What Books Are You Currently Reading? (Part 2) | Page 14 | INFJ Forum

What Books Are You Currently Reading? (Part 2)

Books I've recently purchased within the past 15-days:
  • "Ayurveda For Dummies" by: Angela Hope Murray (I'm regviewing Ayurveda medicine in my life again. I want to make some changes, and I trust the 5,000+ year old wisdom of Ayurveda as one of the best for preventative self-care and holistic health/wellness)
  • "Algorithm: A Cyberpunk Technothriller (Nanoverse Book 1)" by: Theophilus Monroe (Algorithm is the first book in Theophilus Monroe's Nanoverse, an action packed dystopian sci fi thriller series. As a former soldier, suffering from PTSD, Brian Goff is not only a threat to the new system, but his very injury has given him control over the nanobots. Like Neo, in The Matrix, Goff is an unlikely hero whose "technomagic" makes him the the last hope for human liberty, freedom, and justice.)
  • "The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire" by: David Deida (I have read this book, maybe 10-15 years ago once before. At first I didn't like it and thought it was kind of shallow and not for me. But after returning to it and reviewing some of the first pages, I immediately came to the realization that this book is perfect for a man like me at this time of life. I didn't understand it as a 20-something. But now, at 36, single, and having difficulty still adjusting to who I am at this time, I felt now what the author was intending to be grasped. What is a man in this day and age? How does he re-discover his core, regain his confidence and vitality, how does he handle today's confusing world of relationships, changing roles and attitudes towards the sexes, and adapt whiile fully enlivened as a man with grace and wisdom? How to understand energies, male/female/neutral, and teach oneself how to lead and guide those, especially ones at the center of a man's urges/fears/doubts/frustrations/temptations/passions from a place of pain and confusion to a place of love and openness. It's a short and simple book, but it is much better going through it now than I remember it in the past.)
  • "The Master Game: Pathways to Higher Consciousness (Consciousness Classics)" by: Robert S. DeRopp (I've read this book in high school. It's a classic book that reveals experience, and everything, as a Game of Consciousness. De Ropp lays out about 6 major "games" that all conscious being play in this life, and reveals their aims and their level of transformative construction/destruction. They are taxonomized as either belonging to a set of "lower games"[games that deplete energy/consciousness/awareness] which include the pursuits of glory/wealth/fame , "non-games"[the game of survival and procreation], and the "higher games"[Art(beauty)/ Science(knowledge)/Religion(salvation)]. and then he goes into detail about the Master Game - the game of hightened consciouness and ways to play it. Fascinating book - and I'm glad I remembered to take the time to snag a hardcopy to at least keep on my shelf until I get to re-reading it.)
  • "The Passionate Mind: A Manual for Living Creatively with One's Self" by: Joel Kramer (I discovered this book during a very difficult time in my life in my early twenties. It has since, and even to this day, been one of the most life-changing and profound books I've ever read. And the book is so simple, short, and down-to-earth. This book, I could even dare to say, could be almost like my 'personal Bible' in a way. But instead of telling you what to believe, the book goes through, from chapter 1 to the end each core aspect of reality/human condition/the issues of perception and truth. It literally is a jana yoga teaching, with the teacher showing you thorugh fundamental problem of living, how to question what you see, what you beleive, what you know, what you feel, and what you understand. The individual through the process of this form of yoga can arrive at the most profound insights and weight-lifting recognitions on their own. I don't have enough good things to say about this book, except I'm glad I finally got a new hardcopy and can't wait to go through it again)
  • "Video Demystified: A Handbook for the Digital Engineer, 5th Edition" by: Jack, Keith (A real multi-media handbook for engineers in need of a good reference for signal processing, variable bit rate calculations, encoding/decoding digital media, IEEE standards, ITU-R BT.xxx standard recommendations, H.26x coding algorithms, etc., etc....)

("Luminance Equation Derivation The equation for generating luminance from RGB information is determined by the chromaticities of the three primary colors used by the receiver and what color white actually is. The chromaticities of the RGB primaries and reference white (CIE illuminate D65) are: R: xr = 0.64 yr = 0.33 zr = 0.03 G: xg = 0.29 yg = 0.60 zg = 0.11 B: xb = 0.15 yb = 0.06 zb = 0.79 white: xw = 0.3127 yw = 0.3290 zw = 0.3583 where x and y are the specified CIE 1931 chromaticity coordinates; z is calculated by knowing that x + y + z = 1. As with NTSC, substituting the known values gives us the solution for Kr , Kg, and Kb:" p. 283,"Video Demystified" )
 
Some focussed reading to get on quicker. I passed my annual challenge already, but I want to finish with the books that have been on my list since the beginning of June 2017 this year.

I'm almost halfway through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, after that it's a mere 6 books left - basically one book per month, and I'll have way more time on my hands once Litha has come around.

Some scenes from the novel at hand remind me of my own behaviour when it comes to fondness of books. Quite glad he surpasses me in neuroticism.
It's probably the best book I've read all year, on par with Walter Moers (only his were children's books). The cleverness of the writing, the unforced non-repetetiveness, and the period-appropriate manner of speaking...
As for that latter part, I have to say that I read it as an appropriation of the language, rather than complete mimicry, because the wording keeps the zeitgeist of our modern speech (or writing) while still making use of not just the kind of phrasing you'd find in a Jane Austen novel, for instance, but also the spelling! However, since it's not entirely a historical novel striving for historical accuracy, but an alternate universe tell-tale fictional history-novel-thesis, it's a brilliant mixture that bridges the gap between the intended audiences (i.e. the implied reader and the actual reader) and this is a delight to read.
If that was intentional, this woman is a genius.
 
I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (with a more satisfying ending than the series back then) and six Resident Evil novelisations by S.D. Perry. I've begun the Percy Jackson series (there's a new one released in September) and I'm reading Gustav Schwab's Schönste Sagen des klassischen Altertums on the side. Kind of just seemed to fit the theme of greek mythology in PJ, but it's starting to take over. There are lots of names and they're all in some way related, either by blood or adventure. I feel compelled to read a bunch at a time to not get lost with all the names, so I made a schedule so that ideally I finish the 1000-page tome of small print within three weeks, and also working full time. It's been working so far - it's been a week and I managed to get through the first of three volumes. However, I did not get around to reading it today, so my schedule is getting a bit tight to reach this week's milestone.

Also reading Learning DevOps for work. It seems to provide a good overview, doesn't go into overwhelming detail. I still wonder whether it's enough to really understand what the different technologies are doing.
 
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