Staring into space contemplating space and time? What a luxury- and a simple exercise - we so little afford ourselves. There's something so important about just being. I've never really got into Castaneda - like you, I felt irritated by him.

I recently read 'Underlands' by Robert McFarlane - he postulated about time in geological terms, from the burial mounds of England and caves deep in the limestone, records of the ages keep in the ice, the oilfields, the catacombs of Paris, apocalyptic seed banks, and so on. A really great read that set me contemplating a lot about the reaches of time and space, with both science and literature to enrichen it. I wish I could give you THAT to read on the beach, that is, when you have finished staring into the beautiful blue.