has 27 followers and is following 22 people
Levana’s last login was Wednesday, October 6, 2010.
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Read the review for Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu
Read the review for Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (Chicago Original Paperback)
Read the review for The Da Vinci Code
Hi Levana,Hope you are doing well,long time no talk!I just read in newspapers that there is heavy snowfall and life is bit difficult right now.Hope you are safe and sound.Reply back,Kushal
The season has changed since you went to your garret. The snow is gone and there may be abundant sunshine. This may be dangerous for the fair-skinned and their sisters. The Bucaresti Public Health Department recommends that writers use an extra-strong sunscreen and plan to spend no more than a few moments in the real world.
Have you come up for air?
221 books are not that difficult to achieve: I've kept exact track of my readings since 2007; then I went scavenging in Julie's shelf to see if I hadn't forgotten anything; I also added the books I know I've read even though I haven't kept track of them. Oh! It reminds me I've forgotten Steinbeck! ;o) And Dos Passos!
Good, you saw me... Now you just have to say you want to be my friend! ;o)
Hiya! You're my friend in real life, so I hope you won't snub me here! ;o)
Well, the memorial service for my dad was quite nice. Had a good visit with the rest of the family and then flew home. The Franciscans were nice enough to offer the chapel at the Franciscan School of Theology. It was very nice and just the right size. People said some very nice things. Final exams start today so my students have been madly rushing to get caught up on all their assignments and I'm not looking forward to reading about 40 long papers. Sigh. I shouldn't complain, some are actually quite interesting. Does seem somewhat futile sometimes, since I get almost always have a pretty good idea what grade a student will get by the third week of class.Weather has been quite spectacular and the farmers have almost completed planting corn and soybeans. Couple of big storms moved through in the last couple of weeks but they bypassed us. Lovely time of the year, so I'm not sure why I have been so gloomy lately. Rusty, my dog is finally starting to get around fairly well on his leg after surgery, but it's a slow process. One of the horses will probably have to be put down before winter, if he lasts that long - lots of intestinal tumors. Hate burying pets.Our trip to Ireland is still on track, although I suppose the way the volcano in Iceland has been going off every now and again, the ash may actually still interfere with travel in July. Did it affect any of your traveling?Hope you are having a good Spring and look forward to hearing from you.
Yes, I've got your letter : yummy !!! I'll go read if after I have done my grammar exercises - now I understand what foreigners feel when they try to go into grammatical subtleties in French : something akin to beckettian despair, which I am somewhat experiencing right now looking at all these different cases that look almost the same - but of course the same rule does not apply.This is crazy, this thing about my letter not reaching you, I'm going to think your server has got something against me (well, against you to some extent too if it still sends you work) ;o). So I'm going to send my Dublin-mumbo jumbo mix again ! (And tomorrow you'll see tens of it in your mailbox)
Hello there, I'm a little worried as to the whereabouts of my "Irish" email - I sent it twice to you, have you got it eventually ?
Wasn't Kerouac, one of your favorites, a Buddhist?
I noticed that you plan to read Snow. I enjoyed Snow and just finished Museum of Innocence. You may enjoy an interview with Charlie Rose and Orhan Pamuk:http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6167
Yes, I am American. Americans have a need to find meaning, since our culture is so young, quickly changing and materialistic. Levana, reading must help you still your mind. Meditation is like reading, but the author is your inner voice.
Hi. I'm in Berkeley for the memorial service as I type this on my phone so I'll keep it short and provide a full report when I return on Monday. I'll have to tell you about my experience with skiing and the Swiss boy scouts. Not pretty. More later.
It is not religious. My own take on yoga and meditation is this:Our lives very easily get entangled with layers of our experiences. By just slowing things down and calming our minds, meditation helps us not jump to personal interpretations. Rather, we become more objective. Imagine how you would see the world if you were in a lions pit compared to sitting in a tower, looking down, out of harms way. Instead of being scared out of your wits, you may want to write a story or paint a picture of the scene. These are tools to gives us a different calmer, clearer perspective.Theses are the opposite of religious, magical or mystical.
Those highly disciplined Zen masters have been trying to teach immediate perception to people for a thousand years. It is very intriguing to anyone whose mind is cluttered with relativity and contingency. I'm not so confidant it is achievable, but my mind is still open on that point.I tried to read two books at once, but failed. So, I'm about finished with The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt, a tremendously entertaining book that helps me understand just how my country became something of a big fat bully a hundred years ago. Russian debutantes resume debuting this week. I expect that to be very funny. Teddy Roosevelt isn't. That's my front room in the picture, a segment of my non-virtual shelves. I hoard books, so the resemblance to my Shelfari shelves is pretty strong.
Anthropologists have made a few mistakes along their way to knowledge, including the "discovery" of isolated people who really were not, and the proclamation that some communities were primal or innocent of the disasters brought by introduction of Western thinking. I'd like to read the "Snakes" book, but I would have to be skeptical, at least for a while, that another human wonder has been uncovered. As non-innocents, all of us in the noisy, dangerous and pathological world still have to struggle to appreciate what we might have been had centuries of official ideology not been forced upon us. Do you think this book will help?
Do you have any favorite meditation or yoga books that you would recommend?
Yoga and meditation are definitely a passion of mine. I practice almost every day.
You have my kind of books on your shelf!
