Cooking the books

For the past two years, I've made a conscious decision not to listen to music whilst working. I did this because a) my walkman broke b) walkman's are awkward c) it allows me to try and stay in the present moment whilst working, and as working generally involves having a sore back and lifting a heavy bucket in stifling, the challene of staying present is exacerbated.

However, I have recently begun to listen to music again. I am doing this because work has slowed to a crawl, meaning the ol' monkey mind is going heall for leather with complaints, complaints and yet more complaints. Also, I got an mp3 player (officially the last person on earth to do so, and no, not an Ipod) and I wanted to try it out. I lasted a single day without using it, so I just gave in, on the proviso that I should try and do me some fancy book learning whilst I'm at it.

The books in question being, of course, audio books.

Here's a sample of what I've been listening to:

Zen mind, Beginner's mind.
Shambhala, sacred path of the warrior
David Icke: The Reptillian Agenda (Turns out the royal family are all space alien reptiles. Don't act like you're surprised. But seriously, this guy is a hoot. Ex professional goalkeeper for Coventry City, now a fully certified nutcase).
Ross Noble Goes Global
Stephen Hawking: The universe in a nutshell
Learn Spanish in your car
Giants of Philosophy: Schopenhauer

Listening to the Schopenhauer stuff has been great, but for the fact that they're read by Charlton Heston. Not that he has a bad voice or anything, it's just that I keep imagining the following: "Let us compare Schopenhauer's notion of idealism to his German contemporari...What's that? Get your paws off me YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!"

Also, any direct quotes are read out by a voice actor with a very cheesy German accent. WE GET THE POINT, Schopenhauer was German. He didn't however, speak in English with a dopey German accent. It's hard to mull over the pro's and con's over theory of the will to live when you have "We Germans are not all Flowers unt Sunshine" repeating ad infinitum in your head.