Networking for Book Lovers

Meenakshi, I think you'd fit very nicely on Gaia/Zaadz.  :  )  or any other place you would care to grace with your presence.

As for the types of books I read, I'd actually be interested in how you, and others, perceive the sampling I posted.  My current collection, at any given time, tends to reflect the topics I'm studying and/or writing about, so I currently have a bit of an anthropological slant, where I might otherwise focus on scientific/policy, legal, health, education, political science, spirituality, religion, culture, wisdom, etc.  Although I tend towards nonfiction, I really see nonfiction pretty much like fiction - with a story, but no plot, - and where the only important character is the author.  To most, I guess those distinctions are more important  (lol).  To me, they are all stories, all both true and untrue, and it is my responsibility to determine when I should suspend my disbelief.

Oh, I have an observation for our 50+ thread.  When looking at these online libraries, I get a sense that I have read an awful lot of books.  Thousands.  I get interested in a field and accumulate a lot of books.   10 years ago, I decided I was not going to need the extensive library I'd collected on environmental health and religion and I donated around 400 books to a local library.  The number of books I own sometimes scares me, given my income and space constraints.

Remember the thread about whether getting older makes us wiser?  Well, given that humans begin life less intelligent and resourceful than chimpanzees, perhaps someone who has read two thousand books and twenty thousand newspaper, magazine and journal articles could extract a bit more wisdom from processing those thoughts and information than someone who had read 50 books and two hundred articles?  That is not to say that they would have any more wisdom than someone who has caught 20,000 fish for their village, nor who has grown 3 millions tons of rice or corn, nor who has made 30,000 clay pots, half a million meals, repaired 5,000 cars, nor who has raised a single child.

In the field of massage, my teachers told me that there is a quantum difference between a massage therapist who had performed a hundred massages versus someone who had performed two thousand.  The hands and heart and mind are just more sensitive and attuned to the human body through the experience of performing a thousand massages.  There may not be a way to quantify or scientifically study this difference, and it may not even be real.  However, I must say that it feels real to me.

A cabinet maker who methodically studies and understands how to make a cabinet, but has little experience doing this work may create wonderful cabinets, but perhaps without quite the nuance and flavoring of the master cabinet maker, and perhaps with more time spent thinking and planning.  Which cabinet is more likely to last long enough to become an antique?

Books and other life experiences are the pages of our minds, in a sense.  Someone with an almost empty shelf may feel that their library is already complete.  And, someone with thousands of books may be no wiser for them.  However, with any luck, a person who has read thousands of book and who has talked with thousands of people, and has experienced many different perspectives, cultures, traditions and locations - may have an advantage in understanding themselves and the world around them.

Namaste.

Earon