Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

Just finished my first Norwegian novel in probably 20 or 30 years and it was a good one! I gave Jo Nesbø's The Bat four and a half stars in my Goodreads review. It's the first in the author's crime series about detective Harry Hole (pronounced 'Holy', as the main character makes a big point of in the very first pages - nobody's going to associate him with a hairy hole if he has anything to say about it) and I will continue reading and hopefully get through most of them before the Netflix series drop in late March.

This was a detour from my planned excursion with Geralt of Rivia and unfortunately for everyone's favourite Witcher, he'll have to wait even longer as my next read will be Freida McFadden's The Housemaid; my enjoyment of which will determine if I go and see the Amanda Seyfreid/Sidney Sweeney movie when it arrives in theatres in two weeks' time. Sorry, Geralt.

And with that I want to wish all my fellow readers here a very happy new year; may you all find joy and fulfilment both on and off the page in the coming year!

@MightyDemon82 Thanks and I will. I'm not sure why Harry Potter is, I just noticed the set was missing. I only have about three hundred books here so it's easy to know if anything was shifted about. It's either because of gender, sexuality, propaganda or witchcraft. Religion became a weapon too, certain conflicts are seen now as holy wars. It's ultra-patriotism, a kind of return to Imperial times. If something is passed or restricted my Mum is one of the first people to follow through. She wants me to be a patriot, so I pretend to be, when books are taken that's when it's harder to hide it. Do you remember when the invasion began and school children formed the letter Z, it's the same mentality. It's deeply symbolic and I use it to hide my true feelings about the situation, the snow, doodles, wherever, people back off. It's everywhere here, cars, billboards, vehicles, people wear it, they think it symbolizes victory and strong patriotism. My military fatigues for shooting practice even has it, I didn't notice until we were gearing up to go out today and sure enough someone put one on there. I didn't say anything, shooting is therapeutic, I needed to release some of that tension and it worked. I'll put the same symbol on some paper when I get back to England and tear them up or burn them, to tip the scales.

I'm sure more books were taken but I don't know which, maybe H.P. Lovecraft, it looked like Grimoire also some cringey books like witchcraft for teens, early stuff. I think my dream catchers are gone too, probably some crystals, I had a Victorian seance table, I can't find that either and that was beautiful. She never found any of my Spirit boards, those are antiques. The trappings of Occultism of course. I'm told there will be new bans on witchcraft and mysticism this coming year, so for example I collect books, tarot decks and such but they are all in England. If I wanted to buy them here it might be a struggle. If someone were to advertise those services they might be arrested or worse. We probably have no esoteric bookstores here anymore, maybe some stalls.

I was never New Age, I always focused on the actual mechanics and ceremony, but now that too is about to get banned. Mysticism is a 'threat' to our values and standards, that's what I was told a couple of days ago. It made a comeback, now they want it gone. I was reading a book by Gerald Schueler yesterday, Egyptian Light Magic, it follows the traditions of the original Golden Dawn teachings. It's very tame and talks about the Divine spark between man and woman, it's more a meditative peaceful approach. I had to speed through and then hide it. I spent maybe a day going through my things here and hiding different books or putting them aside for when I go back to England. I think burning a book is unethical even if you don't believe in it's contents. I half expect them to draft a new Malleus Maleficarum and reestablish the witch hunts of the fourteen hundreds.

I've performed six acts of terrorism already this week and it's only half way through the week. It's ironic because I learned Tarot through my Mum's side of the Family, I was given my first deck at maybe age eight. Now because the church wants a return to Tsarist times it's bad, divination just like astrology are both threats to that same morality. Chechnya did something similar a couple of years ago, also under religious grounds but we're not a Muslim country. I learned palm reading too, I believe that's illegal now too. There are something like thirty maybe forty mystical professions that have either been restricted or banned. There are maybe two hundred or three hundred banned titles now, even Plato. If tomorrow peace was declared many of these new laws and standards would stay, conflict was the catalyst for change. The kind of change that was always waiting in the wings, I know because it's how I was raised. Marcus Aurelius isn't currently banned but Meditations was in Soviet times, like everything else now I say give it time.

I don't mean to be a broken clock, it's just really crazy here. When I first moved to England I thought they were dystopian because no one had guns, people drove slowly, all of the things that I thought were normal weren't. Now after living there for a time my loyalty is being questioned, as in I lost my morals to Western thinking. I don't see how when I rarely even leave my home and I've never even had a Western friend, except online. I don't think my morals changed at all, it's more like a paranoia. I talk on here but no where else and I've read books every day since I was maybe six years old. Oh that's another one, Akira, I had an art-book it's gone. I think Anime or Manga is extremist now too, I'm not sure what difference between that two are, it was only a book of art and concept designs.

I've only been here about two weeks and already I can feel propaganda and disinformation instill a kind of confusion, it's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. If it wasn't for reading random posts on here and my friends on other networks I'd probably have cracked already. It's a reminder that there is a rest of the world and that they aren't crazy, or at least their crazy isn't harmful.