Nov 20 2008
Come back! Come back! Or…not.
Continuing the lighter note of yesterday, with another book by someone who just had to make a list of something…
Today we have 101 Ways to Avoid Reincarnation, by Hester Mundis. [glancing suspiciously at that name]
I have such funny friends. This was another present of some sort, from one of my friends who ran a bookstore. It’s so great to know people who know just what sort of book is going to tickle your funny bone.
And I, of course, have two Religious Studies degrees, so of course I was going to enjoy a book like this. Not that I myself would necessarily want to avoid Reincarnation (unless I was coming back as something nasty), since I’m one of those people who would seriously love to live forever, as long as I didn’t age equivalently. But I digress.
This is a great sendup of the whole New Age movement, without (in my opinion), dissing it too much. It’s just a satire. And who can resist chapter titles like these:
“Creating Visualizations for all Occasions”
“How to Play a Convergence on Your Harmonica”
“Decorating Your Own Inner Space”
“Palm Reading or Hand Job - You be the Judge” (!!)
“I Ching, You Ching, we all Ching”
“Atlantis on $5 a Day”
All right, that’s probably enough to give a good idea. All in good fun. What I love about books like this is that someone had the inspiration and the cleverness to do them. They provide an entertaining afternoon’s read or something with which to occupy your mind if you have insomnia.
Books like this make me think, “Wow, I’d like to do that sort of book, it can’t be all that hard.” Except, of course, that it actually takes quite a bit of hard work to write a book this easy. So until I get wildly inspired with a can’t-possibly-fail idea, I’m just grateful that other people create these little gems.
You know, this entry reminds me that I picked up a slim little volume called “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment” somewhere along the line …