Book Review: Our Appointment with Life

Our Appointment with Life: Discourse on Living Happily in the Present Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an excellent little book that manages to sum up the core of Buddhist philosophy with one sutra. Thich Nhat Hanh is always clear cut and easy to understand. This is the first discourse that I've read of his and, though it differs in style from Peace is Every Step and Living Buddha Living Christ, it in some ways spoke to me more than those two books did. When he writes "Our appointment with life is in the present moment. The place of our appointment is right here, in this very place", I had to really stop and think about that. On an intellectual level, of course, that's a basic Buddhist principle. But to put mindfulness into practice in everyday life is difficult, especially when I'm faced with work and drama of all sorts. To stop in the midst of the tornado and check in with myself, to say "here I am", it makes me a bit freaked out. When I read that passage, I was on the bus heading to a client's house and all of these questions just started coming up: what am I doing in this job? Am I in the right place? Am I associating with the kind of people I should be associating with?



I think it's far too easy to not check in with ourselves, especially with all the distractions of modern life. Change can be such a daunting thing, especially when talking about change from within. What I gleaned from this book is that it's all about babysteps - not the big "what ifs" that are so easy to get hung up on. In other words, stop worrying about the past and future and stop and look at what's happening right now.



Thanks a lot to my bff; that was some Christmas present!


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Book Review: Pale Fallen Angels Parts 1 & 2

Vampire Hunter D Volume 11 by Hideyuki Kikuchi

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Vampire Hunter D series is consistantly a good read. I'm always excited to see what new exploits D gets into and the crazy creatures that Hideyuki comes up with. Wonderful escapism, and it's always amusing to hear comments from people about my reading habits.


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A Good Read

I've been a member of goodreads.com for a bit now, but I'm just recently starting to make use of it. It's a great tool for those of us out there who love to read and share with others. It's also a good way to keep a catalogue of your personal library - which, for me anyway, is extensive. I'm still working on the cataloguing part, mostly due to the fact that half my collection is still packed in boxes in my parent's garage!

Somewhat surprising is the fact that my mom introduced me to this website. I say this because she's not that tech savvy and doesn't do a lot of browsing online, but then again she's a librarian, so...

I'm definatly a slower reader these days than I was, but I'll keep updates coming on the newest exploits.