Reading List
'Some books I would recommend, which are more in line with science, naturalism, and self-reliance, include:
"Sense and Goodness Without God" - Richard Carrier
"Breaking the Spell: Religion as Natural Phenomenon" - Daniel Dennett
"Selfish Gene" and "Blind Watchmaker" - Richard Dawkins
I've always enjoyed Tameri's Existentialism Primer as well, although these are just my own precluvities toward my dark side.'
Cole Butterfield
'A couple of my husband's favorites would include works by Eric Blehm (The Last Season) and Neil Peart (The Masked Rider, Ghost Rider, Travelling Music).
One of these days I'll get around to reading them.
A book I think everyone who feeds themself should have would be a basic cookbook. One that lists the tables of measurements, has sections for the different groupings of foods, and includes useful how-to tips. Not some bizarre gourmet book that requires hard-to-find specialty ingredients, but just a standard cookbook. I've seen ones specifically for people only cooking for one or two people, so if you don't need to cook for an army, you can still find a good one.
I'm a fan of poetry- which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea. Poets I like enough to have their works on my shelf include T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, and Seamus Heaney.
If you are wanting to learn computing languages (html, linux, c++, php, etc) O'Reilly and Wrox both put out excellent quality material. They are not the only good quality publishers, but are ones that we've used personally.
Books off my own esoteric shelf, which may or may not be of use to some of you, include:
The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie
Futhark: a handbook of rune magic by Edred Thorsson
Discovering your Past Lives by Gloria Chadwick
Circles of Power by John Michael Greer
I also have found that the Tarot can be a useful tool. Not for deciding course of action or foretelling the future necessarily. Rather, when I spread the cards, I keep a written record of it- the cards, their positions, my thoughts, weather/moon data, etc. Later, weeks, months, years, I can go back over and look at it a second time. It's rather fascinating the things we don't see when we're "in the moment" but which we do see when removed from it. I don't recommend particular decks to people, because it is very much a matter of personal preference. there are hundreds of styles of tarot decks on the market.
For fiction reading, the Vampire the Masquerade Clan Novels. 13 Clans, 13 Novels. Each one its own story, but there is also a meta-story woven into them. There is a lot of politics, intrigue, power-plays, insanity. These books can be read for superficial enjoyment, or you can mine them for things to think deeply upon.
I don't remember (and don't want to navigate away from this window) if anyone has recommended John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Also, Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.
Discovering your Past Lives might seem a bit on the fluffy side, and if you scoff at the notion of past lives, just view it as a way to make connections with your subconscious self.
I don't want anyone to think that this is a list of books to rush out and buy. If it sounds interesting, try to find somewhere to borrow it. No sense spending money on something you end up having no use for.'
Lady Qadira
'The Book of the Law, recieved by A. Crowley, for me personally is not only the herald of a new Aeon but as such a very interesting book for the Dark Side.
The New Hermetics, by Jason Augustus Newcoombe, gives a hands on training programme in NLP and internal energy-wrok that is awesome.
And of course The Prince by Machiavelli, Steppenwolf, Siddharta, and Glass-Bead Game by Hesse, the Tao te King, The art of War by Zhun-Tzu, the Book of Five Rings, Crime and Punishment, anything on Anarchism, especially spiritual views on it like Tolstoy's plus Bakunin and Kropotkin... What else. The Satanic Bible is interesting.
All the great religious texts, Torah, Bible, Qur'an, Baghavad Ghita, Vedas. Stuff on Zen and Tao. Stuff about Qi.
And my number one recommendation for anyone - The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende, by many regarded a children's book but containing much wisdom between the lines.'
Infinitus
The Prince by Machiavelli,
The Republic by Plato,
The Collected Works of Nietsche,
The Art of War by Sun Tzu,
Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emmerson,
Dark Apprentice by Kevin Anderson,
Star Wars and Philosophy by Decker and Eberl,
On Liberty by J.S.Mill,
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky