michael's bookshelves

for you to enjoy

As you are walking through the dark vaults of the castle, you see a glimmer in the distance. You approach it and notice it is a book floating open in mid-air. What do you do?

Here are a selection of e-texts, which are very interesting to read. I'll try to include e-texts of all types, but this is still under construction. You can either look at the contents below, or browse yourself shelf by shelf...

Ancient Texts Classics Student's Refuge Fairy Tales from all parts of the world Modern Masterpieces Aleister Crowley Kaballah Music Lyrics Poetry

 

or else browse the shelves yourselves....
if you dare!!!

 ***ANCIENT TEXTS***

In this section you will find Ancient texts from several cultures. These texts contain several ideas still valid till today, and thus they have passed the test of time. From Egypt to China to Babylon, here are the texts...

• The Instruction of Ptahhotep, an Ancient Egyptian text of wise sayings
• The Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated by E. A. Wallace Budge
• The Baghavad Gita, where the divine Krishna teaches Prince Arjuna how to face life, and how things work.
• The Enuma Elish, meaning When on High, this is the Babylonian epic of Creation.
• The Gilgamesh Epic, the adventures and misadventures of a king in his vain search for immortality and eternal youth.
• The Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius
• The Great Learning, Confucius
• The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus (click here for some background info), the central text on alchemy, containing only a few lines, so small that it could be written on the surface of an emerald.
• The Six Enneads, a philosophical treatise on the way things work by Plotinus, the neo-Platonist.
• Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics, by Michael Poe, not really an Ancient text, but it is about Ancient Egyptian magic and ceremonies.
• Story of the miracles which occurred during the rule of Khufu
• The Corpus Hermetica
• The Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of ancient texts.

***CLASSICS***

Some good old books that have passed the test of time. And some others that have only been overrated.

• Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
• Complete Works of Lewis Caroll
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Ulysses by James Joyce

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of classics.

***STUDENT'S REFUGE***

Not being a studious one, I always desperately needed notes before exams... here are some online notes for your emergencies. ;)

• What was once Barron's Book Notes
•  

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of notes.

***FAIRY TALES from all parts of the world***

Fairy tales, old and new, but not necessarily the ones we commonly hear...

• Aladdin's Cave, from the Arabian Nights
• Till Eulenspiegel, from Germany
• Pinocchio, from Italy
• Narcissus, from Greece
• Little Red Riding Hood, Never trust anyone!
• Beauty and the Beast, my childhood fave
• Cinderella, the immortal fairy tale
• The Conference of Mice, somewhat allegorical of human politics
• The Emperor's New Clothes, a bit of nudity ;)
• The Hare and the Tortoise, the problems of being lazy like me. :P
•  

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of fairy tales.

***MODERN MASTERPIECES***

Contemporary books that change people's lifes forever.

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
• The Prophet by Kahil Gibrian
• Johnathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach
• Illusions (Excerpt) by Richard Bach

***ALEISTER CROWLEY***

Probably the most controversial mystic of this century, his negative image conceals beautiful philosophy and wonderful poetry.

• The Book of the Law (the central philosophy of Crowley is in this channeled very short book)
• Magick in Theory and Practice (here Crowley tries to use the scientific method to describe what is generally called Magick, which is not what one normally thinks.)
• Magick Without Tears (a question and answer book)
• The Book of Lies (some very good poetry here!!!)
• Hymn to Pan (Crowley at his best. You MUST read this!!!)
• The Confessions (The mystical diary of Crowley)
• The Equinox (Actually this was by various authors, but Crowley had a prominent part in it.)

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of Crowley texts.

***KABALLAH***

A Hebrew form of mysticism, based on speculation about numbers, and the Hebrew alphabet. It is lately gaining popularity in the world, even with celebrities such as Madonna. It is very complicated, but as far as I could understand, much truth lies in here. Check out for yourself.

• The Sepher Yetzirah (Scholem translation), the earliest philosophical Kaballistic treatise.
• The Sepher Yetzirah (Hall translation), the earliest philosophical Kaballistic treatise, another translation, watch out for the differenes!!!
• Notes on Kaballah, by Colin Low, this text explains Kaballah in a far simpler way than most texts do. Nevertheless it is profound, so I recommend this to everyone.
• Introduction to the Kaballah Unveiled by Samuel Mathers
• Keys to Kaballah, by Alan Bain
• The Anatomy of the Body of God, by Frater Achad, a complicated text about sacred geometry and Kaballah.
• The Magician's Dictionary, by E. E. Rehmus, not only Kaballah, but didn't feel like opening a whole section for just this book.

***MUSIC LYRICS***

Who said that libraries only had books? Not mine for sure.

• Yebo and Opus for 4 by the Art of Noise
• Leonie's Lyrics Page
• Grendel's Lyric Archive

***POETRY***

The most sublime form of wording.

• Rumi's poetry, an amazingly advanced Sufi poet of the 13th century.
• Bar Poetry, some wonderful contemporary poetry
• Charles Baudelaire
• John Betjeman
• Giovanni Boccacio
• Charles Bukowski
• Sri Chinmoy
• Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
• T.S. Elliot
• Omar Khayyam
• Pablo Neruda
• Sylvia Plath
• Sappho

Delving deeper into the library, at this point you find a secret passage to a more complete set of poems.