dreda is a bad book influence.

[bethlakshmi]

After chatting on her blog, I decided to go book shopping. It is a bad thing... access to amazon.com and a credit card. $40 later...

The Tale of Genji [Paperback] by Shikibu, Murasaki; Seidensticker, Edward G. [Paperback]
By: Murasaki Shikibu, Edward G. Seidensticker

Translation of an 11th century Japanese novel

The Gnostic Gospels (Vintage) [Paperback]
By: Elaine Pagels (Author)

The text that started this... after reading her selections, I decided to give gnoticism another poke, since I hadn't thought about it in 10 years... and this text seemed immensely readable.


The Tale of Murasaki : A Novel [Paperback]
By: Liza Dalby

She wrote "Geisha" a book I particularly enjoyed, based on her anthropological research on Geisha in Japan. This is actually a novel about the author of Tale of Genji, above. Yep, those book pimps hooked with the "people who bought... also bought..." shtick. Damn them. :)

Tribal Fusion - Yoga Isolations & Drills for Bellydance [DVD]
By: Rachel Brice

OoooOOOoo... She came and taught here this summer, but life commitments were such I did not go. But this was exactly the topic of her workshop... maybe I can pick up some of what I missed. Needless to say this is right up my alley!


It is a very wierd wishlist I must say, that includes books on:
- networks and digital security
- Japanese Geisha stuff
- Indian philosophy
- Asian new age music
- Western yoga stuff
- vegan cookbooks (even though I'm so totally an omnivore)
and now... a whole bunch of gnosticism and various Christian writings...

An interesting study on what I've bought on Amazon in recent years. My textile book purchases have fallen off the map - as I buy those through abebooks. And (thank god) the goofy Dover clip art books finally fell by the wayside.

The really odd thing is to see a book on Cryptography listed right on top of a book on spirituality by a medieval female author, right above the Masala Art Bhangra DVD part I. Gives me a giggle.

Better yet, the last package from the post office was a pink PVC microskirt and pink ruffly satin bra. Whee.

Comments

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

You silly goose! You're not supposed to buy yourself stuff before Christmas!

[sibylla.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoyed The Tale of Murasaki - even if Murasakisama didn't care for my favourite Heian-era poet. *dorky grin* Really, it's a fabulous read and very, very interesting from a "what did they do? what did they think?" perspective. Hrm, I suppose one might call that a sociological perspective, but I feel weird saying that about a novel, no matter how well-researched. If you don't like it, I'll happily buy it off you. :D

[dervishspin.livejournal.com]

When you are done with the gnostic gospels let me know. Wouldn't mind a chat about it, after the fact. No one else I know has done any studying on it, and I find it fascinating.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. ;) I am not immune - I don't own any of the Bynum books, and now the itch is back.

[lakshmi-amman.livejournal.com]

You know... it's funny. As a teenager I abandoned the idea of delving in deeply as I didn't feel up to the idea of pouring over medieval writings and trying to find something I could really grip as part of my own spiritual values - which was the quest at the time.

Looking back on the obscene number of Hindu philosophy, theology and philosophical history books accumulating in my house ... that argument just doesn't hold water anymore.