Barbara Ann Kipfer
Author of 14,000 Things to Be Happy About
About the Author
Barbara Ann Kipfer is an archaeologist, lexicographer, hiker, former sportswriter, and author of more than 65 books and calendars.
Works by Barbara Ann Kipfer
Phraseology: Thousands of Bizarre Origins, Unexpected Connections, and Fascinating Facts about English's Best… (2008) 148 copies
Roget's International Thesaurus, 8th Edition [thumb indexed] (Roget's International Thesaurus Indexed Edition) (2019) 88 copies
Self-Meditation 3,299 Tips, Quotes, Reminders, and Wake-Up Calls for Peace and Serenity (2013) 78 copies
Trivia Lovers' Lists of Nearly Everything in the Universe: 50,000 Big & Little Things Organized by Type and Kind (2006) 29 copies
What Would Buddha Say?: 1,501 Right-Speech Teachings for Communicating Mindfully (The New Harbinger Following Buddha… (2015) 18 copies
How Would Buddha Think?: 1,501 Right-Intention Teachings for Cultivating a Peaceful Mind (The New Harbinger Following… (2016) 12 copies
How Would Buddha Act?: 801 Right-Action Teachings for Living with Awareness and Intention (The New Harbinger Following… (2016) 10 copies
American Slang 4e 7 copies
Roget's International Thesaurus 2 copies
by Barbara Ann Kipfer Roget's International Thesaurus, 6th Edition (text only)6th (Sixth) edition[Paperback]2002 (2002) 1 copy
It's Good to Talk 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1954
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Education
- University of Exeter
University of Greenwich
Valparaiso University
Members
Reviews
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 60
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 3,170
- Popularity
- #8,056
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 60
- ISBNs
- 122
- Languages
- 6
- Favorited
- 1
I don't know why I keep trying meditation books because I can never still my mind enough to meditate. Nevertheless, sometimes I do think it wouldn't hurt to try and slow down a little, and some guided meditations can at least help.
This book, however, was not that. It jumped from topic to topic to topic, ending up being far more stream of conscious than I myself usually am when listening to an audiobook. Some topics would be revisited at other points, so I'm not sure why the various threads weren't tied together in one place. Other topics felt like sidebars (and perhaps they were in the print version) and therefore were just random thoughts there and then gone again. Literally, there's a minute about Zen gardens followed by 30 seconds about how neat it is that bananas come in their own handy package. Huh? What does that have to do with anything?
Also, when I do seek out meditation books, I usually go for those that are generally secular. This one made no mention of being anything but secular (in fact, the "through nature" part made me think it would be more secular than most), but it is very clearly rooted in Buddhism. That's not a bad thing per se for some readers, but it wasn't what I was seeking. There's also mentions of other religious traditions including Hinduism and Jainism at various points.
In general, it was just a little too "woo-woo" for my tastes. For instance, at one point the author mentions sitting down to your meal and asking the food to nourish you. Sorry, but no amount of pleading will make McDonald's nourish you; meanwhile, healthy meals will be beneficial whether you talk to the food or not. Earlier the author mentioned being mindful before eating a meal and thinking about all the steps that went into getting the food before you. This seems more reasonable to me, but as mentioned above, these two thoughts are nowhere near each other but thrown out hours apart from one another seemingly as asides. It's like there's no time to actually slow down and focus with this book, which is very much the opposite of meditation.
Some of the advice the author gives seems useful but also kind of obvious. For instance, she says that even when you are busy and stuck indoors, take a few minutes to yourself to look outside and observe nature. And at another time, she advises parking further away from your destination when shopping or doing other errands so you can walk across the parking lot and use that for a few meditative moments. These are helpful hints, but not exactly groundbreaking.
Other times, her advice was so bizarre that I found myself literally talking aloud to the book due to its absurdity. For example, at one point she says to let go of the idea of your car being clean because it rains every time you go to the car wash anyway so you might as well not have that stress on you. What? I've had my car for 16 years and never brought it to a car wash ever, but when I think about the things that cause me stress, that isn't even on the list at all. It was such a strange thing to say.
Also, as you may have noticed from some of these examples, very little of this book has much to do about nature anyway. All in all, it was a weird experience to listen to a book supposedly about natural meditation that was instead just jumping around in this author's random thoughts about literally everything she could think of from laundry detergent to candles and more. I don't even necessarily disagree with many of her beliefs, but she spent more time talking about being environmentally conscious, eating less meat and processed food, and so on than talking about how to meditate and/or providing meditative guidance.
On the plus side, the audiobook narrator did have the perfect soothing voice to put the reader at ease without lulling them into sleep. Too bad she didn't have a better book to read that might have actually been beneficial.… (more)