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14-01-2016 07:21 PM - edited 14-01-2016 07:27 PM
14-01-2016 07:21 PM - edited 14-01-2016 07:27 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
Hi All, I love it that my thread has spurred others to share what shakes-their-book-chakras
@SCORPION - Anne MacAffrey! Yes I read her series in my 20's, must revisit so old know I will have forgotten everything! Another author I read in my 20's was Stephen Donaldson - the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, I suspect I wouldn;t like his stuff now because I am a feminist and I recall it wasn't huge on equality!
I Loved Margaret Atwood's books, Ursula Le Guin too (her book "Tehanu" was a catlyst for change for me) - but I have read hugely and different genres. But my odd way of being in the world means I tend to latch on to one author (and genre) and read everything they ever wrote then move on to the next one! Luckily there are a heap of great authors who are prolific!
I read about three books a week. But! I admit to know also being hooked on some TV series - Once Upon A Time and the Adventures of Merlin (I am well into my fantasy fiction jag for sure!) I suspect I secretly wish I could do magic... and make the world a better place.
Just finished one REALLY good book by Kate Forysth - "Bitter Greens", a retelling of the Rapunzel story with deep twists and excellent charectarisations of the court of Louis XIV and 17th century France and the lot of women - one could be either wife, mistress (or sex worker) or nun, and that is it really. I am glad I have lived in the 20th/ 21st century even with all its terrors and woes.
@Zam - I read many of Stephen Kings books in my 20's too - but I find the graphic violnce disturbing now and I am really sensisitive to 'imagery' - I did read one last year though that I absolutely loved - 11/22/63 about the JFK assasination and the lead character being able to travel back in time and try to change that.
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14-01-2016 07:57 PM
14-01-2016 07:57 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
@Scorpian and @Gypsy message are sifferent and love their different creativity .... in that @Scorpian reads Ann McCaffery and @Gypsy is in touch with what can handle
......i think i would rather watch dvd myself..... crowds are not me.
Ann McCaffery is intellectual ....isnt she : i just remember trying to read one of her books @Scorpian ........
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04-05-2016 08:17 PM - edited 04-05-2016 08:17 PM
04-05-2016 08:17 PM - edited 04-05-2016 08:17 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
Hi readers @PeppiPatty, @SCORPION, @Gypsy, @Terry, @Peter_Pan78 (and adding in @Silenus in case you are a bibliophile too).
Just saw this interesting article about *BIBLIOTHERAPY... I knew we were all on to something healing and helpful!
Ask a bibliotherapist: how books can help soothe troubled minds
__________________
*Internet definition =
- the use of books as therapy in the treatment of mental or psychological disorders.
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04-05-2016 08:51 PM
04-05-2016 08:51 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
I am lucky in having a community library around the corner from me. I have always read, but as a young teen read The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings....which I adored! Also read Beowulf, as many of the Icelandic Sagas as were available. I discovered poetry and haiku, which led me to read the classics, and such books as Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, Gloriana, the Pillow Book of a Japanese Lady ( I forget the writers name).
Ann McCaffrey was a favoured author, I read one of Thomas Covenant , but as I had nursed lepers by this stage found the books uncomfortable. Space opera and sci fi are favoured genres, I also enjoy some detective books, but I am very very fond of historical naval fiction, audio books etc.
i collect children's books....I have the Billabong books written at the beginning of the 20th century which are very dated indeed. Currently, I am reading a British author known as BB who also illustrated his books.
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04-05-2016 09:14 PM
04-05-2016 09:14 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
I totally believe in bibliotherapy. Helps keep me "well" and helped me to find information that supported my gut feeling that I was not weird or abnormal. The most important thing I discovered in my reading is that not everybody regards mental illness to be an obstacle but instead "a natural, normal way our mind reacts to stress." I finally felt like I was finally understood when I read this, that I was not alone in thinking that mental "illness" had been poorly defined and viewed for such a long time. Books have been a great friend to me.
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04-05-2016 10:40 PM
04-05-2016 10:40 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
I'm definitely a bibliophile. I've got over a thousand books in my personal collection...
Having said that, I don't read much these days. As a writer, most of my therapy comes from the process of writing rather than reading.
I tend to flip between being an alpha writer and an alpha reader... giggle... 🙂
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05-05-2016 12:01 PM - edited 05-05-2016 12:03 PM
05-05-2016 12:01 PM - edited 05-05-2016 12:03 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
@Neb - I love my Library too - I have just counted up the books I have read in the past 12 months and it now stands at 53, so I do about a book a week or so! I order titles on line from all over our State's library network, so can get just about any title. It's fab and well worth paying rates just for this alone! I read Thomas Covenant books in my 20's I was not particularly discerning back then about misogyny, I picked up Thomas Covenant again thinking to re-read them last year and hated it - his use and portrayal of women left me cold. I also read Anna McAffrey in my 20s (30 odd years ago now!) they are the Dragons aren;t they of , ummm Pern? I love kids books too - My fav are Winnie the Pooh and the velveteen Rabbitt. I sometimes read series written for teens -
Like recently Julliette Marriellier's
Shadowfell Series
- Shadowfell
- Raven Flight
- The Caller
I too loved Lord of the Rings. So glad you chimed in Neb. ❤️
@Silenus- I am surrounded by books, back when I had an income I would buy books regulary. I used to work in a bookshop and we could take books home and have them deducated from our wage (at a big discount) One week I went to collect my pay and I owed then $20! LOL. Books are friends to me.
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05-05-2016 03:13 PM
05-05-2016 03:13 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
I would have done that too...
Wow @Neb - fellow space opera tragic here... E. E. Doc Smith's Lensman series is one of my all-time faves...
I love the Dune series by Frank Herbert, and the Saga Of The Exiles by Julian May. I've read them all multiple times...
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05-05-2016 04:58 PM
05-05-2016 04:58 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
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05-05-2016 05:10 PM - edited 05-05-2016 05:13 PM
05-05-2016 05:10 PM - edited 05-05-2016 05:13 PM
Re: Books: Reading for relaxation and enjoyment
Dune was a truly amazing book. It was written in 1965 (from memory), and has one of the greatest pieces of Mindfulness I have ever read. The Litany Against Fear, quoted below...
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
Another version states: "I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."
I would recommend everyone who has anxiety or worry issues to read this and take it to heart. It is a truly beautiful thing, and it has helped me in my life...