I have been thinking long and hard recently about recommending
Pagan/Magickal/Spiritual reading material. This has been partly
sparked by my Pagan Book Club - over the two years it has been running we have read more than our fair share of rubbish. But it is
also informed by an interesting exchange on email with a friend. I
was explaining how much I was getting into a particular book when they responded with "would you recommend it?" This brought me up a little short because I wasn't sure I would recommend it, not because I didn’t like the book (it was amazing and I am about to reread it), it was well written, contained a great deal of useful, practical information and was very inspiring. But part of the reason I found it so good was because it came at the right time for me to read right now. Some of the ideas dovetail and extend ideas of my own I have been developing - would it be quite so "right" for someone else right now. Well honestly I have no idea.
But if we take this line of thinking to its natural conclusion then I
would never recommend any spiritual books and I do believe word of mouth is necessary to sort the pearls from the dross. There are a lot of Pagan and Spiritual books out there which I judge and judge harshly. However, any recommendation I make has to contain the caveat from now on... that the book was meaningful to me at a particular time in my life, I hope this is the right time for you to read it but it may not be.
Pagan/Magickal/Spiritual reading material. This has been partly
sparked by my Pagan Book Club - over the two years it has been running we have read more than our fair share of rubbish. But it is
also informed by an interesting exchange on email with a friend. I
was explaining how much I was getting into a particular book when they responded with "would you recommend it?" This brought me up a little short because I wasn't sure I would recommend it, not because I didn’t like the book (it was amazing and I am about to reread it), it was well written, contained a great deal of useful, practical information and was very inspiring. But part of the reason I found it so good was because it came at the right time for me to read right now. Some of the ideas dovetail and extend ideas of my own I have been developing - would it be quite so "right" for someone else right now. Well honestly I have no idea.
But if we take this line of thinking to its natural conclusion then I
would never recommend any spiritual books and I do believe word of mouth is necessary to sort the pearls from the dross. There are a lot of Pagan and Spiritual books out there which I judge and judge harshly. However, any recommendation I make has to contain the caveat from now on... that the book was meaningful to me at a particular time in my life, I hope this is the right time for you to read it but it may not be.
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