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Mental Health MH book club vs BEHOLD the power of reading!

spork

spork

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I thought it'd be nice to have a place in Mental Health to share what books we're reading or might have read and enjoyed. Please just remember to keep the Mental Health Forum Guidelines and the Bluelight User Agreement in mind when posting.

I'll start. :) I really enjoyed Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto by Anneli Rufus. It made me embrace my introverted ways rather than judge them and wish I was somebody else. I actually found out about the book years ago on Bluelight and checked it out at my library. After I read it, I picked up a copy myself because I felt like it was a book I simply had to own.

partyofone.jpg


Your turn! What books would you recommend?
 
Yay!! I like this idea. I don't have contributions yet but I've been dying for good books.
 
A good one is TWEAK by Nic Sheff. Its about his poly-addiction and subsequent recovery, though its more suited for those with hard drug addictions (haha it feels like I'm coming off a hard drug) it was a NYT bestseller.
 
^That's a good one. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember it being a good book lol. :)

exists said:
spork, should our recommendations be related to mental health and/or recovery? Or can I just start listing things I've enjoyed?
Click to expand...

I suppose you can list anything you enjoyed as long as it doesn't go against forum guidelines. After all, I do think that reading can be incredibly therapeutic whether it be novels, self help books, memoirs, etc.
 
Don't worry spork, I'll do my best to adhere to the recovery forums' guidelines. And I agree, books can be very therapeutic. Reading is a great, drug-free way to escape reality. When I'm extremely depressed, reading is just about the only thing I want to do :)

My favorite genre is science fiction. I highly recommend Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee's "Rama" series. It's about contact with alien races, but beyond that I will keep mum.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer is a good nonfiction account of the circumstances surrounding the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy. So much of that story is still relevant to today's would-be mountaineers. (For instance, this year's Sherpas-versus-foreigners near-tragedy could have been prevented altogether.)

Another good nonfiction book I finished recently was about inland Inuit tribes, and the Canadian government's apathetic attitude toward them. It's entitled People of the Deer (1952 rev. 1975) and was written by Farley Mowat. That author writes beautifully; every page is practically filled with poetry.

The last book I read was a 1992 fictional title by English writer P.D. James called The Children of Men. The author explores the implications surrounding a disturbing premise: what if all people -- through some mysterious disease -- could no longer have children? An engaging book that is difficult to put down.
 
The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy is a great book about just that told through a lot of intersecting fictional lives. The writing is so lyrical that it reads like a long poem.
 
Thanking YOU

spork said:
I thought it'd be nice to have a place in Mental Health to share what books we're reading or might have read and enjoyed. Please just remember to keep the Mental Health Forum Guidelines and the Bluelight User Agreement in mind when posting.

I'll start. :) I really enjoyed Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto by Anneli Rufus. It made me embrace my introverted ways rather than judge them and wish I was somebody else. I actually found out about the book years ago on Bluelight and checked it out at my library. After I read it, I picked up a copy myself because I felt like it was a book I simply had to own.

partyofone.jpg


Your turn! What books would you recommend?
Click to expand...


I actually cannot thank you enough for introducing me to this book as it is precisely what I was looking for. Its actually the *exact* book I was looking for but I didnt think anything like it existed until now and I was too embarassed to ask folks for something of its desciption. Many, many thanks. For anyone else who's interested: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75777591/Party-of-One-The-Loners-Manifesto-Anneli-Rufus

I can imagine this will grow to be a very interesting thread indeed; I'll be sure to add to it in short course. For the moment I'm going to read the above in its utter entirity. Should anyone know of anything similar - or indeed of any fiction/literature in general where the protagonist or one of the main characters endures a mental illness of a certain similarity please do share thank you.
 
^Wait, you aren't saying that being a loner, or being introverted is a mental illness are you? Our culture certainly treats it as such but I don't see it that way at all. But thank you for the photos that let me start the book--based on those I've ordered it!

I've had a weird life when it comes to introversion/extroversion. When I was a child I was so shy and socially anxious that I barely spoke outside of my family. I cried constantly just from being overwhelmed by people in groups, especially at school. Some switch got thrown in adolescence and I am now an extrovert but I crave time alone and do my utmost to get it. I prefer to go to movies alone, love traveling alone and my idea of a good vacation is one where I it's me, nature and a pile of good books and some art supplies. Being alone and being comfortable with it is light years away from being alone and being miserable in it--I understand that. But I think so much of the misery comes from media hype that says it is pathological to be alone, "a loner". Hopefully this book raises a voice against such limited thinking. And I have to say, I love the cover.:D
 
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