All About Books!

Since I’m now starting PSU in the fall, I made a deal with myself to at least finish the rough draft of my writing project before then. I’ve also started two long-term reading projects. I have a reading list for background on Arthurian legend based on a list I found on Reddit, of all places. I also have a reading list for a wider and more complete knowledge of Witchcraft from Scott Cunningham’s Wicca for the solo practioner. His reading list is a little outdated and a little all over the place, but I’ll do what I can with it.

The first book I’m doing for Arthurian legend is going to be the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh folklore from a really really long time ago. I got it on ebook but then decided it would be better to have a hard copy of it. It is also available for *free* to listen to on audio on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9MVtahYlCBI  

I found it difficult to concentrate on the audio while driving so I abandoned that method. Not the best way to retain that knowledge.

The first book on my witchcraft reading list was The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner. I didn’t know anything about shamans, and I enjoyed reading about them and how similar shamans are regardless of which tribal groups and where it is in the world. However, I have a little distaste for Anthropologists and the modern application of shamanism seemed to be bordering into cultural appropriation. Also, I don’t want to do drugs, beat on drums, and enter into spirit worlds, particularly since the book made it very unclear what regular every day situations would call for this. It wasn’t my thing, and I stopped reading just over halfway. The next book on the list sounded like blatant cultural appropriation and once again delved into shamanism so I took it off the list altogether. Soon I will be moving on to Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning by Edward Carpenter, which is also available for free as an ebook from Project Gutenberg. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, I’ll be doing updates on my progress with both reading lists but it might be slow going as I also have two book clubs to manage and an ever-growing list of books to read for pleasure. I’m going to have to learn how to read faster!