Psychotherapy East and West by Alan Watts

 Psychotherapy East and West by Alan Watts. 

This is the first book by Alan Watts that I have read. Wow. I started reading it on the bus to and from work. I averaged three pages day for several weeks. But then Watt's writing started to flow, and my brain was able to take in the information that he was giving and process it to the point where I could understand the key concepts. I still probably have no idea what the true meaning behind the book are and would write a horrible blurb if I was tasked to. However, I feel as if I have learned from this book. 

"The main resemblance between these Eastern ways of life and Western psychotherapy is in the concern of both with bringing about changes of consciousness, changes in our ways of feeling our own existence and our relation to human society and the natural world. The psychotherapist has been interested in changing the consciousness of peculiarly disturbed individuals. The disciplines of Buddhism and Taoism are concerned with changing the consciousness of normal, socially adjusted people."

I consider myself a normal, socially adjusted person, so this was a refreshing thing to read. One does not need to be a great thinking, or a person who is a peace with oneself in order to understand what Watts offers to his readers. In many cases, if one were to open a academic journal in any field, they would be stumped to try and understand what the author is talking about. Often times you have to have a litany of understanding of a subject that comes along after obtaining degrees in specific fields in order to understand what academics are speaking about. With Watts, there is a learning curve, but the curve soon flattens. 

There were times where I asked myself why I had decided to choose this Watts book to read first, and there were times when I was happily reading and annotating the book in order to emphasize key points, and I think that any reader who picks this book up with go through the exact same senarios. 

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut

 

"While there is a lower class I am in it. While there is a criminal element I am of it. While there is a soul in prison I am not free"-Eugene Victor Debs

I finished Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus a few days ago. I enjoyed the book a lot. I am not sure what the reason is behind me not liking it as much as his other books or thinking there was not a good message behind the main character's life. Eugene Debs Hartke is a man who was a professional soldier, womanizer, teacher, and lover. He attended the United States Military Acadamy at West Point and subsequently fought in the Vietnam war, where he was nicknamed "The Preacher" due to the speaches he would give to the soldiers under him. "If I was a fighter jet, I would have little people painted all over me."

Hartke killed many men, women, and children during the war and seemed to not be ashamed of it. The United State's way of showing that we were winning the war was to report how many Vietnamese we had killed. Hartke killed a lot. 

He came back stateside and while in a Boston diner he met the man who had gotten him to go to West Point. A man who would later kill himself. While talking to his old recruiter he was once again recruited into working for a college for the mentally challenged (ADD, ADHD, ect). Tarkington was located in a fictional valley just south of Rochester, NY. Hartke tought there many years, all while sleeping with many staff memebers, and staff member's wifes. He was eventually fired for his innapropriate actions and got a job teaching at the prison across the lake. A prison run by the Japanese that only housed black inmates. 

Eventually there is a prison escape and Hartke is not killed (unliek many of the town's residence) because the convicts know him and do not consider him the enemy. He is made Brigadier General in the NY National Guard and then warden of the new prison where Tarkington college's campus is. The story ends with him telling the reader about the former warden of the prison, a man who as a kid survived the nuking of Horishima, killing himself at the memorial blast sight. He is then arrested. THE END

I liked this book, just not sure how well it stacks up against his other works.

-Jay

Welcome to my blog!

 Hello everyone! I am excited about starting a blog. I have tolled and played with the idea of starting a blog for several months now and finally decided to start one. I am not sure what I am going to write about besides book reviews (I read about 20 books a year) and random thoughts that I happen to have. 

One thing you all should know about me is that I cannot for the life of me seem to stick to one interest. I am sure there are many of you who fall into the same category as me. One day I will be thinking that I will go abroad to teach English, and the next week I will be thinking that I can do a PhD in economics and try and crack into the world of academia. 

Who knows where I will be in 5 or 10 years. Will I be in the same city I have lived in all my life, or will I be in the mountains of Georgia, drinking wine and teaching young people English? 

Stick around and you'll be able to see the books I read, the random thoughts that I have, and maybe some photos from travels I take.