Lived Experience Forum

[MoonGal]

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. 

[PeppiPatty]

yes yes @PeterPan78 ! i was an avid Agatha Chrisie reader when i was about 13
@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 ........

[MoonGal]

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 =

bibliotherapy

noun

1. the use of books as therapy in the treatment of mental or psychological disorders.

[Neb]

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.

[Peter_Pan78]

@MoonGal thanks for including me in your bibliophile discussion I am most certainly a bibliophile and proud of it.

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.

[Silenus]

Hiya @MoonGal 🙂

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... 🙂

[MoonGal]

@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.

[Silenus]

Hahaha @MoonGal ... owing them $20... that's gold!

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...

[MoonGal]

@Silenus - OMG! Dune by Frank Herbet I read them in Sydney in the '80's when I was sleeping rough, I found a great little second hand book shop that would let me swap the finished one for the next in the series (for nothing! and they would always give me a cup of coffee, good people). I remember very little of the series (being a period of my life that I was off the planet for a couple of years), maybe if I run out of things to read I can start them again. Thanks for the reminder!

[Silenus]

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...