Books (and stuff)

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some of the books I think are important, inspiring, fun, useful, provocative or something
  
     
 
some I read once a year, some I've read once and will read again
  
     
 

most are linked to Amazon (co.uk) so you can buy them or just see more info ... some are linked to author's website (if in doubt click the picture)

Oh, ignore the bits about "% off" or "search inside" ... or go to Amazon and see if you can

  
     
 

and also see anything and sometimes everything else written by these people

 
     
 

Andy Letcher, Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushrooms.

See the website, buy the book ...

 
 

and I heartily recommend Andy's latest musical offering: Telling the Bees.
Apart from the staggeringly good music, lyrics, etc., all those who've misread Andy's Shroom book might learn a thing or two from this CD. (Is that too enigmatic? Well, will it help if I hint that one of the labels bandied about the band / music is "psychedelic"? probably not. If only Blake were right that fools who continue in their foolishness will come to the palace of wisdom. Or if he was right, did he really think the persistant fools would recognise the palace?)

Anyway, anyway, I don't only recommend the CD for educative and combative purposes. Its, its, its ... well, well worth a listen. Is this the first recorded use of a gate and a reservoir in music making? Is this England or the Otherworld?

  
       
 

And here's another addition to my list of favourite stuff:

Barry Patterson's poetic collection "Nature Mystic" would exhaust my list of superlatives if I started ... I could, perhaps, compare this with Mary Oliver's nature poetry. Ah, but why compare when someone will think a competition is afoot? No, this isn't an either/or choice - as ever with good things, its a both/and matter.

 
       
 
 
 
Richard Mabey, Nature Cure.
  
 
 
 
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
  
 
   
 
Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer
  
 
   
 
Ursula Le Guin, Always Coming Home
  
 
   
 
Leslie Silko, Ceremony
 
 
 
Sherman Alexie, The Lone-Ranger and Tonto Firstfight in Heaven
  
 
   
 
Linda Hogan, Solar Storms
  
 
   
 
Alice Walker, In Search of our Mothers' Gardens
 
   
 
Alan Garner, Thursbitch
  
 
 
 

Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

(and its sequels and everything else Garner's written)

  
 
   
 
The Epic of Gilgamesh
  
       
 
Tain Bo Cuailnge
  
 
   
 
Guy Kay, The Finovar Tapestry: The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road (even the covers - well, these covers - are great).
 
 
 
Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood (and its sequels)
  
 
   
 
Tom Holt, Expecting Someone Taller
  
 
   
 
Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time
  
 
   
 
Bruno Latour, Making Things Public
  
 
 
 
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
  
 
   
 
The Poetic Edda
  
 
   
 
Linda Hogan, Deena Metzger and Brenda Peterson (eds) Intimate Nature
  
 
   
 
Michael Jackson, At Home in the World
  
 
 
 
Keith Basso, Wisdom Sits in Places
 
   
 
Richard Nelson, Make Prayers to Raven
  
 
   
 
Greg Sarris, Keeping Slug Woman Alive
  
 
   
 
Greg Sarris, Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream
  
 
 
 
David Turner, Genesis Regained
  
 
   
 
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy’s Point of View
  
       
 
Bruno Latour, We have never been modern
  
       
 

David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology

and most other pamphlets in the Prickly Paradigm catalog

  
     
 

Graham Harvey, The Killing of the Countryside

(not me, one of the other Graham Harveys)

 
       
 

Graham Harvey, Forgiveness of Nature: The Story of Grass

(again, not me)

  
       
 
Sarah-Kate Lynch, Blessed are the Cheesemakers
  
       
 
Joanne Harris, Chocolat and Blackberry Wine
     
 
Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider
  
       
 
Linda Hogan, Dwellings
  
       
 
Louise Erdrich, Tracks
  
       
 
David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous
  
     
 
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
  
       
 
Erazim Kohak, The Green Halo
  
       
 
Michael Taussig, Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man
  
       
 

Patricia Grace, Sky People

I've no idea why Amazon don't have the cover ... anyway, here's a link to the NZ book council page about Grace and her other wonderful books etc.

 

  
       
   
     
  that's it for now ... maybe I ought to structure the list somehow — but should I group them by subject, publication date, date I first read them, date I last read them, place on my book shelves, impact on a particular area of my life, identity, thinking, pleasure ... or what? So I think I'll leave them in the not entirely random order in which they occur now.    

 

last updated 20 March 2007