Daoist History

FYI I'd skip the Tao of Pooh if you're trying to learn more about Taoism; it's more of a pop-culture, western philosophy inspired by eastern take then actual Daoism.

Otherwise, my recs are:

First find good translations of the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi. For the former I recommend Victor Mair or Thomas Cleary. For the latter, Brook Ziporyn.

There's also the Lieh-tzu, which is often considered to be "authored" by Laozi as well, though isn't talked about as much. I've only read AC Graham's translation but liked it well enough.

Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper is a fascinating look into Taiwanese Taoism. Kristofer was even ordained as a Taoist priest, one of the few Westerners to do so.

Early Daoist Scriptures by Stephen R. Bokenkamp is borderline a textbook but I found it gave a great historical understanding of how Taoism has developed through the ages.

Original Tao by Harold Roth is actually a translation and commentary of a text that pre-dates the TTC and was very interesting to me.

Taoist Meditation by Thomas Cleary is another neat collection of translations that cover a broad range of Taoist thought with decent of annotations to help you understand.

And finally, I'd recommend grabbing a copy of the I-Ching (I like David Hinton's translation) and some Taoist T'ang dynasty poets (Li Bo or Li Bai is a good one to start with) to round it all out. I've found that reading relevant poetry helps me put the philosophical stuff into a real-world context without falling into the trap of re-contextualizing it into Western culture.

You might check out Zhuangzi (1).

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou

FWIW decades ago I enjoyed "The Tao is Silent" by the late Raymond Smullyan.

Having just scanned for modern reviews I suggest the following link may be helpful--here is an excerpt of their conclusion : "...

All in all, The Tao Is Silent is an interesting book filled with Taoist and Zen wisdom pared down from a complex framework to meet the needs of a contemporary (nineteen-seventies) Western audience, and I can recommend it to people starting out with Taoism with the caveat that it’s aiming for a Western readership with all the guailo-fication that implies. -- Jacob Martin

https://jadecryptofwonders.com/blog/the-tao-is-silent-raymon...

:D does it make sense that this thing that can't be named can be captured in a book?

if it's not the intellectual stuff you're after, here's a shameless plug for my teacher. Her husband, now passed, was a monk who left China shortly before the cultural revolution and eventually settled in San Diego.

https://www.taoahnpai.com/

Study qi gong with an energy arts teacher. There are plenty in the Bay Area especially

Trying to find more books to read is a bit antithetical to the way.

I would try leaving your books and phone at home and go camping with not much planned or much to do.

Allan Watts recordings on YouTube are basically a good modern interpretation of the Tao imo.