In October of 2024, I went to New York and stopped in a small kind of yassified used bookstore/cafe in brooklyn, and picked this up partially because I liked the cover, and because I had heard of Alan Watts before, as one of the like, hippie/new age writers of the 60s. admittedly, as a general rule, I do think that although sometimes oblivious, new age-y hippie people are like, the happiest most mature people out there, and often who I want to emulate on my sort of... spiritual journey or whatever, i guess. Anyways I really liked this, I read it just before this semester started, when I was faced with a ton of anxiety. It gets pretty far into religion and has put some of my fundamental beliefs about my relationship to Christianity into words, a central concept is the classic "live in the moment" message that has been said to death by now, but this provided a refreshingly detailed account of why and how you should go about doing that

as someone who has "devoted my life" to "scientific discovery" due to "passion in the pursuit of knowledge" or whatever, not only was this like.. crazy to read/something I couldn't put down, but also got me thinking about the reprecussions of my actions and discoveries. I just work on plants in florida so like, who cares, but who knows .... kind of felt like Bro Literature though like i should be reading David Foster Wallace or whatever since i fucked with this so heavily so who knows maybe That's Up Next. i think this is an awesome Feat of Literature and I think about it all the time .. it Bangs basically

again, admittedly i fuck with self-help type books, like historically im pretty open to the format-- which you really have to be if you're gonna get anything out of this book. a lot of people don't like how religious the undertones are but personally I Eat That Shit Up. this arguably pulled me out of a year-long depression and got me making art and feeling connected to myself again so idk... thank you Mrs. Julia Cameron

idk if i even need to put this on here but genuinely it is like, the most important book that affects me most regualrly-- changed my view of relationships, particularly how I act in them and my role in like, my own problems, which has been applicable in all aspects of my life. It also really kind of slapped some sense into me about how badly my self-hatred is gonna ruin my life if it's left unchecked, and my relationship to the broader community around me/my role in that community. pretty fundamental stuff for many so i get people's criticisms of this book, but because it was so impactful to me when I read it a few years ago, it still remains applicable when im talking to my friends or looking inward on myself. One of the only books i've read twice, and written a ton of notes in!

this could also include against interpretation (the essay), which is also pretty important to my life and the way I View Things, i guess. this one has to do with the depiction of the pain of others, along with how society views pain, suffering and war through art and "news". idk im probably not Qualified to provide a synopsis of this, but i continuously think about it in regards to the sensalization of war and death, as well as sort of like, what we owe the broader community of People on Earth (although that is not directly addressed here). whatever it's good, i assume that there's some overlap in this vs. "On Photography" which is a book that i just found at a used bookstore and am excited to read :)

womens rights or whatever but that's not really why i care about this book (maybe thats not why anyone cares about this book?). just hearing someone else Lay Out that you really need alone time and your own space to be able to Create has to be on this page because its one of my like, fundamental rules of living my life and creating art (and I'm extending my academic work under the category of "art" for this purpose). im soooo bad about this though because i looovveee hanging out all the time