I have been reserved on this blog in the past, sitting only in the niche of homeschool moms. We were just starting out in the world of educating at home when I started writing. I wanted to write and share my research. I didn’t really have a voice then, so I just shared the surface of my life, with mostly Christians. I would imagine that most of my former readers opening their email today think I’ve been possessed by some dark entity. They might be right, but it’s not evil.
I wanted the opportunity to go through my shelves, hold books, flip through them, feel them and then write about them, but I never did book lists before. Too many of the books I would want to write about were probably on some banned book list. One book on this list was banned from many libraries all over the country. So having written that, this is not a Christian book list.
In the order in which I read them……
The Bible
Of course the Bible is on my list. I remember my first Bible. It was given to me while trick or treating by a Jehovah’s Witness. We had Bibles, but this one was mine and had pictures. This book changed my life, not because Jesus died for my sins and I learned it there, or that I believe that the Bible is the one true word of God, because I’ve read too many other spiritual texts and it’s not. Plus the old testament is tricky. Angry, punishing, gambling, war bringer god, meh…but oh the new testament…..Jesus, showing us the power we have within to create anything we want and it all starts with compassion. Jesus……I love him, in all his incarnations.
Charlottes Web by E.B. White
I read aloud to my kids, a thing I love to do, voices and all. This book just about broke me to get through with them. I cried through much of it, sharing this book for the first time was momentous. As a child, this book explained my love and empathy for animals in way I couldn’t verbalize at the time. It also brought to the fore front my love of arachnids. If you haven’t visited this book since childhood, you should.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien
I remember the moment I read the last line of The Return Of the King, my room, my blanket, which kitties were by my side. I felt as if I had lost a family. I connected wholly to the journey of these beings. It was as if the story existed in me, before Tolkien put ink to paper. I think it exists in us all. Even if the actual event never took place, the truth of the story is told over and over in life. I believe we all want to face our life’s journey with virtue and incorruptibility.
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
This brought romance and longing into my teen years. Oh, I craved Mr. Darcy like I have never craved any character out of literature. This was sexual awakening for me. While I didn’t understand that’s what was happening, I knew I wanted to experience the after of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam. What did all that pull and tension create after the wedding?
Lady by Thomas Tryon
I’ve never been able to get through any of his other books, but this story brought to me the reality that love should never be impeded by society’s rules. I think this book may have been the start of my understanding that love happens and no one has a right to say it’s wrong. Consenting adults of course, but gender and race are irrelevant. It was a heavy motif for a young person, but still stands in my mind as one of the greatest love stories I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot.
Alister Crowley
Now we are gettin’ to it. My mother was many things, many hard core Christian things, but she was not a book burner. After all, “the devil can quote the Bible” she would say, “knowledge is power and you need to know your enemy.” She had Alister Crowley sitting on our library shelves, in the early 80’s, while living in the Bible Belt of Texas. She also had Anton Lavey, but that particular book I never read. I don’t remember which Crowley book I read, or even what I read, but my memory stands clear of one thing, I was tasting the forbidden fruit of magick.
Everything you Know is Wrong by Lloyd Pye
While there is much theory in this book I don’t subscribe to, what he shares of evolution and the Sumerian people was shocking. A brand new idea to me. And of course, my most favorite creature was featured, the sasquatch. This book started my passion for archeological anomalies. I spent many years with an interest in pseudoscience and it was all down to this book. It fired up a life long passion for finding all the lies.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
I don’t think any book created such a massive shift in my personality more than this book did. This book helped me to understand my reactions were inconsistent, but also not on par with what with the world was giving me. I think this may have been my first step into real compassion for humans. I was quite a bitch once upon a time. If there was one book I would suggest out of all these books, this would be the one. There are a great many life changing books, but this book gets the mind and heart right very succinctly and if you do that, you’ll find the other books you need.
Out of the Silent Planet Series by C.S. Lewis
This was was the start of my move away from Christianity as a single driving spiritual force. It was like I could see the story of creation as a myth, not like a lie-myth, but as truth concealed in stories, that the mythology of creation could happen anywhere, anytime and very likely has.
The next set of books starts my healing journey timeline. They deal with the many things I learned and put into practice to manage and eliminate POTS symptoms.
The Hidden Message of Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto
Water is not just life, it’s everything. It’s God, healing, knowledge, peace, memory and power. I wouldn’t skip this book either. Once you read it, baths and showers are now rituals of extreme power. I slip into wild water and sing to streams every chance I get. This created a lasting and easy connection to God. This one would also be a close second to The Four Agreements.
The Japanese Art of Shinrin Yoku by Yoshifumi Miyazaki
There was nothing specifically new in this book for me, but the presentation was so clear and science driven that I think it would appeal to anyone seeking healing from nature. Like water, trees are power.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel von de Kirk
This book, if you read one book on why you are sick and not healing, this is the book. The science of neuroplasticity is still in it’s embryo stage for us monkey brains, but there is enough to at least understand some of how our brain functions. Understanding that my POTS was not an illness, but a source of protection, misguided protection, but there to keep me from harm. When I stopped seeing my illness as something to fight, but instead felt comforted by it’s existence, that was healing in itself.
Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza
He is not a spiritualist. He claims no deity and no deity is required for his materials. His methods work. They work and they heal. You gotta do the work though, but if you do, the sky is the limit. However, I’ve not read his predecessor Joe Silva. It’s on my Christmas list.
The Luckiest Lady In London by Sherry Thomas
Now this last book…..this book was not so much life changing as it was self affirming, but it still rocked my world. It’s not great literature, as a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have called this genre literature at all. Not worth anyone’s time. Although the author did an excellent job, for it’s genre I would say it’s practically perfect. I can’t find a flaw. It’s a bodice buster and I LOVED it. I read it in two days. I don’t know if they all are that good, but this one sent shivers down my root chakras and healed all kinds of hang ups. I wouldn’t actually suggest this book, but if it comes across your path and you think “maybe”, Read it! You should probably like Victorian era England and all its mannerisms. I do, so it was delectable. Oh and sex, you should probably like sex.
I know I’m forgetting so many other amazing books. My library now is not even a decade old. Downstairs in boxes is my childhood through 30’s. Oh, to have a single room dedicated to just book shelves.