Books & reading

Yarn Along #1

5 April 2012 08:55 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Yarns, knitting & crochet

Cold Light // Pasha

I don’t have much to say at the moment. I’m sort of out of words, still bed/couchbound and running on extremely low gears because of the continuing health challenges.

Been spending lots and lots of time in quiet stillness, and also listening to Adyashanti‘s talks. In fact, I can’t really do anything else beyond that, without severly overdrawing my energy account… I gently keep trying, though; always hoping the situation will take a turn for the better one day.

Sometimes I do give in to the ever present eagerness, inspiration and longing to do something, even though I know there will be consequences. Lately, my sweet poison of choice have been knitting. The work in progress in the picture above is a hat, Pasha by Jane Richmond, in Debbie Bliss’ Andes (baby alpaca and mulberry silk yarn). I absolutely adore them both ♥ The picture unfortunately doesn’t do justice at all to the yarn; it’s the most gorgeous colour of moonlight, with a subtle shimmer and it’s as soft as a dream :)

The book I’m currently reading is Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth. I started it ten days ago, but I’m only on page 17 so far. My broken brain is making reading very very difficult, but I’m immensely grateful for every morsel.

Jenn Ashworth’s novel A Kind of Intimacy was my absolute favourite book among the ones I read last year, simply amazing! Or to quote my usually admirably eloquent soul sister: »It’s genius, but ooooooh I died!« Hehehe… Actually, it’s a story so well told and brilliantly written – not to mention a completely unforgettable protagonist – that I wouldn’t hesitate to list her as one of my top most favourite novelists, along with Maggie O’Farrell and Audrey Niffenegger. Yes, she’s that good! Do treat yourself; go buy her books, read them and enjoy :)

♥

This post was inspired by Sarah (Crafts From The Cwtch), whose WIP Wednesdays/Yarn Along posts I really enjoy.

To Be Shoved Off the Roof

23 November 2011 09:38 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Inspiration

‘So I says to Fevvers: “Nothing to it, my dear, but your Liz must shove you off the roof.”‘

‘To me,’ said Fevvers, ‘it seemed that Lizzie, by proposing thus to thrust me into the free embrace of the whirling air, was arranging my marriage to the wind itself.’

She swung round on her piano stool and presented Walser with a face of such bridal radiance that he blinked.

‘Yes! I must be the bride of that wild, sightless, fleshless rover, or else could not exist, sir.

~ From Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

600 + 400 = Immense Gratitude

8 October 2011 20:40 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Film & tv

Imtiaz Ali, filmmaker extraordinaire ♥

Some years ago I started keeping notes of the books I read and the films I’ve watched.

Continue reading… »

Odd Reads and Weird Encounters

29 August 2011 23:30 // 2 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading

I’m glancing warily at the book sitting next to me on the sofa. It looks perfectly innocent. Ordinary, even. There’s no magical shimmer, no strange smell, no other signs suggesting a curse of any kind. And yet…

Continue reading… »

Dharma Cookies and Manga

16 June 2011 03:15 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading

These have to be the cutest dharma cookies I’ve ever seen! The photo above comes from a post on the lovely Japanese blog Kazue Bits, where Kazue writes:

My friend gave me these cookies printed with art from Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha series. I wondered if when I ate them I’d become enlightened. Anyway they tasted good and the printed colors were so beautiful.

Sweet and adorable! I’m not familiar with manga at all, but reading about Tezuka’s books has really made me curious now :)

Cruelty Prefers Abstraction

30 December 2010 12:43 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Life & love

Jersey cow sniffing at a camera in the sun

What do you see?

»Having little exposure to animals makes it much easier to push aside questions about how our actions might influence their treatment. The problem posed by meat has become an abstract one: there is no individual animal, no singular look of joy or suffering, no wagging tail, and no scream. The philosopher Elaine Scarry has observed that ‘beauty always takes place in the particular.’ Cruelty, on the other hand, prefers abstraction.«

~ Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

Never the Wrong Alice

24 October 2010 00:43 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Film & tv

Alice at the rabbit hole

How can I be the wrong Alice when this is my dream?

~ Alice in Wonderland

A Haven Within

4 May 2010 23:42 // 0 comment(s) // Posted in Books & reading, Inspiration

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Umrao Jaan

One day he said to her: »You are like me; you are different from most people. You are Kamala, no one else, and within you there is a stillness, a haven to which you can withdraw at any time and be at home there – just as I can. Few people have that, but yet all of them could have it.«

»Not all people are smart,« said Kamala.

»No,« said Siddhartha, »it does not depend on that. Kamaswami is as smart as I am, and yet he has no haven within him. Others do have it who are mere children as far as their understanding goes. Most people, Kamala, are like fallen leaves that blow and whirl about in the air, then dip and fall to earth. But others, only a few, are like stars, which move on a fixed course where no wind reaches them; they have their law and their course within them.«

~ From Siddhartha by Herman Hesse