"A man's life is only justified by his efforts, however feeble, towards better understanding. And to understand better is to become more attached. The more I understand, the more I love; for everything that is understood is good."
- - - Pauwels and Bergier in Morning of the Magicians
What Readers Have to Say About A Reader's Journal:
The Book has arrived and is so impressive. Like a Chest of Gold. All these hundreds of introductions to important and profound thinking. Wow! As you know I want this to get at the Steiner reviews but it looks like I'm going to have lots of interesting reading other than Steiner. Read the whole chapter Evolution of Consciousness -- like eating candy at the movies.
Thanx loads for doing this book.
--- Art Ross, Jaerna, Sweden
Your latest book is treasured by me more than any other I have purchased or received as a gift ... and it brings both wisdom and pleasure ... like a great book should. There is nothing quite like it ... As I said before, it is far more than a compendium of reviews ... as it contains your ideas which go well beyond even those of most of the books/authors you chose to "review." And, it is no digest, either. It is something new and different ... a gift from you ... Thank you for making it available. --- Doyle P. Henderson, California
This evening I read the review of "An Anatomy of Memory". It seems like a treasure chest. Although I studied the nervous system years ago, this statement jumped out at me: " We think because we smelled". More important was the developmental context in which it exists. The link to Steiner is a fine one…." Rudolf Steiner specified when he said, in effect, "embody the body of this incarnation into the head of the next incarnation."
Another sentence which moves me: , "Solitude is the scientific method of the human spirit." So true. I do much reasoning from analogy… so James spoke to me: " William James that all words were once metaphors when he says, "Men, taken historically, reason by analogy long before they have learned to reason by abstract characters."[page 140] Thus we are led to understand that the origin of language lies in reference to concrete objects and physical actions. " Even more interesting to me was something completely new in "The Gospel of St. Luke" by Rudolf Steiner. Your chart must have taken much time and thought. For me it is almost priceless. You laid it out so well. Thank you.
The male/female; inward/outward and the separation of bodies was very interesting. The separation I had never heard before. Also, the step back in sync with the step forth was a concept worth remembering. You had alerted me to the physical-spiritual link in talking about the Sun, so it was neat to see it in your review. Finally, the descriptions of the eightfold path seems more sequential and internally consistent than I ever recall reading. Nice. Thanks for sharing your work.
Bob Hetrick of Wichita, Kansas
Once again you've made a mark on society. A review is one thing.... but the wisdom you add is so insightful, I wonder if the various authors actually perceived all the enlightenment contained within the context of their words. You know, authoring genius is a little like birthing.....you never know the full measure of the creation until you live with it for a while. I think they created the "babies" and you explained their personalities! --- Carol Golden, Florida
I love the concept here. Since 1988, Bobby has been writing a short review of every book he reads. Since Bobby is a deep thinker, he likes to read books by deep thinkers. This book is a compendium of nearly three hundred of these book reviews. Most are one or two pages long, but sometimes, as with Lilly on Dolphins by John Lilly, he expands on the ideas in a flight of imagination that soars for six pages of his own fascinating theories on the subject. They are divided into six categories that reflect Bobby's major interests, which coincidentally match mine almost to a T. It just gets better and better.His chapters are titled:
Evolution of Consciousness
Quantum Reality
Psychotherapy
Spiritual Science
Reading for Enjoyment
Writing.
A quick perusal of the book titles reveals very few that I have read personally, but enough so that I am ready to leap into the fray. Reading the Introduction, I find that our earlier reading was more concurrent. Then I realize that I pretty much stopped reading "deep thinkers" somewhere along the line. I wonder now if that was an error in judgment on my part.
I'm really getting a kick out of these little gems of wisdom. My favorite so far is from the review of Understanding - A Phenomenological-Pragmatic Approach by Gary Brent Madison: "Science, magic, and religion are all three systems of belief that are internally consistent and cannot be disproved from within the system (although scientists have the audacity to attempt to disprove magic and religion from outside their systems)." Yes, this has been the ideal reading experience. . . getting back to some mind-expanding material, but in little snippets, so that my lately sedentary brain can handle it. I'm loving this book! It's inspiring me to pick up a weightier tome now and then, and give my mind some exercise.
--- Mary Sahs, Michigan
I hope you enjoy the money as much as I enjoy the book and that's a lot. The only thing I'm afraid of is that reading your reviews will make me want to read many, many books.--- Tonny Vaes, Netherlands
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