Extra Books – August 15 to 21

Now that I’m home, I’ve decided that I should tackle some of the books on my bookshelf that have yet to be read…these two books from the shelf.

I first encountered the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise when I watched the original anime in 2009. When I discovered that it was based on a series of novels, I read an unofficial translation online but didn’t get too pulled in. When I found out the books were finally going to be published in English, I bought each one as they were released but somehow never got around to reading them until now.
One of my favourite aspects of this series is the design. I love the bold colours, the simple icons and the creative fonts.
While the first book is still my favourite, this book (and the following) continued to uphold the aspects I love about this series.

Does what it says 😛 The author’s teacher is Taizen Maezumi, who compiled and edited one of the first books I read on Zen Buddhism. This is the first book I’ve read that was solely dedicated to Zen meditation, the aspect of Zen Buddhism I am most interested in.
I appreciated the structure of this book (a very brief introduction to Buddhism, a person with little knowledge of Buddhism would need to look further than this book to understand), a large section on sitting meditation, and a smaller concluding section on community. This book helped expand some points I had read about in other books (such as hand position) and was overall useful in filling some of the gaps in my understanding. While I won’t be purchasing this one, I will be taking some notes! Which sounds a little silly, given that this book outlines a spiritual practice, something one shouldn’t really be taking notes on, but I ‘take notes’ because I am a newcomer to the practice and won’t focus on/think about some aspects of meditation at this stage without some form of a reminder.