Thursday, October 04, 2007

So do you believe in synchonicity? Or maybe it is just serendipity. I am reading the second of three books that I found in PamCat by searching under the word "stumbling" as a title word.

The first book (with stumbling in the title) would be a great book for our Readers' advisory group when we do Travel books. That book, The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment In The Land Of The Tattered Buddha, was a fasinating look into Buddhism in Cambodia. I don't know much about either Buddhism or Cambodia, but thanks to Steve Asma, I now know more.

Asma has a great sense of humor, which is useful when you have been hired to teach Buddhism in a country that has believed in this religion much longer than the US has existed. Thanks to the politics of Cambodia over the last 30 years, the average person knows little about their native religion.

I would recommend this book to any one interested in religion, history and foreign politics.

The second book, which I am reading now is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. I will let you all know if this book is as good.

So here is the sychronicity or serendipity or whatever. Asma quotes Gilbert in his book on Buddhism. Doesn't that seem odd to you? Did Asma deliberately use the word stumbling? And will the third book have any relationship to these two.

By the way, I was looking for a book that I thought had stumbling in the title. It did not, apparently, and I don't ever think I found the title I was looking for. However, it was a good way to find at least two good reads.

If you have ever stumbled on good reads through our catalog or another library catalog, please leave me a comment.

1 comment:

Sherida said...

Welcome to the 20 Things project; thanks for participating!