Book meme
For those of you who don't read blogs all day:
the "book meme" is essentially a blog chain letter, propagated around the
blogosphere. I usually detest chain letters, but this one is
fun.
I was tagged by Shari at An Old Soul. From her answer, I learned that we both read cookbooks for fun. I will sometimes stretch a bowl of Cheerios for fifteen minutes as I moon over the pictures in The French Laundry Cookbook.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I was tagged by Shari at An Old Soul. From her answer, I learned that we both read cookbooks for fun. I will sometimes stretch a bowl of Cheerios for fifteen minutes as I moon over the pictures in The French Laundry Cookbook.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
1. You’re stuck inside
Fahrenheit
451. Which book do you want to be?
The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. It's a damn fine read, in case you've never picked it up. Allow me to make a somewhat stronger statement: Do you believe in evolution by natural selection? If so, do you know why?
If I was going to be burned for being the book that I was, I'd want to be burned for being this book.
2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I read The Fountainhead for the first time when I was in my early teens, and then Atlas Shrugged. I had crushes on Dominique Francon and Dagny Taggart for several years, until I actually started talking to women, and realized that neither of those two characters were meaningfully human.
3. The last book you bought is?
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was the third or fourth copy of the book I'd bought, as a gift. I picked it up the first time because of the title. The premise of the book is alternative history: Suppose that instead of killing 1 in 3 people in Europe, the Black Death had killed everyone, and that human history had evolved without Europe. At a time when China is ascendant and the West is trying to figure out how to coexist with Islam, it's an amazingly timely novel.
4. What are you currently reading?
I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is a touching story written from the perspective of an autistic boy who finds a murdered dog. I have no idea to what extent it's an authentic depiction of the internal state of an autistic person -- this may well be unknowable. Nonetheless, I like stories about autistic people for another reason: they allow us to talk about our own feelings of isolation in the world, and the difficulties of forming connections with others, in a distilled way.
5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?
The primatologist Robert Yerkes said, "One chimpanzee is no chimpanzee." I've never liked my chances for staying sane for very long if I were marooned with no hope of rescue, and it seems silly to think about what books or CDs I'd take with me to rip into little pieces while I slowly unraveled.
That qualification aside, or assuming that I was just planning on being there for a year or so:
1. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel — it's about a castaway.
2. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, by Stephen Jay Gould — I swore that someday I would finish this book.
3. Gödel, Escher, Bach by Doug Hofstadter — ditto. This was a book I pulled off of my father's shelf when I was far too young. It was full of wonders. Over the years I have gone back to it and paged through it and taken in little bits of it at a time, but I have always wanted to go back and go through it all at once and really understand what he was on about.
4. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco — because it's beautiful and rich
5. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver — because it makes me sad, but in a good way, and the women in the book seem very real despite the hallucinatory African terrain through which they're struggling.
I think it's interesting that not a single one of these books is about politics or liberalism.
6. Who are you going to pass this (questionnaire) to and why?
I got tagged by a fellow blogger so I'll use this opportunity to shout-out to a few bloggers I read and respect who haven't been tagged yet (as far as I know):
Jeremy at Dropping the Gloves and Loyal/Opposition
Andy at Liberal Agit-Prop
The author of PovertyBarn, whose name I don't know (UPDATE: It's Catherine)
Jan at happening-here?
Chuck at To Be Determined
The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. It's a damn fine read, in case you've never picked it up. Allow me to make a somewhat stronger statement: Do you believe in evolution by natural selection? If so, do you know why?
If I was going to be burned for being the book that I was, I'd want to be burned for being this book.
2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I read The Fountainhead for the first time when I was in my early teens, and then Atlas Shrugged. I had crushes on Dominique Francon and Dagny Taggart for several years, until I actually started talking to women, and realized that neither of those two characters were meaningfully human.
3. The last book you bought is?
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was the third or fourth copy of the book I'd bought, as a gift. I picked it up the first time because of the title. The premise of the book is alternative history: Suppose that instead of killing 1 in 3 people in Europe, the Black Death had killed everyone, and that human history had evolved without Europe. At a time when China is ascendant and the West is trying to figure out how to coexist with Islam, it's an amazingly timely novel.
4. What are you currently reading?
I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is a touching story written from the perspective of an autistic boy who finds a murdered dog. I have no idea to what extent it's an authentic depiction of the internal state of an autistic person -- this may well be unknowable. Nonetheless, I like stories about autistic people for another reason: they allow us to talk about our own feelings of isolation in the world, and the difficulties of forming connections with others, in a distilled way.
5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?
The primatologist Robert Yerkes said, "One chimpanzee is no chimpanzee." I've never liked my chances for staying sane for very long if I were marooned with no hope of rescue, and it seems silly to think about what books or CDs I'd take with me to rip into little pieces while I slowly unraveled.
That qualification aside, or assuming that I was just planning on being there for a year or so:
1. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel — it's about a castaway.
2. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, by Stephen Jay Gould — I swore that someday I would finish this book.
3. Gödel, Escher, Bach by Doug Hofstadter — ditto. This was a book I pulled off of my father's shelf when I was far too young. It was full of wonders. Over the years I have gone back to it and paged through it and taken in little bits of it at a time, but I have always wanted to go back and go through it all at once and really understand what he was on about.
4. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco — because it's beautiful and rich
5. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver — because it makes me sad, but in a good way, and the women in the book seem very real despite the hallucinatory African terrain through which they're struggling.
I think it's interesting that not a single one of these books is about politics or liberalism.
6. Who are you going to pass this (questionnaire) to and why?
I got tagged by a fellow blogger so I'll use this opportunity to shout-out to a few bloggers I read and respect who haven't been tagged yet (as far as I know):
Jeremy at Dropping the Gloves and Loyal/Opposition
Andy at Liberal Agit-Prop
The author of PovertyBarn, whose name I don't know (UPDATE: It's Catherine)
Jan at happening-here?
Chuck at To Be Determined
Posted: Fri - April 22, 2005 at 02:50 PM | Category: | | | |
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Published On: Jul 23, 2006 02:49 PM
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Published On: Jul 23, 2006 02:49 PM
