politics and even culture. Its intelligence and integrity makes me happy to be a subscriber, even when I sometimes don’t agree with them. So also here. The book is respectably sane and humble when faced with the impossible task of charting out the next 38 years of a world where change has become the constant, and where the speed of change itself is speeding up faster and faster. This is a book I will not be ashamed to read at work if there is a slow day. Still, I have only read 14% so far. I guess there are other fun things to do at work most days. ^_^