The Writing of Alan Watts

[rousseau]

A few days ago I picked up Watts' Tao: The Watercourse Way which was his last book. I'm enjoying it quite a bit and would definitely recommend it, he sheds quite a bit of light on Taoism which hadn't occurred to me before. I also own The Way of Zen but after a pretty thorough reading of D.T. Suzuki it's mostly redundant.

My question for others - have you found any of his other books worthwhile or interesting?

 

[Elixir]

I met him back in late sixties when I was a teenager, and spend one memorable evening talking to him and his friend Tim Leary in a professor's house in Berkeley. Left me with considerable admiration for his intelligence and insights, but in retrospect, I have no idea exactly why I got that impression. (Leary, otoh reeked to me of fake humility, and seemed to bask in the fame he enjoyed at the time.)

 

[rousseau]

I met him back in late sixties when I was a teenager, and spend one memorable evening talking to him and his friend Tim Leary in a professor's house in Berkeley. Left me with considerable admiration for his intelligence and insights, but in retrospect, I have no idea exactly why I got that impression. (Leary, otoh reeked to me of fake humility, and seemed to bask in the fame he enjoyed at the time.)

I'm not surprised you got that impression from him (Watts). My only exposure is through the above two books, but I was surprised by The Watercourse Way, it's very good. Granted, it was his last title so he'd written a few before, but you can tell that he was pretty deep into, serious, and knowledgeable about the subject matter.