The Books I Brought To Florida

I brought some books with me to Florida. I fancy myself a bit of the “Mage” class and our books are among our critical tools. I wanted to share them on here.

Here’s what I’ve got with me:

- “Getting Things Done” by David Allen: This is an excellent book on organization, project planning and productivity. Allen’s system is at the base of my personal productivity strategy as well as what I provide as a foundation for my clients who hire me to train them to be more efficient. I’m currently recompiling my own life, reassessing goals and reordering priorities and it’s a lot easier to do with this book hand . My friend Brian Redmond recommended this to me.

- “Mage: The Ascension” by White Wolf Game Studio: This is a pen and paper role playing game much like Dungeons & Dragons. The game takes place in a modern setting very similar to our own word where certain persons in that world are “awakened” and are tapping into source energy to manipulate the fabric of reality. The creators of the game did an amazing job putting the whole thing together, especially with regards to their gaming system and the research involved in creating the color and depth of the world. I use this book for ideas on how to better create systems for expressing, developing and managing our base nature and also as a means of inspiration for seeing my own self as something greater than some bipedal happenstance void of divinity.

- “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward De Bono: An excellent theory and application of that theory on the nature of thought. Separating our mental capacities into six distinct modes or “hats,” we can more efficiently harness our brain power and focus. I’m not sure why I tossed this in my bag but seeing as it has to do with the powers of the mind and that is my interest de jour it’s fitting that I have it with me.

- “The Kybalion” by Three Initiates: I found this book sitting on Rich Borgatti’s desk a few years ago. It caught my attention. I began reading it and was at once captured by it’s content. 5000 year old Egyptian philosophy speaking to the core fundamentals of reality itself. How could I not know about this book? I’d felt like a great secret had been kept from me. I ordered it and now I keep it with me most of the time. It’s power is undeniable. I continue to thread its knowledge into my neural net hoping to make it a naturally respondent part of my reticular activation system. Hermes the Thrice Great has my attention.

- “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill: Recommended to me years back by Tommy Tallarico. He told me that this book was a cornerstone in building his own success. I never finished reading it from cover to cover. It’s not the kind of book you read and forget. It’s the kind of book you read and practice. Read and integrate. Read and apply. I brought this with me because I felt I may need to take Hill’s work and use it as a reference to the kind of work I’m doing in my own writing now.

- “The Contemporary Vocalist Improvement Course” by Jeannie Deva: Jeannie Deva’s singing method is an effective system of learning and practicing singing. For all my gifts, I am not blessed with natural talent in this area. If it weren’t for these tools I’d be a hopeless fob in the land of crooning. Props to Steven Slate for turning me on to this system. I’ve got the book with me as I’ve recently made the decision to go forward with my dream of performing as a singer/songwriter.

- “The Wisdom of James Allen” by James Allen: James Allen’s words makes my heart sing and makes my soul stretch. Reading his works makes me think my spirit is doing intensive yoga! Its the only book – beside my bike map, my pocket survival guide and my copy of the United States Constitution – that I keep with me in my bag at all times. I recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in learning more about themselves and finding the kind of inner peace that masters of the soul can help to usher us towards. Thanks to Robert Navarro for turning me on to this book.

- “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Manual of the Planes” by Jeff Grubb: I’d read in “The Kybalion” about “planes” of existence beyond that upon which our bodies preside. And so I started to look into the AD&D cosmology for hints as to how these ideas are being expressed in pop culture and art.

- “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – 2nd Edition: Legends & Lore:” An excellent book on Gods, legends and mysteries of ancient cultures. Goes hand in hand in supporting me in my research into the nature of reality and the relating of experience into expressions of mystery that would later become codified as mechanism and “fact” via deadening acceptance of science as the be all end all.

- “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Deities & Demogods” by James M. Ward with Robert J. Kuntz: The predecessor to “Legends & Lore.” I’d more than likely not even know about these books and D&D in general if it weren’t for one Shawn Murphy. Thanks for helping to make me into the nerd that I am today Shawn!

- “Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought” by L. Ron Hubbard: The guy was controversial. And there’s no doubt that the CoS has done an incredible job at alienating people left and right. However, I can’t deny that the man’s writing makes a lot of sense to me. It seems to me that he’s captured the occult wisdom of the ancient mystery schools and presented them in a modern (albeit 20th century) context.

- “What The Bleep Do We Know!?” by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vincente: The companion book to the underground new age documentary that rocked my world. I saw the film on the suggestion of John Laraio and it changed my life. I went from being a hard-core atheist to being a believer in <i>something</i> after two hours in the theater. The book is even more incredible than the film. I wanted to revisit the book again as I’m curious to see how the work cross-references with the other stuff I’ve been reading lately.

- “Your Brain: A User’s Guide” by Time Magazine: I wanted to see what Time had to say on the latest discoveries on the science of the brain, mental health and gender.

- “Coaching for Performance” by John Whitmore: As I come closer to codifying my practice as a consultant into something I can package and sell more easily I wanted to brush up on basic coaching techniques.

- “Ascension Magick” by Christopher Penczak: This book caught my eye a couple months ago. As I opened and paged through it I quickly realized that Penczak had published the book I’d just sat down to write. And I was grateful for finding it as it allowed me to make a quantum leap ahead in my research and develop a new thesis armed with the knowledge this prolific author of magick had already compiled.

- “Introduction to Game Development, 2nd. Edition” by Steve Rabin: Steve contacted Tommy Tallarico many moons ago and together the two of us became contributing authorities on the state and art of game audio for this great text on game development. But I didn’t drag this heavy volume down here to the Sunshine State just to ogle my own work (not that I’m above that mind you!!!). In this book lies secrets to life. Sure it’s about building games, but life itself is in many ways a game and the systems and models for mimicking life in computer code are, to me, great tools from which to generate more powerful ways of being human in the now of the real world.

So that’s it. I’ve got these books and wikipedia and I’ve got a lot of reading and writing to do, not to mention all the work I’m doing for my clients, practicing my music and spending time with my dad and friends who come to visit.