SillyDog701

[richard mitnick]

SillyDog participants are generally bright people with a multitude of interests.

Tell us what you are reading. What authors do you like and why? What fields of inquiry interest you? Do it nay way you want.

If you want, post here at this thread. But, if you feel that your author or subject will have really wide appeal, why, go ahead and start your own thread.

>>RSM

Topic title adjusted by Antony, 30 Nov 2008

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[James]

Just finished "Windows Vista: Plain and Simple" and "At the Corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy". I'm half way through: "Photoshop Elements 6: Teach Yourself Visually". Three-quarters of the way through: "Gently Down the Stream - 4 Unforgettable Keys to Success". I'm about to begin: "Bread and Water, Wine and Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God" and "Step by Step: 2007 Microsoft Office System."

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[richard mitnick]

James-

I am interested in your readings in Christianity.

I studied Western Theology, pretty much all on my own with a bit of rabbinic help, starting in about 1978. I started with the Hebrew Bible, the Anchor Bible Commentary book on Genesis, edited by E.A. Speiser. Then, I followed the footnotes both forward, through the rest of TaNaCH and backward, to Sumer.

I have studied up though the rest of TaNaCH, Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, Dead Sea material, Christian and Jewish mystics, Gnosticism, and some into Sufism.

I was on a quest, and I believe I found my answers in Meister Eckhart's Grund Theology, a theology in which the ground of the individual's soul is subsumed in the ground of the soul of God. I say that I believe that I found my answers, because it took off the edge, the need to keep on searching.

I must say, this was my one consuming passion.

I do not read fiction, I do not have the patience.

Favorite non-fiction authors prior to my reading in theology were Loren Eisley, an anthropologist; May Sarton, a poet, but I read her Journals and corresponded with her; and the dean of American non-fiction writers, John McPhee, with whom I have also carried on a bit of a correspondence.

So, here, maybe we start a conversation, and then look in on the technical topics at SillyDog, to be sure that no on needs our help.

>>RSM

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[Don_HH2K]

Right now I'm reading The Audacity of Hope by U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama. After that, I still have to finish more summer reading assigned to me by various school courses: What is the What by Dave Eggers, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford.

The Comptuer Programming course at my school now uses a new book written by one of the faculty. I'm going to see if I can get a copy of the old book, Java Java Java by Ralph Morelli, and skim it over before getting too far into the new one.

Unfortunately, with the volume of books I have to read during a semester at school, my courses often dictate to me what I'm reading. Finding time to read what I particularly want to read is difficult.

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[richard mitnick]

You know what? the load in your first paragraph is quite heavy. What school do you attend and in what year are you?

And, thanks for participating.

>>RSM

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[James]

Hello, Richard

Just flying out the door this morning. We've a two hour drive to our church through the mountain pass so we have to be up and at 'em early. It would take too long (at least now) to outline some of the more definitive theological works that have made up my reading over the past few years. If you're at all interested in Eastern Orthodoxy, you might obtain a copy (it comes in paperback) of The Orthodox Church by Bp Kallistos Ware. It outlines the history of Christianity and Orthodoxy in particular as well as delineates some of the doctrines of eastern Christianity (i.e. what about icons, church architecture, the divine liturgy, ecumenical councils of the first millennium and so forth). If time permits, I'll try go through my small library and list half a dozen of the more interesting books.

Right now... I'm going to have my hands full with the Microsoft Office book, the Photoshop book and the Bread, Water, Oil and Wine book I previously mentioned.

Take care.

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[richard mitnick]

Hey james-

Thanks. My only real contact with the Orthodox Church is through early mystics, like Gregory of Nyssa; and the music of Sir John Tavener. Tavener is English; but some time ago he expressed his confession of faith in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The interest for me is always toward the mystical, and the Orthodox Church (I know that speaking of it as a monolith is incorrect, but just for the sake of brevity) is way way out beyond the Roman Catholic Church, even with all the Catholic mystics, many of whom were excommunicated and murdered by the Church.

For me, mysticism is the leading edge, the bleeding edge of the advance in theology in all Western religions. Christian mystics, Jewish kabbalistic and Hasidic mystics, and the adherents of Sufism.

The American Catholic mystic, Fr. Thomas Merton, a Cistercian monk, said that all of the mystcis of all faiths could speak to each other, because they were all on the same path, to unio mystico; the normative clerics could not speak to each other at all, all on different wave lengths.

Anyway, thanks, great to talk about something beyond browsers.

I hope that this thread turns up some really challenging thinkers. There are no dopes at SillyDog.

>>RSM

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[humpd]

I'm currently reading DEMOCRACY by Bill Moyers. It is a good read for anyone who thinks our President and Congress are operating within the founder's intent for our Constitution and federal government.

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[richard mitnick]

It is a good read for anyone who thinks our President and Congress are operating within the founder's intent for our Constitution and federal government.

So, do you?

>>RSM

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[iJohnE]

I am a very, well, fictonal reader. I read a lot of Young Adult books, but a couple of others too.

Currently I am reading "The Complete Idiots Guide to Windows XP." and an old copy of "Windows 95 Driving you CRAZY?"


On another note, well setting up for the book sale the other day, here at the library, I found a brand new copy of the Windows 95 Upgrade, and was a little excited. Don't know how I am going to be able to use it though.

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[humpd]

Rich: I do not. I think a read of this book will explain why I agree with the author.

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[James]

I have serious reservations about Bill Moyer's ability to be impartial. I tend to take what he has to say with a proverbial grain of salt.

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[James]

To which (if any) magazines do you regularly subscribe? I subscribe to: Consumer Reports, Popular Photography, Orthodox Word and Again (Eastern Orthodox magazine).

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[richard mitnick]

To which (if any) magazines do you regularly subscribe? I subscribe to: Consumer Reports, Popular Photography, Orthodox Word and Again (Eastern Orthodox magazine).

Wow! Great question. I have a friend who disparages magazines and lives only in books. He is very bright, but he is also dogmatic.

I adore magazines because if usedd properly, and if they are good ones, they can keep one au courant.

So- my list
Time, Newsweek
Business Week, Fortune and Forbes
The New Yorker, New York, and the New York Review of Books
National Geographic, Biblical Archaeology Review
Backpacker, Outside, Bicycling
Vanity Fair
PC World, PC Magazine, Computer Shopper

This is quite a load. So, the first thing I go to is the index.

Again, great question.

>>RSM

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[Don_HH2K]

I was a subscriber of PC World and Popular Science for about three years, though gradually I found that I was reading the same things online a week or two in advance from the magazine printing, so I never renewed either. Just a few weeks ago I finally got around to getting rid of my old issues of both (I kept them on a table for years, but needed that table for other things), and brought them down for recycling.

I still read IEEE's Spectrum Magazine, which is comprised mostly of bleeding-edge subjects that I don't get to see on Slashdot or Ars Technica.

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