After reading it, I discovered that Carlos Casteneda, the author, is considered one of the founding members of the New Age subculture and this book is considered a very important work in that area.

What I find the most interesting in the work is how Casteneda refers to his hallucinogenic journeys as "non-ordinary reality," as if the states he entered were just as valid as the reality we experience ordinarily. I have some experience in this area and I know that some drugs can create an alternate world in the user that seems every bit as real as ordinary reality. I never considered those as experiences with a different reality that was just as valid as ordinary reality, though. I just thought I was really fucking high.

I'm sure Carlos Casteneda was probably pretty high when he wrote it, but it does offer some very interesting insights into the religious practices of a certain Native American culture which I found fascinating. I made it a few books into the series before it started to get a bit too far out there.

The Gene, and enjoying it for the most part. Like his previous book, The Emperor of All Maladies, there are many names and dates to keep track of, so I don't; and instead just focus on the meat of the subject. Of course, I'm a medical/science nerd and this would not be for everyone.

is a good overview of the republican/ libertarian/conservative history over the last 50 yrs.

I was given the audio book for my birthday - read by the author - and he certainly has lived a full and fascinating life! From his childhood near Plains, his Navy career and his first run for public office, I never lost interest for a moment, don't think he got to his presidential run till disc #5, LOL. I learned so much I never knew - including how wise he really is and that I agree with him even much more than I ever knew. And he is a really good storyteller!

http://books.simonandschuster.com/A-Full-Life/Jimmy-Carter/9781501115639

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-serendipity-1460501959

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Taiga-Fifty-Year-Religious-Wilderness/dp/0385472099

A Russian journalist provides a haunting account of the Lykovs, a family of Old Believers, members of a fundamentalist sect, who, in 1932, went to live in the depths of the Siberian Taiga and have survived for more than fifty years apart from the modern world.

Very interesting read!

(somebody had to say it)

I am looking at getting "Lost Christianities" by Bart Ehrman. I really enjoy history of religion since it is like it or not such a huge force in the world.

and "The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives In The Face of Natural Crisis" by Ruth DeFries. I don't read that often, but I like these 2 books, and I read along as I listen to audio books for both.