Books, books, books, books
08 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Astrology, Books, Religion, Spiritual practice
I love books.
No really, I L-O-V-E books. For my 8th birthday my parents bought me two grocery bags *full* of books. It was the best present I have ever gotten. Does this make me nerdy…? Maybe, but I don’t really care. As I’ve gotten older my love for the written word has in no way diminished. As a teenager, lonely and angsty (weren’t we all) the library was my source of comfort and joy. Shelves FULL of stories and knowledge, just waiting for me to absorb it. As I’ve gotten older and now have more money I purchase many books as well. In fact the other day my husband was complaining about the amount of money I spend on books (granted I spend a lot). I told him: ‘Some women buy shoes, I buy books. Do you want me to switch to shoes?’ That ended the discussion pretty fast.
So why this sudden declaration of love? As the soccer world cup dominates tv’s around the world I find myself in dire need to take steps to survive the onslaught. Being highly competitive, what better way to do this then to start a bet with the hubby over the final meet-ups. And as the World Cup in no way has turned out to follow the odds I had the great fortune of winning. And what better prize for this little bookworm? Right you are, books.
Thanks to several countries messing up their soccer performances (seriously, Spain?, England?, France?, Italy!?) as well as some of my own hard-earned cash I am now the new owner of a shiny new stack of books. I hope to write down my thoughts on these books as I finish them (I hate buying poor books when I can buy good ones) for now here is a list of my recent acquirements.
First though, two books which I obtained outside of the world cup betting. These books are by Swedish author Johanne Hildebrandt. I’m reading them in Norwegian, and as far as I know they have only been translated to Norwegian (and possibly Icelandic). She has written a trilogy based on Norse mythology called ‘The Saga of Valhall’. I have bought the two first books in the series (I randomly came across book two – ‘Idun’ – in a used bookstore and couldn’t resist it. I later obtained the first books – ‘Frøya’) and so far I am really enjoying the first book. The books are definitely partially fictitious, however they also incorporate elements of the Norse history and mythology and being half Norwegian (other half American) and having grown up in Norway this really speaks to me.
In addition to these I’ve obtained:
‘Your Astrology Guide 2010′ – by Rick Levine and Jeff Jawyer – I learned about this book from my mom and I’m really liking it so far. It talks about the various signs, the houses and the planets and how these influence your horoscope. They also talk about how your ascendant and Moon are important for your reading, which I feel many other astrologers ignore in these type of mass-produced books. In this book they have a detailed month-by-month forecast for each sign, and for me they are quite accurate. To make matters better the book also contains a $15 gift-certificate to their website: tarot.com which is enough for a full horoscope on the site. I had mine done 
‘Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World’ – This looks like a fascinating book about strong women in world mythology. I can’t wait to start reading it.
Following up on the mythology theme I also got ‘Parallel Myths’ – by J.F. Bierlein. This book fascinates me as it takes various myths – creation myth, flood myth, underworld myth – and compares these across cultures so one can see the parallels between myths from various cultures.
A real treat for me was getting ‘The Triumph of the Moon’ by Ronald Hutton – a bona fide pagan historian. I’ve been longing for this book for years, so it’s a special treat for me. Granted the writing is *tiny* and the book is a brick, yet Mr. Hutton is funny and smart and I find that knowledge of the history of witchcraft is important to have. It might be heavy reading but I believe it is worth it.
‘Queen of the Night’ by Sharynne MacLead NicMhacha is a book that I’m not certain how I came across. I think it’s a combination between an amazon.com reccomendation and something I read over at Sarah Lawless’ blog. Anyways, the book covers exercises for 13 moons to connect with the Moon Goddess. SOunds pretty amazing to me.
Lastly I got ‘Psychic Self-Defense’ by Dion Fortune. I got this book as part of my 2nd degree training over at Oak and Mistletoe, and so far I love it. The book was first published in 1930 and is one of the classics.
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