We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?

"Goblin Market" can be found in its entirety here: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/gobmarket.html 

I'm quite fond of it. After reading it, I feel compelled to pull out some of Brian Froud's Faerie books, or to go watch Labyrinth. I picked up a few books on fairies while in London, notably Katherine Briggs' The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, and Scottish Fairy Belief, whose authors' names escape me at the moment. I haven't really got down to read them though. Am I doomed to a fate of constantly buying books on faerie folklore and never finding time to actually read them cover to cover?

Other books I'm reading of late:

Generation Hex, edited by Jason Louv. Although its categorization as occultism/popular culture made me nervous, and I still haven't forgiven the Disinformation Company for publishing a book by Fiona Horne, I really am in love with some of the essays in this book. It's chaos magic for the most part, which is something that has only interested me recently. But there's some new and original thoughts on magic here, not just the same old crap in new boxes.

Rebels and Devils: The Psychology of Liberation, edited by Christopher S. Hyatt. I bought it because there was a snake on the cover, ha ha. It's... looking better now that I've gotten into it a bit more. The intro by Hyatt was off-putting, but I kept going, 'cause when you buy books of essays, you have to sample all of them. Good stuff by William Burroughs and Aleister Crowley.

Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich. What freaky birds. I've actually seen a raven or two hanging around my property recently. The crows hate it, and have declared war.

Drugs of the Dreaming: Oneirogens, Salvia divinorum, and Other Dream-Enhancing Plants by Gianluca Toro and Benjamin Thomas. Amazon lied to me. I actually thought this book was written by Jonathan Ott. And I was hoping for better info on the Salvia, such as how to keep them alive after you've damaged them by screwing up their humidity levels. I'll just have to ask erowid.

Just finished A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness by V. S. Ramachandran and Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel Aldcroft Jackson. I do love Jackson. He seems to be more spiritually than historically accurate. His books are keys to rather odd and distubing and completely worthwhile doors.

***

Replanted the Mandrakes, and more Henbane. The Belladonna's alright, but the Bittersweet in the tree is luscious. I'm going out to take pictures of it and the Foxglove. I'm a plant geek. And a book geek. Maybe I'm... just a geek. Probably. :)

Cheers