August Reads

You guys, the month of August was kind of a bust for reading. I did pretty decent in July, but August was not quite as lucrative.

There are definitely a few reasons that contributed to this. First of all, I went back to work, after a glorious two months off. Work has a way of cutting into my reading time and I need to get back into a groove with my schedule. The second reason is much of my free reading time was spent doing required reading and assignments for my yoga teacher training, which ended at the end of August.

And one final excuse reason why I did not read as much as I would have liked to, is much of the month was spent reading the 1,000+ pages of Clash of Kings.

 This book was SO hard for me to get through. I talked a little bit about this before, and I think I ruined this series for myself by first watching the series and then trying to read all the books.

The books move pretty slow and have so much more detail. It was nice to get more thorough descriptions, but I was bored most of the time, especially because I, more or less, knew what was coming.

I am still thinking of reading book three, so I can get to the much anticipated books 4 or 5 (which have not been featured in the TV series yet). However, I needed to take a break from the series and give myself time before I decide to delve into the next book.

The only other book I read was Jivamukti Yoga by Sharon Gannon & David Life.

 This book was…interesting. Sharon & David take a more traditional approach to yoga and a stricter interpretation of ancient texts. They are unapologetic about their uncompromising standpoints, some of which include a focus on the spiritual aspects in yoga (there was a heavy emphasis on this), non-violent living which includes a vegan lifestyle and living a life that is much more mindful and examined in light of ancient texts.

I genuinely enjoyed the book and agreed with many of it’s standpoints. Although the writing style was somewhat disorganized and flowed in a stream of consciousness wave, I appreciated the more traditional approach to yoga.

However, I feel this book could feel alienating and condescending to some. I would not recommend it to anyone as an introduction to yoga. One should keep in mind that this is only a small portion of what yoga represents and readers should get other viewpoints for a more comprehensive overview.

Those were all two of the books I read for the month. I am currently re-reading The Fault in Our Stars.

I needed a break from A Song of Fire & Ice Series and from all the yoga readings. I feeling a bit uninspired and nothing in my massive to-read pile is appealing to me (first world problems, at their finest!).

Any reading suggestions?