What will you be reading in 2011?
As we spin around the sun from year to year, our hobbies or tastes may change, our evolution in certain areas may increase, or we may feel drawn to new areas, while our skills in other fields get rusty from lack of use or flagging interest. Sometimes just as we’re feeling proficient and strong in one topic we may start out as beginners in another.
For me? I’ll be spending a lot more time with Tarot books, as well as trying to find the time and energy to pursue a “home schooling masters degree,” as a friend of mine put it. What she does is look up university courses in subjects she’s interested in; most professors put the syllabus, including reading list and sometimes even homework, on their courses’ websites. Then, she simply follows along, does the reading, and pretends she’s in class with the rest of them. True, no one will earn a real graduate degree this way, but if you’re a lifelong learner, it’s definitely a lot cheaper than enrolling in school – especially if it’s a degree (or just a topic) that does not hold any strong career potential for you, but is just a raging interest you have. So I’d like to try that for Sumerology.
What will be falling by the wayside? I’ll probably give up reading all the young adult books that our imprint Flux publishes. Some of them are really interesting, but I think I’m done reliving (and reimagining) my high school years and I don’t have a high school aged relative yet that I can “screen” the books for. So ultimately they are just a time-sucker.
Now then, to mark the change in the Gregorian calendar (don’t forget to write 2011 on your checks from now on!) I would like to put the question to you, dear readers – what are you looking for in 2011? What books do you think will help your progress, or are you pursuing an interest that does not lend itself to book learning? Are you shifting gears, deciding to read more romance novels, or buckling down to hit the textbooks? Also, I’ll happily field any requests for recommendations if I can be of help. And if you are looking for a book that hasn’t even been written yet, so much the better. They don’t call me an acquiring editor for nothing!
I’ve added many of your book recommendations to my amazon wish list so I have a running tally of all the things I can’t ever keep up with in the reading world. 🙂 i should be paid to read.
OH WAIT! sometimes I am. I have the following on my shelf to read,and a few to write reviews for on Lifencompass.com
Temple of Living Witchcraft, Vol 1 and 2, both of which i’m vlogging on vimeo. A book from Sounds True, sent over the holiday for review called The Energy Cure, William Bengston. There’s also Real Energy, Phaedra & Isaac Bonewits (RIP) and two books on Runes. Runelore by Thorsson and Taking up the Runes by Diana L. Paxson.
These are in edition to the last two Tarot recommendations you posted.
I will be a busy bee. 🙂
I look forward to more of your lovely posts.
I’ve spent the past four years at Goddard College getting a degree from other colleges by looking up a course syllabus and weaving it into my Goddard low residency, \study plan\. What an amazing way to get a degree. Now that I’m about to enter my last semester of a B.A. in Health Arts and Sciences I’m really focused on what I call, \heuristic studies\ Like the one I’m attempting for my own senior project. A heuristic study reveals what’s happening to us, the transformation within. It’s personal, it tends to hit a live wire. Sue Monk Kidd was my first taste and fueled my inspiration with her book \The Dance of the Disient Daughter\. A beautiful tapestry of acedemic sourcing without all the formality. Stories that link subjects together that really show us what the experience might be like to have walked or transformed from one thing to the next. It’s such a natural process, yet and art to put it into print. We all change. We all experience and we all tell stories every day. I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed reading blogs like this one. It’s real, it’s personal and I walk away feeling inspired to write about what is happening beneath the surface.
I want more about transition, a storie that’s true, but is painted with the complexity of everyday learning and life.
Books that hit a live wire, captivate and reveal spiritual truths through real life experiences.
Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong
Living in a Psychic’s World, Kevin Quattrin
The way of transition, William Bridges
Pagans & Christians Gus DiZerega, PH.D.
Thanks for the blog topic.
Nice blog……….
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog this past year. I received an e-reader and I have been getting some magickal books to store in my new electronic library. It’s nice to be able to carry my library with me. I am not seeing quite as many e-books available in this category from as many authors as I would like. So I hope that will change some through this year. As always, I will continue to enjoy your blog and many others on LLewellyn’s site.
Samantha – if there are any Llewellyn books you’re looking for that aren’t available, please let us know and we’ll try to get them uploaded as soon as possible.
: )
Dear Elysia (and her readers); Since girlhood, I’ve had a number of amazing experiences occult-wise. But having read warnings to be wary of “inviting in” the malevolent, (and to be aware of opportunistic guys!!), I’ve never studied or pursued much. I’ve been able to pull cards from a shuffled tarot deck that I envision, but NEVER go near a ouija board. A former co-worker told me that if a person has been wary of the board since they were young, they probably have some type of intuition. Is this true?
Well, in my opinion *everyone* is intuitive to some degree. Strengthening your intuition is all about listening to those hunches and those negative feelings. So while I won’t get into a debate as to whether the Ouija board is dangerous to untrained users or not, I will say that every individual should listen to their gut instinct on spiritual matters. Yours has spoken loud and clear, so I would say that if you’ve always avoided it, you have a good reason to continue to do so. After all, there are plenty of other ways to communicate with spirits or perform divination.
I am reading the Celtic Druid year and other information on the Paleopagan Celts.
One of the things I would love to see in the Paganism section is more books on cultural anthropology. Often I am disappointed with books that I read because there is very little truth in them; most write about the various religions as they wish they were, which does a dis-service to the reader and the author as well as the religion itself.
I understand that this is in part due to the study of such things being forbidden for many years, but since the witchcraft laws were repealed in 1954 the field of cultural anthropology has taken off and today there is far better information out there, it’s just a matter of being able to find it.
Is there any chance of bringing in a selection of more scholarly books for those of us who want to know what the archeology says about the old religions?