Books deserving to be re-read

[Gary]

This topic could include 1) books you have reread, & 2) books deserving rereading and rerereding ... and 3) why

[Brandon]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. I read it many years ago, before having kids of my own....or a motorcycle. I thought it was great at the time and I still have warm thoughts about it when I "try" to repair or maintain my Honda ( not a BMW) like the characters in the book. When anyone ever mentions "quality" off hand as if it's a universally understood word, the blue book growing a wrench on the cover springs back to mind and it gives me a smile.

If I remember correctly, I got more out of the first half of the book. I thought the end was a long slow reveal... But, like I said, I didn't have kids or a motorbike back then so I might owe it a re-read to check up on my own "values" and possibly reassess it as adult with a lot of miles on the odometer and real world perspective to read by.

[Michelle]

I agree this needs to be re-read. I was young too when I read it the first time, a long time ago, but the mindfulness sticks. I have never had a motor cycle (I would probably enjoy riding one), I don't have children, and I have also never even worked on my own car. But I know kitchens and so I apply it there.

[Brandon]

Good ideas are cool like that. The older I get, the more I recognize the art in everything. In a silly way, the "style" of our endeavors is more important than the outcome. The positive approach to a business, book, relationship, or kitchen is far more important than the success of those things in the long run. "the art of everything" or "applied humanistic zeal"...has been a freeing ideology to live by and once in a while an author will encourage us to live a little closer to our actions. To my own experience, there is no failure for a thing done right. I might go so far as to call it "experiential honesty" but then again, I've had 4 cups of coffee. :) and I sometimes write faster than I can think...honestly, ha ha. Thanks for the comment Michelle, B.

[Gary]

Did Pirsig open a door onto this for thousands of people? I never read the book ( is it memoir? contemporary fiction? -- I don't read much of either ). And, to glance back at books for a moment, he sure created a trope :

<-=-> <-=-> <-=-> <-=->

I love how this thread has already branched out, as good conversation will, with books as a point of departure.

To me, your second post, Brandon, epitomizes what I commonly hear called practice. (Sadhana, sanskrit). I use the word all the time. "In theory there's no difference between theory and practice," said Yogi Berra, adding"but in practice there is." Every moment is an opportunity for practice, and practice is how we put theory into action.

"Soul-making," Keats said. "Applied humanist zeal," that's a keeper, as is ""to live a little closer to our actions." It's independent of outcome, and if there are lemons (beneficial regret) make lemonade. And in this I think it's also the rediscovery of the art of living, an art too long fallen into disrepair in contemporary American culture at least.

So now I''m also wondering what re-reading is like, as well as what we re-read: how is re-reading different from reading?

[Michelle]

Regarding the difference between theory and practice, what would the brain say about that as a suggestion while under hypnosis or in another altered state? Sometimes it seems like theory is imaginal practice and practice is realized and accepted imagination.

Mark Gonnerman said in one of his classes that all reading was re-reading. I can agree with that for the most part. But when something is more than mere curiosity for me, I slow way down and make sure I understand each page, each paragraph, each word. I get to the point I feel like I don't need to re-read, but I know I'm missing the big picture because I enjoyed the details so much.

[Gary]

Can you comment on what Dr Gonnerman meant -- or what it means to you?

& yes don't lose the panorama for the episode: like they say, theforestforthetrees.

Your insight into theory & practice seems worth developing. ( I don't know why it has to be a matter of the brain, except that today that's the new pantheon. I also don't know if hypgnosis were necessary as the view as you present it seems pretty much universal, and available in everyday life. (Goethe once said he didn't need to look beyond phenomena, as they are the principal themselves. "The natural object is always the adequate symbol." — Ezra Pound; "Things are symbols of themselves." — Chogyam Trungpa) My favorite quote of the month:

Theory is imaginal practice and practice
is realized and accepted imagination.

[Richard]

Hero of a Thousand Faces and the Mask of God series by Joseph Campbell. By chance I met Campbell when I was a senior at Duke in 1969. I believe he had just published Hero ... It was a turning point in my life. Over and over I turned to his writing.

Also, Michael Meade's book on men called Men and the Water of Life.