(01-23-2026, 10:43 AM)UltraBudgie Wrote: This is a good thread and I am going to bump it, by posting this depressing news from the UK:

https://news.sky.com/story/nearly-a-thir...s-13497398

I admit I smirked like a little devil reading that only for a moment as I had a mental image of children rubbing their hands against book pages and waiting. 
Then I too got a bit sad. It will work out, they will learn eventually. Right? 

Book update
Finished 'Karamazov' Very great! Some nonspoiler comments:
The aside about the children in the village and Alyosha was not needed, in my opinion.  I said to myself, was old Dusty-Evsky one of those 'paid by the word' guys, like Dickens? search search . He sure was! That explains it.  All novels published first in magazines. ha.   That part could have trimmed the book by an unnecessary and the only boring part of 100 pages.   Yes I know they tie that up slightly in the ending (ABRUPT) but hey. That's my opinion.  Otherwise a masterpiece of thought and I enjoyed his little 'excuse to put essays of my ideas in' that a lot of 19th Century authors like to do . They were just as prescient now. 

Started and finished some fun cheap Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos fiction:


Chosen as the 'best Mythos long fiction ' of Brian Lumley, I thought a good half were really excellent, and perhaps half were just okay. 
The Mythos format can get stale fast, but one has to remember, these were partly written in the 70s and 80s when we weren't all so versed on tropes and this particular genre.
I recommend this collection.   
Therefore , the best 2 stories in the book in my opinion,  were written in the 1980s and early 2000's, since he had to stretch his legs a bit more.  These 2 are respectively, Lord of the Worm, and The Taint.  

That's 2 fictions; Previous to those, I also finished some nonfiction/metaphysical. 

The Chalice of Ecstasy written by Frater Achad aka Charles Stansfeld Jones is a masterful exposition of the Grail Quest of Richard Wagner's master opera 'Parsival' through the lens of an initiate and his journey on the Path in the A.:. A.:.   With footnotes and edited in this new edition by the late Jerry Cornelius:

Are we ready for more Walt Whitman? First the spider, now animals.

Animals

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

(01-23-2026, 11:12 AM)quintessentone Wrote: Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

This reminds me
I started this week:
Siddartha by Herman Hesse

A quaint 1970s paperback edition.
I did my usual rehabilitation , wee bit of tape and some marker:

---

This not my copy but same version.
Very short book. Will be fast.

I just finished a series by Neil Asher. It has quite a few books set in the Polity Universe/far future and some follow a Polity Agent named Ian Cormac on his missions.

Well worth the time for any SciFi fan.

 

Quote:The Polity Universe is a science fiction setting created by author Neal Asher, featuring a futuristic human society run by benevolent but ruthless AI, known as the Polity, which spans the galaxy. The universe is a shared continuity for several of Asher's series, including the Agent Cormac novels, Spatterjay books, and Transformation series, and is known for its advanced technology, sentient starships, and conflicts with alien species like the Prador. The books can be read in publication order or chronological order, with key titles including Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, and Prador Moon. 

(01-23-2026, 11:21 AM)sahgwa Wrote: This reminds me
I started this week:
Siddartha by Herman Hesse

A quaint 1970s paperback edition.
I did my usual rehabilitation , wee bit of tape and some marker:

---

[Image: https://denyignorance.com/uploader/image...6e8e85.jpg]
This not my copy but same version.
Very short book. Will be fast.

Fast read, are you kidding? On the first paragraph I had to look up what brahman meant? ha ha

I will read it, not using my fast reading skills, soon.

As with ancient peoples such as aboriginal native and Chinese medicines, I tend to believe that peoples with long-lived societies have treasures to be rooted out, that more modern societies have yet to create.

(01-23-2026, 11:27 AM)quintessentone Wrote: Fast read, are you kidding? On the first paragraph I had to look up what brahman meant? ha ha

I will read it, not using my fast reading skills, soon.

As with ancient peoples such as aboriginal native and Chinese medicines, I tend to believe that peoples with long-lived societies have treasures to be rooted out, that more modern societies have yet to create.

Very fast - its less than 200 pages.
I have been studying world religion, took a lot of religious studies in University, and practising active spirituality for the past 22 years, so yes I know all about the brahmins, Brahma, Atman, caste system, Buddhist factions, etc 
You want a slow read with more depth from Hesse, hands down it's his masterwork, The Glassbead Game.  Das Glasperlenspiel

(01-23-2026, 11:44 AM)sahgwa Wrote: Very fast - its less than 200 pages.
I have been studying world religion, took a lot of religious studies in University, and practising active spirituality for the past 22 years, so yes I know all about the brahmins, Brahma, Atman, caste system, Buddhist factions, etc 
You want a slow read with more depth from Hesse, hands down it's his masterwork, The Glassbead Game.  Das Glasperlenspiel

Thank you as I am sure there will be many gems to find in this reading with many ancient peoples' twists and turns.

(01-23-2026, 11:54 AM)quintessentone Wrote: Thank you as I am sure there will be many gems to find in this reading with many ancient peoples' twists and turns.

In my humble opinion 
We have to beware of fetishising or viewing 'native peoples' as some special class or 'magical negro' type having special indigenous wisdom.
If anything is learnt from studying world cultures and ancient religions it is that all people are equally capable and sacred, but their particular flavour of worldview is shaped by their environment and culture.  
People today have just as much potential and the same exact brains as ancient peoples  . 
You can see we have been asking the exact same questions for millennia.  

We just have to make a concerted effort to 'struggle' more in doing the Great Work due to the current Age we are living in, as things are more dense.

(01-23-2026, 12:04 PM)sahgwa Wrote: In my humble opinion 
We have to beware of fetishising or viewing 'native peoples' as some special class or 'magical negro' type having special indigenous wisdom.
If anything is learnt from studying world cultures and ancient religions it is that all people are equally capable and sacred, but their particular flavour of worldview is shaped by their environment and culture.  
People today have just as much potential and the same exact brains as ancient peoples  . 
You can see we have been asking the exact same questions for millennia.  

We just have to make a concerted effort to 'struggle' more in doing the Great Work due to the current Age we are living in, as things are more dense.

Oh I am very clear eyed and minded about the rise and falls of societal fetishing and forgetting sacred history because it gets in the way of the desire of the day. But I will remember it's the author's masterpiece, his take on it, his understanding of it, and his deeper dive within or outside himself perhaps. But always the author is at the centre of it all.

(01-23-2026, 12:12 PM)quintessentone Wrote: Oh I am very clear eyed and minded about the rise and falls of societal fetishing and forgetting sacred history because it gets in the way of the desire of the day. But I will remember it's the author's masterpiece, his take on it, his understanding of it, and his deeper dive within or outside himself perhaps. But always the author is at the centre of it all.

Glasperlenspiel at it's main theme is a very fascinating question to the tune of:
At what point is a monastic and spiritual class or society, draining it's host society uselessly?
At what point is spiritual pursuit selfish, egotistical, or pointless in not just relation to the person but to their society they live in?