My next read

Treating myself and have ordered “How to Experience Your Soul’s Origin” for my birthday coming up in two weeks. 

Your soul's origin is where it all began. It's where energy first showed up as the Big Bang of you. It's when you chose a unique frequency to manifest in your form for all time.

This Origination Moment of imploding energy contains the complete and total awareness of yourself along with infinity, not only in this lifetime but in all existences throughout creation. The Pleiadians' gift to humanity and all sentient Beings is the knowledge of this moment and how to experience it with the Ripple Point.
This point is a beautiful light receptor site, a single vortex of energy in front of you where you can download soul information. It is instrumental in self-awakening because it's the command post for your soul and how energy is distributed in the chakras' vibrational system, thoughts, and feelings. It is also connected with soul purpose.
These do-it-yourself instructions for the Ripple Point come with eleven variations and many practical applications, so you can easily recall the important parts of your energy and integrate that wisdom into your personality, physical body, emotions, and joyous expression of uniqueness.

You can end repetitive stories of the mind, relax the emotions, and experience what love is on the level of light and energy. Soul light is the level of light and energy. Soul light is the original light we are born with and carry with us throughout time and space.

The soul is at the top of your energy network, which includes the lightbody, your cord of purpose, higher self, and your soul group if you have brought one with you. These channeled transmissions take you on a journey through this Earthly passage as you move through the stages of life and cross over to the next.

What happens with your first breath? How does childhood impact our self-image? What is the nature of the mind, our personality, and the purpose of emotions? What do family members expect from us?Why is common ground necessary for all relationships? What should you do if you sense you have a large soul group?
Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage, and can I find my soul mate? How do we cope with aging? What do we say to those in hospice care as they near death?
How do we deal with the loss of a loved one? Do we have any choices when we cross over onto the Ladders of Life? Is there any value in knowing our past lives? Can we really step off the pages of the Akashic records and end the cycle of reincarnation? What would your last lifetime be like?

Everyone is here to express some unique kind of wisdom, something they brought with them into this incarnation for one special purpose. Without that sense of direction, how do we answer the question,
"Who is this wonderful Being of energy and light?"

Coming HomeFor a very long time, the experience of oneness has captured the hearts and minds of many spiritual teachings as the culmination of one's journey on the path to enlightenment. In this book, Pleiadian Great Light points out that this is only half the story in terms of energy movement. 

Many of us have experienced the great vastness of expansiveness. That beautiful light going out is quite wonderful as it pulls out the sensation of awakefulness. One is absorbed in that oneness; however, there is no sense of individuality. 

It's only in the return trip of that awakefulness passing through a tiny gap and remaining awake that we come back home.

Experience magic

 

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Some sanctuaries don't need doors -

 

… just cushions and quiet.

What if peace isn't a place - but a chair, a book, and a deep exhale?

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A sacred space

 

:;

Magical adventures can’t wait

 

Peace is arranged

 

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We live and learn—Librocubicularist

 

You’re not a monster, are you?

::

 

What you need

 

Let's just hang out

Why don't we have more adult playdates where we just hang out and read quietly?

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So many books, so little time…

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.
– William Styron

My Pothos plant keeping watch over a few of my next reads.

Happiness is …

 

This could start a conversation...

::

 

I opened a book...

Rreading spaces

The PERFECT reading chair!

 

Books, flowers and the Moon

Inside the mind of another person

A return to the printed word? (Yay!)

After years of hearing about how e-books was the future, sales of these digital versions are on the decline. 

In a world where we do everything online, consider this: Independent bookstores are on the rise, while e-books are on the decline. Does this mean that the verdict is finally in on e-books? Does this mean that people, or at least the market forces through which they manifest, have chosen the paperback over the Kindle edition?

It seems that may be the case. And there are a litany of reasons why.

Independent bookstores are the places where you drop in for the latest paperback, listen to a reading from a favorite author or find a unique gift for a unique friend. And they’re thriving. According to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a non-profit trade organization for indie book shops, its membership grew for the ninth year in a row in 2018, with stores operating in more than 2,400 locations. Not only that, sales at independent bookstores are up approximately five percent over 2017.

Meanwhile, sales for e-books—the digital versions that we were told just a few years ago would change the publishing industry forever—are stagnant. E-book sales have slipped by 3.9 percent so far this year, according to data from the Association of American Publishers, while hardback and paperback book sales grew by 6.2 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. During the first nine months of 2018, hardback and paperback sales generated nearly $4 billion combined; comparatively, e-books only raked in $770.9 million.

Given the increased appetite for book stores and actual, physical books, it’s pretty clear that the Kindle didn’t have the same impact on the written word as the iPod had on music. Clearly, not all analog favorites can be as easily replaced by new digital formats.

Independent bookstores are gathering places, community centers, and signifiers of neighborhoods that value the arts, education and creativity.

According to the ABA, the number of independent booksellers increased by 35 percent from 2009 to 2015—the same years that Amazon was pushing the Kindle and Barnes & Noble was pushing its own e-reader, the Nook.

But… why? This was supposed to be the era of the e-book and two-day book deliveries from Amazon.

In Livingston, New Jersey—a growing town of 30,000 residents, 29 miles from New York City— at the area’s Words Bookstore, business is so good that its owners plan to open a second location.

How could this be? The answer involves a conflux of factors involving Amazon, the Kindle, and e-books themselves. The very things that brought digital convenience to reading have made readers yearn for the physical book store and the simple joy that comes with scanning bookshelves and the subsequent, sensual act of reading an actual book. It seems that of the very few things people want to shop for in-person, books are one of them.

“Book lovers are reading these big scary headlines about the death of the book industry,” Katie Presley, a buyer at indie Upshur Street Books, told MarketWatch, “and they’re motivated to put their dollars into an industry and an art form that they love and want to keep around.”

In other words, and as one of the greatest ironies in the history of literal literary irony, it seems that the death of the bookstore is exactly what’s bringing it back! About four years ago, I wrote a story for The Wall Street Journal titled “E-books, A Breakup,” in which I lamented the end of my relationship with Kindles and their ilk. I argued, at the time, that e-book readers weren’t worth the hassle and that they undermined the fun of shopping for, and reading, a book. Despite my affection for all things gadgets and technology, something about the e-book just wasn’t sticking. Sometimes, it was because I’d forget to charge my Kindle right before a long flight, only to be left without a book to read. Other times, it was that I simply missed the act of turning a page and using an old bookmark.

Perhaps after years of e-book hype (and/or fear-mongering), we have finally arrived at a middle ground. When it comes to travel and convenience, it’s hard to beat e-books. But when it comes to a cozy book shop visit on a Sunday afternoon followed by a cup of coffee and your favorite author, nothing beats the real thing. And it appears that after years of experimentation with e-books, many people are realizing the same thing.

Then there's the inability to lend e-books. One of my favorite things to do, when talking about a book I just finished and loved, is to hand my dog-eared copy to a friend who I think would enjoy it. It’s an exchange that’s hard to replicate with just about any other artistic object. You’re not going to lend someone a painting, for instance, and while you may lend someone a record or a CD, you probably want it back. With a $10 paperback, you give it to someone and fully expect that person to hand it off to someone else.

Then, there were the two times I lost my Kindle. On one occasion, I left it in the seat-back of a plane in Yakushima, Japan. On another, I left it, plugged in and charging, in a hotel lobby. While losing a book is a bummer, it’s a $10 bummer that is easily replaced. Losing a Kindle, however, is a $300 minor disaster.

And that was it for me. I was done with e-books, and according to this year’s sales numbers, I’m not alone.

The numbers are indeed bad: According to Nielsen, 2016 e-book sales among the top-30 sellers were down 16 percent from their 2015 numbers. E-books’ share of all books sold is also on the decline, accounting for 27 percent of total sales in 2015 compared to 23 percent in 2016.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at a local bookshop for the midnight release of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel. The shop provided drinks, Murakami paraphernalia and activities, and gave away Murakami-themed tote bags, compliments of his publisher who made the bags just for independent bookstores.

When I heard of the event, I cancelled my Amazon pre-order so I could join the festivities. I paid the full price instead of Amazon’s pre-order discount, but you know what? I didn’t care. I wanted to support the local store (and I wanted that tote bag).

From the Observer

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No book long enough

Life after death...

Beneath your leafy branches full and broad,
I stand with face uplifted for my heart is truly awed
By everything you do and all you are
For I am certain that you truly are a superstar.

When I was young, I climbed among your boughs
And, snuggled in your grasp, I felt safe enough to drowse.
Today I wish that I could once again
Ascend among your branches to a place where I remain.

Spread your branches sweeping over me,
And let me hide for just a while from harsh reality.
The days are speeding ever swiftly by,
And if I could, I’d love to stay and watch the world rush by.

~ Esther Spurrill-Jones