Book Tag

Beep! Beep!

It's like when a car's comin' at ya, and you jump kinda outta yer skin, only to realize you've got no reason to be afraid because you hear a familiar voice yell "It's me!"

{shakin'head'n'winkin'}

I've been avoiding bloggin', or staying awake or even thinking for that matter. Let's see how far this'll go towards snappin' me out of it. However that may be, I thank you Beep, for waking me up with this. Reading yours and the Atheist Jew's was a hekk of a lot better than goin' straight to the headlines today, and that's no lie.

Book Tagged

A book that changed my life

So I'm gonna skip past this one because I don't think that any have in any greater (or lesser for that matter) way than any other. The Childrens' Bible? Maybe... Yah... I'd burn a copy of it for personal satisfaction, but most emphatically not as a political statement. When I saw it in a moving box of Boo's, I wanted to take and throw it out the window. She saw me flinch and get that disgusted look on my face and asked "What?" I just smiled and said, "Oh nothin', m' kiddo. I used to love that book, but then found out that a lot of people still take a lot of it seriously, and that's a main reason people are so horrible to each other."

She replied, "I don't read it. [Someone] (I don't recall whom she said) gave it to me."

But I wished I coulda talked more about without remembering how bad some of that crap made me feel about myself when I was so young...

Maybe I'll go with Stranger in a Strange Land though. I've always felt like I could Grok his point, but am still not really sure. . .

Or Double Exposure: the Apprentice Adept collection of Piers Anthony's which the SciFi Book Club released. Come to think of it (and, perhaps most unfortunately) this may really help to account for my dualistic (not to too strongly suggest schizophrenic) approach to my existence.

So much for skippin' past this one...

A book I've read more than once

Since that was all of them until I was in my twenties, I'll instead note that I've read The Lord of the Rings more than any other book. Larry Niven's The Ringworld Engineers is a close second at 10 readings.

I occasionally hear that they're gonna make a movie or SciFi Channel series on the latter, and I totally hope they do. I've got to admit that, last fall and winter, I watched LotR at least 3 times all the way through, just trying to escape my own self-pity and disillusionment. Obviously it didn't help a helluvalot.

Umm.. After reading the trilogy again, that is...

A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island

I've been walking around for the last 10 minutes trying to decide on this one but too many answers come to mind. A lot of those are books which I've not yet read, but think could end up being the one.

OK. As my biggest problem is that I've overly high expectations of myself which are simply the root of all my evil self-contempt, I have to say; none.

I'd rather have a solidly built non-electric type-writer. I'm really quite good at maintenance, so've no fear the thing would deteriorate in the sub-tropical salty climate.

A book that made me laugh

Ahhhh! Here we go!

Tom Robbins is perhaps the funniest, most quixotic muthaf***in' author whom I have ever read! I don't know as I can pick one out that made me laugh the hardest but, since that's kinda the point of this meme-age, I'll flick back through memory lane and come up with . . .

Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. (This one was on the short list for that desert island deal as well, and I hafta admit that thinking of Robbins is what inspired the Type-writer bypass with which I answered that one.)

A book that made me cry

Though they've been many and grand, none pulled the heart-strings like Stranger in a Strange Land. Simple 'nuff.

A book that I wish had been written

The one which would've meant I had overcome my silly sacharine sentimentalism and gotten off my crying couch decades ago to write it.

A book I wish had never been written

I've really no answer for this one. Really.

A book I've been meaning to read

There're actually two which are on my Amazon Wishlist that I've put off getting for my own silly reasons. The End of Faith by Sam Harris and The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins.

Birhtday presents to myself shall they be.

A book I'm currently reading

Some of y'all more literary types will mayhaps might be a wee bit surprised, but I've never read Steinbeck. Didn't have to in school, so it never occurred to me.

I'm taking care of that right now with a collection from the Library of America called appropriately Steinback The Grapes of Wrath & Other Writings 1936 - 1941.

The writing is as engaging and realistic as that of any author I've read. The stories are dark ly themed though brightly written so as to not be overwhelming in their tragedy. I'm managing it in smaller doses than I generally do with fiction, though at longer stretches than is the case for my reading of most non-fiction.

This is very good stuff which I'm glad I am finally getting my brain around.


I wasn't feeling like taggin' anyone to continue the run of this memeage, but then started wondering what these 5 good folk might provide.

I'll not be particularly dissapointed if'n one of some of y'all don't do Tag. I would like to read them though, so if you done this one before, please send me a link to it as I must've missed it.

Adorable Girlfriend
Hipster Steve
Tonya
Kevin Wolf
Blueberry

There're literally dozens of others whom I would be curious to read, so please feel free to go for this one unrequested!

L8