What is everyone reading?

[Velsigne]

Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. And whatever writing of others I critique at the writer's forum. And my own ongoing novel, which takes a lot of dedication. My epilepsy had damaged the part of my brain that deals with language, and so I make a lot of errors, like typing "our" instead of "are", and not being able to spell words I used to be able to spell. I get the letters confused and backwards. So it makes for extra hard editing. But I am superior in the creative party of the brain and the part that deals with eloquence and skill in writing. Those with my condition, like Dostoyevsky, often are geniuses in certain subjects, like writing, politics, etc. And well, it takes a lot reading over and over to write a novel.

I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy last year and was put on a few different anti-seizure medication for about five months before any proper testing was done. 

Now, having a non-epileptic brain and having experienced life on Keppra I can say that the medicine effects people differently, but it made me pretty much like my Asperger's friend with a lot of intolerance of noise and stimulation, easily exhausted, and the added side effect of difficulty with language, written and spoken.  The nice thing about Keppra is that it is a sort of nootropic drug, mildly, so the electrical impulse suppression doesn't lead to overall suppression of thinking ability as with the older drugs and even newer ones like Topamax (Dopamax).

But in my studies of epilepsy, left temporal lobe seizures do damage the language processing area of the brain.  And I learned they are really very limited in their understanding of neural networks and plasticity.   

I'm really glad you are finding the bright spot of living with a difficult and life altering illness.  God bless you!

 

[Peacemaker]

Currently tackling this book

It's really really good, I can't put it down. It's very sad though to read about Fr. Herman's early life (the co-founder of the monastery and Abbot) because he sounded like such a promising person. I certainly hope he repented before the end of his life. I've even read interviews from priests who knew Fr. Seraphim, saying if he had lived a few years longer he was planning to leave Patina because of Fr. Herman.

 

[Velsigne]

Elder Ambrose of Optina by Fr. Sergius Chetverikov

Elder Ambrose knew Dostoevsky if I remember correctly

Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom

 

[Peacemaker]

Elder Ambrose knew Dostoevsky if I remember correctly

That's correct, Dostoevsky even writes about St. Ambrose in some of his books. I think he changed the name though.

 

[biro]

Just got "Bred to Kill," by Franck Thilliez. His first book, "Syndrome E," was very good.

 

[Asteriktos]

So it makes for extra hard editing.

The fact that you would bother to edit puts you well ahead of most writers--and editors.  8)

 

[Arachne]

In the last stretch of Twelve Minutes to Midnight, by Christopher Edge. The second instalment, Shadows of the Silver Screen has just come in from the library. I have already reserved the third, The Black Crow Conspiracy; I hope they get it for me before I'm done reading the second.

 

[sakura95]

I'm waiting for When to Rob a Bank...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants by the authors of Freakonomics.

 

[Porter ODoran]

Wife and I are going over a few things: Great Lent by Fr. Schmemann, the Triodion, and an anthology of Lenten hymns and devotionals (including music CD) that I forget the name of.

 

[wainscottbl]

Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. And whatever writing of others I critique at the writer's forum. And my own ongoing novel, which takes a lot of dedication. My epilepsy had damaged the part of my brain that deals with language, and so I make a lot of errors, like typing "our" instead of "are", and not being able to spell words I used to be able to spell. I get the letters confused and backwards. So it makes for extra hard editing. But I am superior in the creative party of the brain and the part that deals with eloquence and skill in writing. Those with my condition, like Dostoyevsky, often are geniuses in certain subjects, like writing, politics, etc. And well, it takes a lot reading over and over to write a novel.

I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy last year and was put on a few different anti-seizure medication for about five months before any proper testing was done. 

Now, having a non-epileptic brain and having experienced life on Keppra I can say that the medicine effects people differently, but it made me pretty much like my Asperger's friend with a lot of intolerance of noise and stimulation, easily exhausted, and the added side effect of difficulty with language, written and spoken.  The nice thing about Keppra is that it is a sort of nootropic drug, mildly, so the electrical impulse suppression doesn't lead to overall suppression of thinking ability as with the older drugs and even newer ones like Topamax (Dopamax).

But in my studies of epilepsy, left temporal lobe seizures do damage the language processing area of the brain.  And I learned they are really very limited in their understanding of neural networks and plasticity.   

I'm really glad you are finding the bright spot of living with a difficult and life altering illness.  God bless you!

I am a bit obsessed with it, as can likely be noticed, but that's the Aspergers. There is a link between epilepsy and Aspergers. I also am developing tics, which may be myoclonic seizures or just tics, which are a neuropsychological disorder. There are many tic disorders. It would make sense because the MEG scan determined they are deep in the brain, around the temporal lobe sort of between a few parts, but including the temporal lobe

Actually just around that part here that deals with language and reading. The tics are verbal.

 

[Luke]

For Lent I am reading the readings at http://www.goarch.org/resources/monthly_readings .  For my own knowledge, I am reading A History of Modern Germany : 1648-1840  /  Hajo Holborn.

 

[Volnutt]

In between schoolwork and Scripture:

The Lenten Spring by Fr. Thomas Hopko

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin

 

[Velsigne]

Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. And whatever writing of others I critique at the writer's forum. And my own ongoing novel, which takes a lot of dedication. My epilepsy had damaged the part of my brain that deals with language, and so I make a lot of errors, like typing "our" instead of "are", and not being able to spell words I used to be able to spell. I get the letters confused and backwards. So it makes for extra hard editing. But I am superior in the creative party of the brain and the part that deals with eloquence and skill in writing. Those with my condition, like Dostoyevsky, often are geniuses in certain subjects, like writing, politics, etc. And well, it takes a lot reading over and over to write a novel.

I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy last year and was put on a few different anti-seizure medication for about five months before any proper testing was done. 

Now, having a non-epileptic brain and having experienced life on Keppra I can say that the medicine effects people differently, but it made me pretty much like my Asperger's friend with a lot of intolerance of noise and stimulation, easily exhausted, and the added side effect of difficulty with language, written and spoken.  The nice thing about Keppra is that it is a sort of nootropic drug, mildly, so the electrical impulse suppression doesn't lead to overall suppression of thinking ability as with the older drugs and even newer ones like Topamax (Dopamax).

But in my studies of epilepsy, left temporal lobe seizures do damage the language processing area of the brain.  And I learned they are really very limited in their understanding of neural networks and plasticity.   

I'm really glad you are finding the bright spot of living with a difficult and life altering illness.  God bless you!

I am a bit obsessed with it, as can likely be noticed, but that's the Aspergers. There is a link between epilepsy and Aspergers. I also am developing tics, which may be myoclonic seizures or just tics, which are a neuropsychological disorder. There are many tic disorders. It would make sense because the MEG scan determined they are deep in the brain, around the temporal lobe sort of between a few parts, but including the temporal lobe

Actually just around that part here that deals with language and reading. The tics are verbal.

I started developing tics on Keppra, and I don't normally have any.  The tics got a lot worse when they added another drug, I forgot the name, but it acts on the sodium channels and it nearly killed me.  But then the downside of anti-epileptic drugs is that they can also induce seizures even in people who have never had seizures.  And the seizures can shift around too. 

You seem like you are one that is doing well on it though, and it sounds as though you've got good doctors who don't cavalierly and randomly prescribed medicines on a whim.  I would take something if I had to, because uncontrolled epilepsy is far worse. 

Yes, Asperger's can tend to make one have a favorite topic of discussion, lol 

 

[Velsigne]

Elder Ambrose knew Dostoevsky if I remember correctly

That's correct, Dostoevsky even writes about St. Ambrose in some of his books. I think he changed the name though.

Thank you!  Please pray for me.

 

[Asteriktos]

Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. Reading some of his work is long overdue for me.

I recently got this one, which I should have bought in the first place:

Oh well, I guess since it's by a different translator--and because I liked it so much--I'll reread The Metamorphosis after I read the other stories in this volume.

 

[Arachne]

I took the boy into town to spend his WBD token... and saw a counterful of these.

I suspect I'll be plonking down quite a few quid there soon... Not 64, but quite a few. ;D

 

[Tom]

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

 

[Porter ODoran]

In between schoolwork and Scripture:

The Lenten Spring by Fr. Thomas Hopko

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin

One of these is not like the others ...

 

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Not exactly Lenten reading. Lots of profanity, lurid stories, and material that inflames the gustatory passions. But it's quite fascinating.


Selam

 

[Severian]

I'm going to finish reading through the New Testament by Monday. I'm wondering what books of the OT do you find most spiritually edifying? I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I'm not as familiar with the OT as I should be and am wondering where I should start.

In b4 someone says "Genesis."

 

[Asteriktos]

I like Tobit.  8)  Imagine throwing all this into one big pot: Old Testament people/contexts (fictionalized for extra flavor), everything-has-a-happy-ending style storytelling, cool wisdom sayings/speeches, an archangel pretending to be your homie, a marriage made in heaven, kickin demon rump, some passages that will remind you of Gospel passages, and birds pooping in your eye. Awesome!

 

[methodius]

        try the Psalms for 151 takes on yourself.

      ;_/\o=

 

[Asteriktos]

 

[wainscottbl]

Descartes: "Discourse of Method" and a couple other small excerpts

 

[Arachne]

 

[biro]

"The Keeper," Luke Delaney

 

[scamandrius]

Genesis.

 

[Asteriktos]

Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Niveveh, by A.J. Wensinck

It's on the Kindle and the formatting looks absolutely hideous, but I only paid a dollar so... *shrugs*

 

[vamrat]

Started reading Children of the Mind, the last in the main Ender series.

 

[vamrat]

And now I have Storm of Steel on order. 

 

[Doof]

Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Niveveh, by A.J. Wensinck

It's on the Kindle and the formatting looks absolutely hideous, but I only paid a dollar so... *shrugs*

I've also a few times come across poorly formatted Kindle books, sometimes even very large books lack essentials like a Table of Contents. I wish Amazon would step up their quality control.

Also, last I heard, if it hasn't been seven days since you purchased the ebook, you can return it for a refund. I returned a book that was proper, but I didn't like the author's writing style (excessive use of less common English words, the book was Triumph by Harry Crocker), and Amazon didn't even ask any questions.

---

I've started reading currently the first book of 'Story of the Copts'.

 

[Alxandra]

Monastic Wisdom - The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast

 

[Asteriktos]

Dostoevsky, by Nicholas Berdyaev

 

[Peacemaker]

Monastic Wisdom - The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Good book.

 

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Dostoevsky, by Nicholas Berdyaev

How is it? I love them both!


Selam

 

[Asteriktos]

Dostoevsky, by Nicholas Berdyaev

How is it? I love them both!


Selam

So far, so good.  I may do a mini-review of it when I'm done, along the line of some I've done here in the past. My favorite passage thus far:

"There was a dash of the spirit of Heraclitus in him: everything is heat and motion, opposition and struggle. For Dostoievsky ideas are fiery billows, never frozen categories; they are bound up with the destiny of man, of the world, of God himself. They determine those destinies. They are ontological; that is to say, comprise within themselves the very substance of being, and conceal a latent energy as destructive as dynamite--Dostoievsky shows how their explosion sends ruin all around. But they have life-giving energy as well." (p. 12)

 

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Dostoevsky, by Nicholas Berdyaev

How is it? I love them both!


Selam

So far, so good.  I may do a mini-review of it when I'm done, along the line of some I've done here in the past. My favorite passage thus far:

"There was a dash of the spirit of Heraclitus in him: everything is heat and motion, opposition and struggle. For Dostoievsky ideas are fiery billows, never frozen categories; they are bound up with the destiny of man, of the world, of God himself. They determine those destinies. They are ontological; that is to say, comprise within themselves the very substance of being, and conceal a latent energy as destructive as dynamite--Dostoievsky shows how their explosion sends ruin all around. But they have life-giving energy as well." (p. 12)

Nice. I look forward to your full review.


Selam

 

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death Essays by Albert Camus

Just started it, but already loving it.


Selam

 

[primuspilus]

The Herald - by Ed Greenwood. D&D baby. Oh yeah.

 

[Severian]

LotR- the Fellowship of the Ring