If ever there was a misnomer - it really would be unbelievable if this were fiction. I haven't yet finished reading this - but it is confirmation of all the worse fears about life inside the White House.

A follow up, in a way, to Science and Spiritual Practices.

Another volume about the Rome of Cicero.

It has taken me quite a while to read this - and this is just the abridged version. This is one of those books that I have been intending to read for years and, in many ways, I now wish that I had gotten round to reading it sooner.

I had previously read One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich as my first introduction to the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - however the Gulag is just as powerful as its reputation suggests. The accounts - not only of life in the camps, but also of the way on which people were rounded up; interrogated; transported; and generally abused by the Soviet 'system' - are written without sensationalism - but they hit home. They also make you realise how lucky we are to live in a society that is very different from that described in the book.

I guess that fundamentally it is a book about the abuse of power - and it is certain that this sort of thing happened in many other cultures - although perhaps not on the scale of what occurred in the USSR in the middle of the 20th century. Indeed - for a country that was supposedly espousing communism - everyone is equal - the description of what was essentially the creation of a quite extreme class-filled society is really eye opening.

This will not be everyone's cup of tea - it is far from an easy read - and so will perhaps never be read by as many people as ought to do so - and - of course - the nature of the book means that those who most need to learn its lessons are precisely those people who are most likely to completely ignore the book. For me though definitely a recommended read.

Rebus continues...

Once again back to this recurrent theme of the interplay between spirituality and science.

A new author for me, but it is clear from the recent books on this list that there is a bit of a theme going on.

Haven't got far enough into this book as I write this to pass judgement, however in as much as it is - once again - espousing the idea that consciousness is a big subject that we would do well to understand better then it is likely that I will find much that I like. It is pretty much certain that we can currently say that NO ONE actually knows what consciousness is or how it works - so anyone expressing any ideas on the subject runs the risk of ridicule or worse. I suspect that - for many - the idea that there is something "out there" that in some way connects us and that our own consciousness is more than simply "what goes on inside our heads" will be a bit much to handle.

I know that "younger me" would have been tempted to simply dismiss all psi as mumbo jumbo. Now I am not so sure - no, I would go further than that - I am sure that some of the so called "extra sensory perception" that has long been the preserve of the "bizarre" does have a real basis in fact.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Anyone who has trawled through this large list of "books I have read" will notice that there are some authors who appear frequently - Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett, Robert Harris - and others - and amongst the 'serious" books are many by Rupert Sheldrake. There is a lot of repetition and cross-over within his books - but that is not surprising as what he is really outlining in all of them is his journey towards a very original worldview - and one that I, for one, can take on board as being not too far from my own.

Of course. there is a significant risk of bias here - specifically confirmation bias - in that I enjoy reading his books - and get a lot from them simply because they help reinforce my own ideas of "how the world works". Fortunately, he has the education and the science to back up his ideas - something which to a large extent I rely on others for.

This book explores seven spiritual practices and shows how they are relevant - whether or not you count yourself as a religious person. It can be difficult in today's society to espouse the idea that you are a spiritual person - many would ridicule that idea. What Sheldrake tries to show is that many actions and behaviours which are practiced by people on all parts of the religious spectrum from the most devout to the most sceptical are driven by "spiritual" needs. To combine some of the practices in a 'worldly' example - many people make 'pilgrimages' each week to support their football team where the take part in the set of 'rituals' which form part of the event and they 'sing and chant'as part of the crowd and are 'grateful' for every win that their team delivers - some may well off some form of 'prayer' when one their players steps up to take a penalty.

I could probably have worked in the other two - 'connecting with nature' and 'relating to plants' but I decided that I had probably pushed the envelope far enough.

A book to be recommended though.