Joseph Campbell - Religion, Mythology
An important work whose influence on the Star Wars saga is somewhat legendary. It's actually quite hard-going as Campbell attempts to tie disparate religious beliefs into a cohesive whole, but often only manages a joycian stream of consciousness which is hard to follow. That said, it's a fascinating look at the hero myth throughout history and definitely worth reading. I understand that a derivitive work, The Writer's Journey, is a better reference for writers. Recommended
Maurice Cotterell - Alternative History
I freely admit that I read a lot of rubbish and sometimes I even find it convincing, but this is one of the biggest pieces of crap I've ever read. To give it credit, I could barely manage to get past the first chapter, so it could be the greatest archaeological masterpiece of its time, but somehow I doubt it.
This guy shows how Mayan designs can be photocopied onto acetate and laid over one another to produce "coded messages". Talk about lateral thinking - did the Mayans actually have acetate, do you think? Or did was the prophecy that humans of the future would have acetate so they kindly coded our salvation into stone, knowing that we'd understand what to do with it.
And what does this have to do with the prophecy that "shook the Freemasons", you might ask? Who knows - it was enough of a struggle to get past the Mayans and their secret overhead projectors. Don't bother
Hey, don't laugh! Not being a native, I don't have the familiarity with this guy that the British do. I've already suffered the taunts of admitting that I'm reading this - but I think maybe the guy is under-rated. No, seriously - listen. Don't back away from me!
I actually enjoyed reading this. Icke has an informal, almost wry style and it's easy to fall worryingly close to agreeing with some of his conclusions. He does a fantastic job of weaving together mythologies from around the world, and if you completely ignore his sources (who are equally, erm... eccentric), it all comes across faintly plausible.
And then he starts with the lizard people...
Here's the deal. There were these aliens, right? On Mars. But they came from Sirius and Orion. Anyway, there were 2 types, Nordics and Lizards. The aliens in the X-Files are actually Lizard people in space suits and the Nordics were the giants of old. The Nordics and the lizard people bred to create a race of superhumans that control humankind. They're the Illuminati and the Catholic Church and the banks. And George Bush. And the Queen. And your boss. But not Princess Diana. She was ritually murdered by the lizard people.
I think...
Ian Wilson - History
The subtitle for this book is "dramatic new evidence that the Biblical flood was a real-life event" which is, frankly, a little over-dramatic. In actuality, this is a well-researched look at a variety of evidence for large scale flooding of the Black Sea regions when the Mediterranean broke through the Bosporus Strait 7500 years ago. Wilson also examines Catal Huyuk and other Turkish archaeological sites for evidence that this region is the actual location of the Garden of Eden.