Pronounced (bi-blee-uh-FI-Lee-uh).
From Greek biblio- (book) and -philia (to love).
The winner in my list of title upgrades as I update this post from its original version, published here. In a close second place finish was bibliomaniac- defined by Online Etymology Dictionary (2023) as “book-madness, a rage for collecting rare or unusual books.”
- Banned and Challenged Books
- Knowledge is Power!
- Why You Should Read For 30 minutes Every Day
- Resources for Experienced Readers
- Resources For the Kids
- Books I Know and Love
- Don’t Miss Out!
- References
While I certainly wouldn’t describe it as a “rage,” I am incredibly proud of my collection.
Ironically, I lost a significant portion of my books during the Legal Theft incident; a majority of the books that I own now, have been recovered from a dumpster! You WOULD NOT BELIEVE the books that Jim and I have rescued!
Banned and Challenged Books
Some of my most prized possessions are antique books. There’s just something about the energy and novelty of opening a book that has touched countless hands since the time printing began! Consider that… as compared to the easy button we enjoy today.
While I enjoy newer novelists and their works, there is something special about the classics.
Finding any non-fiction or course book published before the 1950’s is of particular interest to me because my research indicates that is when our government got involved with censoring the information received by the general public and dumbing down the public education system. You would likely be surprised to read through the list of banned and challenged books, some of which were assigned reading when I was in school. including: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and 1984 by George Orwell!
The topics and content presented in most banned books are so important and should be protected at all costs. I am passionate about preserving our freedom of speech and freedom to learn!
The American Library Association‘s Office for Intellectual Freedom records attempts to challenge and ban books. Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century that have been banned or challenged.
Knowledge is Power!
I strongly encourage everyone to get back into the habit of reading a little bit every day.
My daughter frequently rolls her eyes at me as I offer her yet another article or website with valuable resources that I urge her to sift through and learn about herself. I always feel the need to cram as much information as I can into our time together. I wish she knew how important the things are that I want her to know.
Maybe you are thinking that I probably sound just like my mother. No, I really don’t sound like my mother at all, for the record. My 16 years as a pediatric nurse and parent; graduate school; being told how kids should be raised by people I wouldn’t let take care of my dog; and watching my children endure brainwashing tactics and isolation at the mercy of a corrupt system, until we were gradually phased out of each other’s lives… all of those experiences have afforded me more wisdom about children than any of those individuals involved in my case.
I have always preached about the value of education and encouraged my children to be open to everything that is available to them! To take advantage and view every experience as a learning opportunity. Even if you don’t quite understand what they are talking about, or fully understand what is going on… everything you learn today provides building blocks for what you will be exposed to and understand tomorrow. This knowledge will give you tools that may be invaluable to you in the future, and may even be the difference between life and death.
Why You Should Read For 30 minutes Every Day
Psychology and health experts agree that reading for at least 30 minutes every day has multiple health benefits.:
- reduces stress and relaxes you. Reading for more than 20 minutes allows time for your brain to adjust to the activity and establish alpha waves naturally produced when we are relaxed and focused. It can induce mental state similar to meditation and the imaginative centers of our brain are active.
- help you fall asleep faster and boosts sleep quality. Fitting it into your nightly routine is most convenient for adults that work day shift hours. People working 3rd or swing shifts can combat the “3rd wind” phenomena that kicks in the modern man or woman’s tendency to finish “just one more thing before bed” that eventually leads to lack of sleep and its myriad of associated problems. Reading a book is different from other activities involving an electronic device. If you prefer to use eBooks, you can help to combat the effects of eye strain by adjusting the brightness on your device screen. There may be an option to change the screen settings in the eReader application.
- lower blood pressure and heart rate. When your body experiences acute stress, your blood pressure and heart rate increase. Lowering stress levels neutralizes the fight-or-flight response, allows the neurotransmitters and subsequent chemical responses to normalize, and balance is restored within the body.
- reduces depressive thoughts. When we focus our mind on positive experiences, even if they are vicariously lived through fictional characters, we spend less time focusing on the negative aspects of our own lives. Higher quality sleep and decreased stress levels are both linked with better mental health.
- makes you more empathetic. Reading about the lives of others, real or fictional, allows us to experience different cultures, circumstances, world views, thought patterns and processes, and outcomes that we may not encounter or consider in our own lives. This helps us to be more empathetic to the situations and decisions that others find themselves in.
- improves concentration and focus. The fast-paced, high stimulation world we live in leaves us with poorer scores overall in the areas of concentration and focus. Unplugging and allowing yourself to be absorbed in the pages of a novel you love is a great way to exercise these important skills.
- increases your vocabulary. Exposure to new words, especially if you take the time to look up any terms you aren’t familiar with, adds words to your vocabulary. Soft skills, like the ability to communicate and work well with others is integral to the workplace and makes a person more marketable. Higher vocabularies are linked with higher IQ, higher emotional intelligence, and these people have an distinct advantage of others when interviewing with potential future employers.
- improves your general knowledge, Both fiction and non-fiction books offer exposure to new areas of interest and deepening the understanding of previous knowledge.
- strengthens critical and analytical thinking skills. Improved concentration and focus, greater general knowledge and vocabulary all contribute to the advancement in critical and analytical thinking skills. CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies read an average of 4-5 books per month (Myatt, 2021) and many attribute their success to their love of lifelong learning.
- slow the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. You know that saying, if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Well this is also true with the fragile tissues inside your skull. Dr. Joe Dispenza explained that “every time you learn something new, you forge new connections. One hour of focused concentration on one concept or idea literally doubles the neural connections in your brain” (“Rewired,” 2019). Using MRI scans, researchers have confirmed that reading regularly leads to increased neural connectivity in your brain. (Houston et al., 2014).
Resources for Experienced Readers
I much prefer to have a physical copy in my hands that I can mark up with marginal notes, I do have a great appreciation for the book repositories that are available online! Project Gutenberg, Open Library, Internet Archive, and Libretexts are well-known online libraries that share thousands of free e-books with downloadable files in multiple formats! Keep reading for more links to lesser known websites with access to RARE, ESOTERIC BOOKS!
A prized item in my collection is the Internet Sacred Texts Archive (ISTA) Flash Drive! The ISTA flash drive 9.0 has over 1700 religious, mythological, and esoteric texts! Buy it here.
I have found that if I enter the title, author, and the term ‘pdf’ in a search engine that I am typically able to view or download it. Beware of scammer websites that require a credit card- you should be able to find them for free!
The Theosophical Society of America is an organization that publishes select works from a short list of authors. I came across while digging deeper into esoteric and occult studies and I was enthralled when I received the catalog of their publications as requested.
Random House Publishing Company’s subsidiary offers Modern Library’s 100 Best 20th century novels
1001 Book Reviews offers a complete master list of Peter Boxall’s 1001 Book to Read Before You Die.
Resources For the Kids
Encouraging your children to read provides them with countless benefits that will help them in all areas throughout their lives! Here are a couple websites I have suggested to my daughter!
Reading Partners offers a full range of resources for families, including Storyline Online with videos of children’s books read aloud by various actors and famous people.
We Are Teachers lists 30 teacher-approved free or low-cost reading and educational websites.
Books I Know and Love
NOTE: In addition to the disclaimer found in my websites Terms & Conditions, I would like to reiterate that the views and opinions expressed in the literary works that I have listed below are solely those of the authors and do not reflect any other agency, organization, company, or individual. Assumptions made in the summary are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author(s) – and since we are critically thinking human beings, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. Please do not hold them to perpetuity.
My lists are organized alphabetically by author then title, and will eventually be grouped according to genre.
Francis Barrett
- The Magus Sacred-texts
L. Margery Bazett
- Beyond the Five Senses Free PDF*
Dan Brown
- Da Vinci Code* (2003) the movie did have a chance at doing this masterpiece justice. Classified under fiction, this intellectual thriller will leave you with an entirely new lens with which to view the world. Audible Audiobook*
F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Gatsby FREE PDF Audible Audiobook*
Dion Fortune
- Psychic Self Defense Free PDF
Viktor E Frankl
- Man’s Search for Meaning Amazon*
Charles F. Haanel
- The Master Key System Sacred-texts
Manly P. Hall
Max Heindel
All titles are available on the Rosicrucian website. free with membership
- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
- Occult Principles of Health and Healing
- Message of the Stars
- The Rosicrucian Principles of Child Training
- Archetypes
Godfrey Ray King
- Unveiled Mysteries Sacred-texts
George Orwell
- Animal Farm FREE PDF Audible Audiobook*
- Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel FREE PDF Audible Audiobook*
- I love this book so much and I was ecstatic when we pulled a copy from the year it was published out of the dumpster. I am working on creating a read aloud video for your listening pleasure. Check out my blog post on this amazing work!
Nick Reding
- Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town* (2009) exposes the events on city, state, regional, and federal levels that contributed to the Methamphetamine epidemic that destroyed small midwestern communities in the 90s and early 21st century, mirroring the erosion of urban culture with the Crack-Cocaine epidemic. Revelations backed by a paperwork trail that point the finger at Big Pharma and Washington lobbyists are supplemented with real-life accounts and true stories set in the town of Oelwein, Iowa. Audible Audiobook*
Comte de Saint-Germain
- The Most Holy Trinosophia (w/ Manly P Hall) Free at Sacred-texts
The Three Initiates
- The Kybalion Free at Sacred-texts
Yogi Ramacharaka
- The Science of Breath Free at Sacred-texts
Don’t Miss Out!
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References
1001 Book Reviews. (2012, January 19). The 1001 Book List. 1001 Books to Read before You Die; 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. https://1001bookreviews.com/the-1001-book-list/
American Library Association. (2008, June 13). Intellectual Freedom: Issues and Resources. Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom
Americorps. (2021, July 16). Resources for Families. Reading Partners. https://readingpartners.org/take-action/resources-for-families/
Banned Books Week. (2023). Banned Books Week | October 1 – 7, 2023. Banned Books Week. https://bannedbooksweek.org/
Helliker, K. (2007, August). Bibliotherapy: Reading Your Way To Mental Health. The Wall Street Journal; The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118583572352482728
Houston, S. M., Lebel, C., Katzir, T., Manis, F. R., Kan, E., Rodriguez, G. G., & Sowell, E. R. (2014). Reading skill and structural brain development. NeuroReport, 25(5), 347–352. https://doi.org/10.1097/wnr.0000000000000121
Internet Archive. (2013). Internet Archive Text Archive. Internet Archive: EBooks and Texts. https://archive.org/details/texts
Joy, R. (2019, October 15). Benefits of Reading Books: How It Can Positively Affect Your Life. Healthline; Healthline Media. https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading-books#strengthens-the-brain
Library Thing. (2021). Book awards: Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century | LibraryThing. Library Thing. https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Radcliffe+Publishing+Course+Top+100+Novels+of+the+20th+Century
LibreTexts. (2023). LibreTexts – Free The Textbook. Libretexts. https://libretexts.org/
McCarthy, N. (2016, October 7). Infographic: Which countries read the most? Statista Infographics; Statista. https://www.statista.com/chart/6125/which-countries-read-the-most/
Office for Intellectual Freedom. (2013, March 27). Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
Online Etymology Dictionary. (2021). Bibliomania. Etymonline. https://www.etymonline.com/word/bibliomania
OpenLibrary.org. (2023). Welcome to Open Library | Open Library. Openlibrary.org. https://openlibrary.org/
Project Gutenberg. (2021). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/
Random House Books. (2022). The Modern Library. The Modern Library- Random House Books. https://www.randomhousebooks.com/imprint/modern-library/
Sacred Texts. (2023). Sacred-Texts Flash Drive 9.0: Main Page. Internet Sacred Texts Archive. https://www.sacred-texts.com/cdshop/dvd90/index.htm
SAG-AFTRA Foundation. (2023, January 31). Storyline Online- Home. Storyline Online. https://storylineonline.net/
Staff, W. (2022, September 29). 45 Best Free and Paid Reading Websites for Kids. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/best-reading-websites/
The Alzheimer’s Information Site. (2012, August 21). Mental Stimulation Slows Alzheimer’s Progression. Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. https://www.alzinfo.org/articles/mental-stimulation-slows-alzheimers-progression/
The Theosophical Society. (2023). The Theosophical Society in America- Home Page. Theosophical Society in America. https://www.theosophical.org/#
Winter, C. (2022, August 2). 10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day. Lifehack. https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html
Wordsmith. (2020). A.Word.A.Day –bibliophilia. Wordsmith. https://wordsmith.org/words/bibliophilia.html
Iridescent Alchemyst 