Reading List

A book or magazine connects me with people across time and space. It's like holding hands while taking a walk with a lover; little in life is more intimate.

These are my recent acquaintances, with the most recent listed first.

Breakfast at the Victory, by James P. Carse (1994)

River Out of Eden; a Darwinian view of life, by Richard Dawkins (1995)

Ishmael; an adventure of the mind and spirit, by Daniel Quinn (1992)

Finite and Infinite Games; a vision of life as play and possibility , by James P. Carse (Ballantine Books, 1986)
My boss gave me this book to read when he met me at the airport at the start of a cross-country flight. It was a brilliant move on his part -- getting me to think about the business issues from the perspective of an infinite game, where the goal is to change the rules as needed to keep the game going and to bring in as many players as possible.

The Essential Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks with John Moyne (Harper San Francisco, 1995)

Care of the Soul, by Thomas Moore (Harper Perennial, 1992)

The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, by Tom Spanbauer (Harper Perennial, 1991)

Travels with Lizbeth: three years on the road and on the streets, by Lars Eighner (St. Martin's Press, 1993)

His; brilliant new fiction by gay writers, edited by Robert Drake with Terry Wolverton (Faber & Faber, 1995)

King Warrior Magician Lover; rediscovering the archetypes of the mature masculine, by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette (Harper San Francisco, 1990)

Fruit; a new anthology of contemporary Australian gay writing, edited by Gary Dunne (Black Wattle Press, 1994)

KiteLines, (Summer-Fall 1995, Vol 11, #3)

The Practice of Poetry; writing exercises from Poets Who Teach, edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell (Harper Perennial, 1992)

Out of Control, the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world, by Kevin Kelly (Addison-Wesley, 1994)
This book was written by a former editor of Whole Earth Review who is now an editor of Wired. It has an easy reading magazine feel to it. Its final chapter, THE NINE LAWS OF GOD, presents the way in which somethings can be created from nothing: As Jan Hardenbergh says about this book: "Give up the illusion of control, grab a bigger rudder. Help steer us towards a secure and respectful future."

Sharing the Delirium, second generation AIDS plays and performances, Therese Jones, editor (Heinemann, 1994)
This anthology of plays and other pieces is a statement of how far we have come in this second decade of the AIDS plague. They are about life lived fully, with rage, pain and sorrow, but also with tenderness, compassion and laughter.
I picked up my copy at Actors Theatre of Louisville after Tim Miller performed his new piece, NAKED BREATH.

Sacred World, a guide to Shambhala warriorship in daily life, Jeremy Hayward (Bantam Books, 1995)

Scientific American September 1995, key technologies for the 21st century (Scientific American, 1995)

Heartlands, a gay man's odyssey across America, Darrell Yates Rist (Dutton, 1992)

Out, October 1995 (Out Publishing, 1995)

The Corporate Coach, James B. Miller with Paul B. Brown (St Martin's Press, 1993)

Gay Cosmos, Lars Eighner (Masquerade Books, 1995)

Utne Reader, September-October 1995 Utne LENS (LENS Publishing, 1995)

Beyond Definition, new writings from gay and lesbian San Francisco, Marci Blackman & Trebor Healey, editors (Manic D Press, 1994)

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after death invisibly return,
Oh, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning -- as, first, I here and now
Signing for soul and body, set to them my name,
Walt Whitman

Gents, Bad Boys & Barbarians: new gay male poetry, Rudy Kikek, editor (Alyson Publications, 1995)
A fresh collection of poems that touched my heart. Some are funny, some sad. All of them are alive. It's great to know that there are so many men exposing themselves. "Of the thirty-nine poets .. selected for this book, the one common trait is that, other than in a church or school publication, none has seen a poem in print before 1988. That was the rule -- no one published before 1988 -- that publisher Sasha Alyson suggested, to allow us to see what gay male poets had emerged in the last five years." And the rule seems to have worked.
"When I get hold of a book I admire, I am so enthusiastic that I loan it to someone who never brings it back." Ed Howe
Larry Wolf <lwolf@thepoint.net>