The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane

I’ve been reading the rule books of different roleplaying games this year like Nobilis and now The Burning Wheel in order to alleviate boredom and socialize with friends while playing the various games online. While doing so, I have come to appreciate the artistry and finesse that goes into creating the games.

This effort is most easily seen in the rulebooks.

The Burning Wheel rulebook is gorgeous. The artwork and binding are lovely. This is a book that feels like it belongs in your hands when you open it.

I realize that the world is moving more digital all the time, books included, and that makes sense. It saves resources, space, and what could be more convenient than having your entire library with you when you travel?

But I think I would miss the experience of holding a physical book and the sensations that go along with that. I watched a YouTube video review of this game that suggested part of the familiarity of the feel of this book might be related to the fact that it was created in the shape and size of a family Bible.

Whatever the draw is, if you’re going to play this game, I highly recommend buying a physical copy of the book.

That being said, the game itself is incredibly complex. No matter what you want to do in Burning Wheel, it requires some sort of roll. The most annoying aspect of this complexity is in the “resource” portion of the game. I failed a roll a few weeks ago and now my financially-challenged elf bard has to find a job.

Do I really want to play a game to roleplay something like that? I could just live life as it is right now to worry about resources.

The organization of the rulebook also leaves something to be desired. For example, bard songs and their details are located in a couple different places.

So, say you’re playing along, then you want to know what sort of dice you have to roll to sing a song to the trees. In order to find that information, you’ve got to look all over the place. It doesn’t work well at all.

Even the character creation is an unwieldy process. It took two very experienced gamers and I, who admittedly has less experience but plenty of enthusiasm, nearly four hours to put together two characters. Four hours!

Despite its complex and difficult nature, I think experienced gamers who are willing to greatly simplify the rules might still enjoy playing this game. Newbies to RPGs may want to try something else.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & QiGong by Bill Douglas

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & QiGong is a useful reference guide that I’ve been using in conjunction with online courses to dip my toes into the practice of both.

The first part of the book is the history of the martial and meditative arts as well as best practices. The second part is the movements.

I liked that links to demonstrative videos are sprinkled throughout the text, somewhere over a hundred of them! It really helped the materials to come alive for me.

The way the author writes might be a little far out for readers who are looking for more scientific approaches to the practices. He touches on scientific studies that demonstrate health benefits, but doesn’t go too deeply into the science behind them. Readers who are looking for something like that may want to find a different book.

I’ve begun to incorporate both t’ai chi and qigong into my daily routine. It is a nice, restive break from the stressful day-to-day grind. As I move my body through the practices, my mind follows.

It is difficult to describe, but easy to experience if you attempt some of the movements yourself.

One of the most helpful online resources I discovered for qigong is “Qi Gong for Better Health and Wellness” by Lee Holden on Wondrium.

Highly recommended for readers at all levels of fitness. Namaste!

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

David Sheff examines the life and spiritual transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters, a man who has spent years on death row and in solitary confinement for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

“Even if Masters was innocent, I didn’t know what to think about the claims that he was, as his supporters described him, an enlightened Buddhist practitioner who had changed and saved lives.”

It is a powerful non-fiction account not only because Masters is honest and open about how he came to be where he is today, but because the spiritual lessons he has discovered throughout his experience are applicable for all of us. You don’t have to be sitting in a literal prison to feel like you’re locked in a cell and can’t get out.

The mind and heart can create suffering wherever in the world you are.

“Set in a place of unremitting violence, insanity, confusion, and rage, Masters’s story traverses the haunted caverns and tributaries of loneliness, despair, trauma, and other suffering- terrain we all know too well- and arrives at healing, meaning, and wisdom.”

I don’t think you need to be a practitioner of Buddhism to appreciate the wisdom in this book. Spiritual lessons like the knowledge that can be found in self awareness and how to obtain freedom from suffering can be helpful for all of us.

I enjoyed the book so much that I read it in only a few sittings.

The lama wrote that all people have been sentenced to death- in that way, Jarvis wasn’t unique. … “We all live in a prison, and we all hold the key,” Chagdud Tulku wrote.

Highly recommended for spiritual seekers of all types.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of this book.

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield shares the applicable lessons he’s learned from a lifetime of different writing jobs. The most important one is the title of this non-fiction, self help book.

“Sometimes young writers acquire the idea from their years in school that the world is waiting to read what they’ve written. They get this idea because their teachers had to read their essays or term papers or dissertations. In the real world, no one is waiting to read what you’ve written. pg 16, ebook

Along the way, Pressfield discovered the importance of writing for yourself rather than as a ghost writer, the necessity of structuring each piece whether it is a screen play or a novel, the enduring popularity of the hero’s journey and more.

He also addresses the inner demons that may prevent fledging writers from finishing what they begin, a topic that Pressfield also discusses at length in his other book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“I did not know that there existed inside my head an invisible, insidious, intractable, indefatigable force whose sole object was to keep me from doing my work, i.e., finishing the book I had been trying to write for seven years- and ultimately to destroy me, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. All I knew was that I couldn’t finish anything.” pg 49

Photo by bongkarn thanyakij on Pexels.com

I found all of his advice helpful, and the manner in which Pressfield delivers it as both approachable and entertaining.

“The writer must know what genre he is working in and the conventions of that genre, just as the bridge builder must understand the science of foundational integrity and the means of mitigating stress on strung steel.” pg 66, ebook

He closes the book with a humorous anecdote about writing for a pornographic film. Even in that tale, Pressfield managed to teach me something about story construction and storytelling. I only mention it in case any potential reader finds such things offensive. Here’s your warning.

Highly recommended for writers at any level. Pressfield knows his stuff.

Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter, Amy Grimes

Throughout history, humankind has told each other stories. Sometimes these stories center on places that become sacred through their association to the legends that are told.

Sarah Baxter highlights 25 such locations from all over the world. Each brief chapter includes a short description of the site and the stories associated with it.

“In these pages we meet mythical kings, sacred summits, and enchanted architecture, plus a cast of elves, giants, ghosts, golems and sea creatures without which our planet might be a more logical and well-reasoned place but also less colourful and compelling.” pg 6, ebook.

I thoroughly enjoyed armchair traveling from Africa to Canada, China to Portugal, and more. This book gave me so many ideas for places I want to see when I feel comfortable boarding a plane again.

And, in the meantime, there’s always the possibility of travel-filled day dreams.

In the chapter about Cadair Idris in Wales, Baxter writes: “It’s said that on the very crown of the peak there is a long, wide platform of stone slabs that is the Bed of Idris and that whoever sleeps on that bed will suffer one of two fates: they will wake up either as the most profound poet or completely mad.” pg 18, ebook.

Worth the risk, right?

I was also taken with the descriptions of the Stone Circles of Senegambia, thousands of ancient stone monuments found in Senegal and The Gambia.

“Stories passed down the generations claim that the stones were put in place by the gods at the very dawn of time. Other legends suggest they are the gravestones of an ancient race of giants or chiefs and that a curse will fall on anyone who dares disturb them…” pg 76, ebook.

I had never heard anything about these circles, despite taking a class in ritual and religion in prehistory from Oxford. I am also fairly well-read in world mythologies yet there were surprises on almost every page.

Highly recommended for travelers, armchair or otherwise, who are seeking destinations of mystical significance or anyone who wants to learn about legends from around the world. The only trouble that may be encountered for the mystical tourist is the remoteness of some of the locations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited may change or be omitted entirely from the final version, which I believe is slated to be published tomorrow.

Geek Ink: The World’s Smartest Tattoos for Rebels, Nerds, Scientists, and Intellectuals by Emanuele Pagani

Geek Ink is a fairly representative book of “geek” culture tattoos with brief biographies of some of the tattoo artists.

I have to say though, there were far more Star Wars ideas in here than Star Trek. In that particular showdown, the Trekkies were not representing. I know there are major fans of the Star Trek franchise out there… where are you guys?! Not getting tattoos, I guess.

I was also disappointed in their collection of literary tattoos. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Little Prince were there, of course. There were a few science fiction themes. But nothing from other beloved classics like Where the Wild Things Are, or poetry, or various mythologies beyond a few generic-looking fairy tale castles.

Are book readers not into tattoos? This one is. 🙂 I was particularly drawn to the hyper-realistic tats of plants and animals.

Recommended for people looking for tattoo ideas or who appreciate gorgeous body art. Despite my quibbles, this is a beautiful book created by incredibly talented artists, and which would look great on your coffee table.

Thanks for reading!

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God and His Cult in Europe by Nigel Jackson

My mind has been going in circles as I’ve pondered, for days, how to review this book. It is a poorly organized and bewildering publication that could be tremendously important for pagans or religious scholars who are looking for information about The Horned God.

“The Knell of Inbetweenness hath been struck,
The Bell of MISRULE soundeth;
Reverberating the Thirteen Angles,
Echoing through the Nine Spheres”

It begins with a foreword by Michael Howard speaking of the scarcity of information about a male god within the existing neo-pagan revival movement. Then, the author, Nigel Jackson, goes into what could almost be called a tirade against established religions and the current neo-pagan movement in a chapter entitled, “In the Sign of the Horns.”

“The old time is passed away and the ‘age between the ages’ is begun: the Aionic Twilight falleth over the world and the day of the cross and the mitre is wholly done with.” pg 11

Honestly, that type of tribalism and fear-mongering is a poor look for any type of spiritual movement. Why immediately alienate readers from other spiritual paths who are coming to your materials with an open mind and a willingness to learn?

Photo by Vladyslav Dushenkovskyi on Pexels.com

Despite his initial hostility, Nigel Jackson quickly turns his attention to what he believes are different aspects of a male pagan god, throughout history, and includes various rituals to invoke this ancient being.

As I mentioned earlier, it is a bewildering hodge-podge of material with only the thinnest of connecting threads between. Newcomers to occult matters or pagan practices may lose their way within the quickly shifting time periods, places, names and associated mythologies.

However, I found information in “Chapter Three: Cycles of the Midnight Hunt” and “Chapter Seven: Wudewasa, the Knowledge of the Green Man” that was completely new to me and interesting.

“It was held that when nocturnal thunder broke over the wildwood and the forked lightning-flash clove the darkness and the night-tempest roared and tossed the boughs, that the wild host of Woodwoses came forth in primal panoply, raging through the hoary oaks and pines, their eldritch voices mingling with the storm’s tumult.” pg 107

The printing of Masks of Misrule is a travesty for any lover of books. The font is irregular and fades, seemingly at random, within the text. The cover is ridiculous and does nothing to convey the seriousness with which the author treats his subject.

But if you set all of these concerns aside, some of the mythology contained within this book is entirely original, at least to me, and could be incredibly useful for seekers who are looking for a new movement within paganism that celebrates the male side of nature.

Thanks for reading!

Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers by Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Danny Pellegrino

I’m not a reality tv watcher. I have no idea what show these two are from, but I’m not going to let that keep me from giving credit where credit is due.

These folks know how to make a seriously fancy cocktail.

The sections of this book of drink recipes are divided into “classy,” “trashy,” “shots,” and “recovery,” which aren’t all that useful when it comes to drink classifications, but plays right into their reality show vibe.

The index at the back of the book that divides each cocktail by the spirit used in it is far more helpful and appealed to the librarian in me.

Brief autobiographical stories and recollections from the authors are included on nearly every page.

I imagine readers who have enjoyed the television show the authors feature on may enjoy it more, but I do enjoy a tell-all memoir. Of course it depends on who it’s about, but for some starlets or rock stars, I consider the tell-all memoir to be the book equivalent of mindless reality television.

The photography of Fancy AF Cocktails is a work of art. The authors are, in fact, quite fancy but the real stars of this book show are the drinks. I suggest page 95, “Salty New Yorker,” with its garnish of a caramel chocolate as exhibit one, closely followed by page 59, “Alchemy Rose,” and the hearts etched into its foam as exhibit two.

Highly recommended for readers looking to up their cocktail A-game. Thanks for reading!

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel

“A clearly defined medieval book has a unique personality, and part of what we have been doing in our visits to collections has been to engage with manuscripts as individuals and to discover what they can tell us, which can be learned from nowhere else.” pg 569

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is more than a scholarly look at medieval manuscripts. It is a book for anyone who appreciates the intersection of art, history, politics, religion, and the rediscovery of forgotten things.

Readers learn about the tremendous amount of materials and effort that went into creating the manuscripts as well as why they were created, and for whom. These details are incredibly revealing.

“The 1,030 leaves of the Codex Amiatinus would have utilized skins of 515 calves or young cattle.” pg 82

Christopher de Hamel attempts to trace the history of the books from their creation to the present. He visits libraries and museums across the world, relating stories of gorgeous buildings and caretakers both cautious and casual.

“The Book of Kells is so precious and so immediately recognizable that Bernard explained that it would be inappropriate to allow it into the reading-room.” pg 102

De Hamel has chosen twelve books from different centuries. As the reader progresses through time, the development of binding techniques, art, layout styles and more unfolds before her eyes. It is like viewing a series of snapshots about humanity, revealed through manuscripts.

A majority of the books are about religion, others war, and still others are concerned with the movement of the stars through the sky. Curiously, at least to this modern reader, the books weren’t necessarily created for the purpose of reading.

“Gospel was a work of art. It was a sacred object and a tangible symbol of divinity, enclosed in a cumdach, for sanctifying a church, for carrying in processions, for swearing oaths, and for veneration. … Mere reading was secondary.” pg 128

My favorite part of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is the photo of the cover of each manuscript at the beginning of each chapter and the pictures of the pages scattered throughout the text.

“Those who meet famous people often remark afterwards how unexpectedly small the celebrated personage was in reality.” pg 17

This is a book that celebrates bibliophilia. The author lovingly describes what it feels like to handle the manuscripts, critiquing the art and admiring the meticulous calligraphy. He makes you feel like you were there too.

One small criticism, this is a dense read and though de Hamel does his utmost to make the topic accessible, occasionally it ventures into the niche, though fascinating, world of medieval manuscript scholarship. But he never veers too far from the path.

Highly recommended for book lovers everywhere. If you liked this book, you might also want to try Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World.

And thanks for reading!

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Tag: non fiction

The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & QiGong by Bill Douglas

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield

Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter, Amy Grimes

Geek Ink: The World’s Smartest Tattoos for Rebels, Nerds, Scientists, and Intellectuals by Emanuele Pagani

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God and His Cult in Europe by Nigel Jackson

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel

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