My take on interpreting dreams, in light of reading C.G. Jung’s Man and His Symbols (also check out my detailed book review).
Book Reviews
Here are my reviews of the 9 books I’ve read over the past six months. If you would like to be notified of new reviews as they are published, use the email subscription button at Darryl’s Library, where you’ll also find 200+ book reviews archived.
- Empty World by John Christopher
- The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
- The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
- The Mystery Experience by Tim Freke
- The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
- The Lion Encyclopedia of World Religions by David Self
- The Church of Satan by Blanche Barton
- Man and His Symbols by Carl G. Jung
- Blake’s 7: The Forgotten by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Here are my reviews of the 17 books I’ve read over the past six months. If you would like to be notified of new reviews as they are published, use the email subscription button at Darryl’s Library, where you’ll also find 200+ book reviews archived.
- The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
- The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
- Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- Michelle Remembers by Michelle Smith & Lawrence Pazder
- Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
- Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris
- The Blueprint by Will Hadcroft
- Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner
- Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien
- The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
- Myth and Ritual in Christianity by Alan Watts
- The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts
- The Philosophies of Asia by Alan Watts
- The Quantum Universe by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
- O-Zone by Paul Theroux
One of my favourite authors, John Christopher (real name Samuel Youd), died on 3 February, aged 89. I discovered him in the late 1980s, when I happened to borrow The White Mountains from my high school library. To my surprise and delight, I soon realised that I was reading the novel which had been adapted as the television series The Tripods a few years earlier – a series that had such an impact on me that I used to have dreams about it. Christopher’s Tripods saga is comprised of four short novels, which became lifelong favourites of mine, and are given pride of place on my bookshelf as the most read novels.
Christopher is also the author of a fabulous post-apocalyptic disaster novel, The Death of Grass, as well as many other science fiction books for teens and adults. Whichever age group a particular novel was intended for, he always injected his stories with an unapologetic sense of realism about life. A recurring theme in his work was the fight for individualism against mind control. And this perhaps explains my unending fascination with his work. He told an interviewer in 1984:
The apple which tempts my characters is the one that will remove the knowledge of good and evil. I suppose it’s something of a reversal of the conventional Eden story: Freedom of thought is perhaps the greatest good, and needs to be fought for and sacrificed for.
It was my pleasure to correspond briefly with John Christopher a few years ago via email. I had developed an idea for a Tripods spin-off entitled The Freedom Triangle, and was curious about the legal issues involved in publishing it. To my delight, he told me that my idea was highly original. Sadly, though, Disney owned the rights to The Tripods, as a movie adaptation was being planned.
I hope John Christopher’s work will live on, for future generations to enjoy. Check out my reviews of his books.
For those of you who haven’t been keeping abreast of my book reviews blog, Darryl’s Library, here are my reviews of the 24 books I’ve read over the past year. If you would like to be notified of new reviews as they are published, use the email subscription button on the blog.
- The Devil’s Notebook by Anton Szandor LaVey
- Black Magic by Michael A. Aquino
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
- The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish
- Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich
- The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
- From Witchcraft to Christ by Doreen Irvine
- Liber HVHI by Michael W. Ford
- Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
- Entangled Minds by Dean Radin
- The Taking by Dean Koontz
- Rage by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)
- Encyclopedia of World History
- Edgar Cayce on ESP by Doris Agee
- Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire
- Starstormers 5: Volcano by Nicholas Fisk
- Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
- Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll
- A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
- God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
My thoughts on this classic Christian bestseller: Doreen Irvine’s autobiography, describing her deliverance from life as a witch in a Satanic cult. In addition to the following vlog, check out my very detailed written review.
Nine new book reviews are online at Darryl’s Library:
- Postmodern Satanism by Jason King
- Consider Her Ways and Others by John Wyndham
- Satan Speaks! by Anton Szandor LaVey
- Starstormers 4: Evil Eye by Nicholas Fisk
- Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
- The Secret Life of a Satanist by Blanche Barton
- The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore
- The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom
- Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley
[ Link ]
Five new book reviews are online at Darryl’s Library:
- Practical Psychic Self-Defense by Robert Bruce
- The American Book of the Dead by Henry Baum
- The Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor LaVey
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
[ Link ]
Eight new book reviews are online at Darryl’s Library:
- The Resurrection – Fact or Fiction? by Richard Bewes
- Heal the World by David Icke
- Starstormers 3: Catfang by Nicholas Fisk
- The Biggest Secret by David Icke
- Branded by Robert Swindells
- Lifting the Veil by David Icke & Jon Rappoport
- The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden
- The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey
“The Satanic Bible?! Darryl, WHAT are you doing?” Now, now. Don’t pre-judge my motives for reading this controversial volume. Go read the review.
[ Link ]
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Here’s the latest batch of books I’ve read and reviewed at Darryl’s Library …
- The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
- I Am Me, I Am Free by David Icke
- Faith Awakened by Grace Bridges
- God Outside the Box by Patricia Panahi
- The Robots’ Rebellion by David Icke
- The Truth Vibrations by David Icke
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Mental Radio by Upton Sinclair
I would like to draw special attention to Mental Radio, in light of my recent experiments into psychokinesis. This is a superb little book about telepathy from 1930 that you can read online in its entirety. Full details in the review.
[ Link ]
Eight new book reviews are online at Darryl’s Library:
- Uncovered! by Paul Jennings
- The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
- Dosh by Robert Swindells
- The Lotus Caves by John Christopher
- Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
- Starstormers by Nicholas Fisk
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
- Starstormers 2: Sunburst by Nicholas Fisk
[ Link ]
