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A Reader's Treasury — Journeys in Discovery

Today readers live in the midst of riches, which they neither value nor exploit, failing to realise that the application of attention is the magical act which transforms print and paper into bread and wine. And now, patient reader, read on!
— Robert Cecil in his Introduction to The King's Son

A Reader's Treasury — Journeys in Discovery

Chapter 1: Evolution of Consciousness
Chapter 2: Quantum Reality
Chapter 3: Psychotherapy
Chapter 4: Spiritual Science
Chapter 5: Reading for Enjoyment
Chapter 6: Writing

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Dear Readers:

Before I began writing reviews of books when I finished reading them back in 1987, I had about 860 books in my library that I had read before then, most of them read during the period of 1976 through 1986. These books comprise my early journeys of discovery into a variety of fields which I have summarized by the chapter headings of the book listed below. These are the same as the chapter headings of A Reader's Journal — Journeys into Understanding, my first book of reviews and essays into understanding.

Yes, most of the reviews I wrote became essays into understanding the books I read. I didn't write them with the purpose of publishing them — I wrote them as a prod to myself to probe the depths of the book, to "come to terms with the author" as Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren had urged readers to do in their classic book, How To Read A Book, which you will find reviewed under the Chapter Heading "WRITING" below.

I hesitated to even begin the task of writing 860 reviews. The very idea was daunting! Why if I attempted such a thing, I couldn't do anything else! When I expressed the idea to my wife, Del, she said, "Well, if you write one review a day, you will be done in about three years." I laughed at her temerity to suggest such a thing, but her words got me to thinking and planning: if I wrote two or three reviews a month, the project could be fitted into my other writing projects. This new webpage is one of the outcomes of that thinking and planning. It will contain the lastest reviews that are added to A Reader's Treasury as they are completed. As such it will be an on-going work in progress. The titles will mostly be added in alphabetic order by Author's last name as I go down the shelfways of my library. So if you return to look for new additions after a couple of weeks, look to the bottom of each chapter for the new additions.

These reviews will be often short ones because I read these books over twenty years or more ago. Some of the shorter ones I may re-read when I come across them to review. Illusions by Richard Bach, reviewed below, was such a book. What I hope to give you is a thumbnail of my own journeys of discovery that led me to where I began reading the books that grace the inside of A Reader's Journal.

One final note: Since these are reviews I've written recently of books I read about 20 to 30 years ago, they are special because they typically include many the things I thought important to me at the time when I read them. As I wrote a recent review of "Learning How to Learn", it occurred to me that the things I thought were important in this book back then were things that I have since assimilated into who I am today. These reviews provide a fourth dimensional mirror of me — the "me" I was some 25 years ago. That "me" was reading and studying material selected by the process of "remembering the future" in order to create the "me" I am today as I type these words. As one external sign which confirms my insight, my wife and partner of thirty years, Del, scribbled a note at one point as she was copy-editing the "Learning How to Learn" review, "Just like you!" Hope you enjoy these reviews, and while reading it may you "remember a future-you" who will much later find that these insights have become a part of you. If any review alone doesn't do it for you, then locate a copy of the book itself to read.

Read and Enjoy, in Freedom and Light,
Bobby Matherne, November 12, 2000

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ Evolution of Consciousness ~^~^~^~^~^~^

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Axelrod, Robert	The Evolution of Cooperation
Andrade, Edward Neville Da Costa	Sir Isaac Newton
Arnet, Jay	How to Develop a Million Dollar Sales Presentation
Auel, Jane	The Clan of the Cave Bear
Abbott, Edwin	Flatland
Adams, James L.	Conceptual Blockbusting
Akeret, Robt U.	Photoanalysis
Paulsen, Michael B. and Kenneth A. Feldman	Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom
Ardrey, Robert	The Hunting Hypothesis
Bach, Richard	Illusions, Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Bacon, Francis	The Essays of Francis Bacon
Banks, Roger	Living in a Wild Garden
Banville, John	Doctor Copernicus — A Novel
Barrett, William	The Illusion of Technique
Barron, D. W.	Recursive Techniques in Programming
Bateson, Mary Catherine	Our Own Metaphor — Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation
Brown, G. Spencer	Laws of Form
Blair, Lawrence	Rhythms of Vision — the Changing Patterns of Belief
Butler, Samuel	The Notebooks of Samuel Butler
Castaneda, Carlos	Teachings of don Juan — A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Book 1 of Series
Castaneda, Carlos	A Separate Reality — Further Conversations with Don Juan, Book 2 of Series
Castaneda, Carlos	Journey to Ixtlan — The Lessons of Don Juan, Book 3 of Series
Castaneda, Carlos	Tales of Power, Book 4 of Series
Keyes, Kenneth S. Jr.	How To Develop Your Thinking Ability — Taming Your Mind: A Guide to Sound Decisions [new title]
Korzybski, Alfred O.	Science and Sanity — An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
Kuhn, Thomas S.	The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Montagu, Ashley	Touching — The Human Significance of the Skin
Schank, Roger C.	Tell Me A Story — A New Look at Real and Artificial Memory

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Quantum Reality ~^~^~^~^~^~^^~^~^~

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Berger, Ralph	Psyclosis — The Circularity of Experience
Eddington, Sir Arthur	The Philosophy of Physical Science — Lectures given to Trinity College, Cambridge, Easter Term 1938
Pagels, Heinz	The Cosmic Code — Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature
Jones, Roger S.	Physics as Metaphor — A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Human Side of Science

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^Psychotherapy ~^~^~^~^~^~^^~^~^~

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Laing, R. D.	Knots
Bandler, Richard	Using Your Brain — for a CHANGE
Bandler, Richard	Magic in Action
Bandler, Richard & Grinder, John	Frogs Into Princes
Bandler, Richard & Grinder, John	The Structure of Magic, Vol. I — A Book about Language and Therapy
Andreas, Connie and Steve	Change Your Mind — and Keep the Change
Andreas, Steve	NLP — The New Technology of Achievement
Bandler, Richard & Grinder, John	Trance-formations: Neuro-linguistic Programming & the Structure of Hypnosis
Alexander, F. Matthias	The Resurrection of the Body
Assagioli, Roberto	Psychosynthesis
Bandler, Richard & Grinder, John	ReFraming — NLP and the Transformation of Meaning
Bates, W. H.	Better Eyesight Without Glasses
Watzlawick, Paul et al.	The Invented Reality
Watzlawick, Paul et al.	Change
Watzlawick, Paul et al.	Pragmatics of Human Communication
Watzlawick, Paul	The Language of Change
Bean, Orson	Me and the Orgone
Farrelly, Frank & Jeff Brandsma	Provocative Therapy

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Spiritual Science ~^~^~^~^~^~^^~^~^~

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Ansari, Djaleddin etal.	Visits to Sufi Centres — Some Recent Research Papers on Sufis and Sufism
Adler, Mortimer	The Angels and Us
Barbour, Ian G.	Myths, Models, and Paradigms
Hammitzsch, Horst	Zen in the Art of the Tea Ceremony
Roberts, Jane	The "Unknown Reality" Volume 1, A Seth Book
Roberts, Jane	The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, A Seth Book
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de:	Wisdom of the Sands
Schucman, Helen	A Course in Miracles — Volume 1: Text
Schucman, Helen	A Course in Miracles — Volume 2: Workbook
Khan, Hazrat Inayat	The Art of Personality Volume 3 of the Sufi Message
Khan, Hazrat Inayat	The Alchemy of Happiness Volume 6 of the Sufi Message
Idries Shah	Learning How to Learn — Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Reading for Enjoyment ~^~^~^~^~^~^^~^~^~

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Adams, Douglas and Lloyd, John	The Meaning of Liff
Adams, Douglas	The Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Adams, Douglas	Life, the Universe, and Everything
Adams, Douglas	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency [also: The Long Dark Tea-time Soul]
Allen, Steve	How to Make a Speech
Amis, Martin	Time's Arrow
Asimov, Isaac	I, Robot and Foundation
Auel, Jean M.	The Valley of Horses
Auel, Jean M.	The Mammoth Hunters
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett	Sonnets from the Portuguese
Hoffenstein, Samuel	The Complete Poetry of Samuel Hoffenstein
Webster, Eric	How to Win the Business Battle
Bach, Richard	Jonathan Livingston Seagull — A Novel

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Writing ~^~^~^~^~^~^^~^~^~

Author (Last Name, First)	Full Title of Book Reviewed
Adler, Mortimer and Van Doren, Charles	How To Read A Book
Adler, Mortimer	How to Speak, How to Listen
Elbow, Peter	Writing Without Teachers
Goldberg, Natalie	Writing Down the Bones — Freeing the Writer Within
Joubert, Joseph	The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert — Edited and Translated by Paul Auster

~^~



Any questions about this review, Contact: Bobby Matherne

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These books are all about going on. All the way. To our common destination. To which none of us wants to go ignorant and alone. Hence, into the dark, we write. Nancy Mairs in Voice Lessons

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