left biblioblography: TAG, I’M IT! NO, I’M NOT WILDLIFE, NOR DO I USE A BODY SPRAY…

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

TAG, I’M IT! NO, I’M NOT WILDLIFE, NOR DO I USE A BODY SPRAY…

My dear friend Stardust has tagged me with a book-reading meme. We’re both avid readers (mine stems from doing very poorly in school in my teenage years, ergo, I was ‘grounded for life until further notice’, so I had to fill in the hours SOMEHOW).

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m somewhat of a ‘scattered’ reader. I tend to jump from one title to another, much like water on an old-fashioned hot grill, so bear with me here.

  1. A book that changed your life
Out of all of them, this is perhaps the strangest: Chinese boxing, Masters and Methods by Robert W. Smith. If I hadn’t read this back in the late 70’s, I’d not have learned about Tai Chi, which subsequently led me to quit doing drugs altogether, and the practice thereof has given me some peace of mind, a hobby, and an alternative income when I fall on hard times. Oh, and Paine’s Age of Reason. That bad boy rang my bell big time.

2. A book you’ve read more than once
Aye caramba! I mean there’s just been so many of these. I’ve re-read all my Harlan Ellison hardbounds and paperbacks multiple times, Donaldson’s trilogies, Tolkien’s trilogy, some graphic novels (Gaiman’s the Sandman series, Carey’s the Lucifer series), the bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Tai Chi classics, I have no idea where to begin on this one. Dick’s Valis. Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light. Most of Clive Barker’s earlier novels. I could fill a hundred pages on this one alone.

3. 1 book you’d want on a desert island
This is a toss up: How to survive anything, or the SAS survival guide.

4. 1 book that made you giddy
I don’t do giddy.

5. 1 book you wish that had been written
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Religion (hehehehe, that’s the best I can come up with).

6. 1 book that made you sob
Moby Dick. The passion, the strength. Sure, Melville digressed once too often (the chapter on the seaman lecturing the sharks was kinda silly), but wow! Truth is, I watched the recent release of it (with Patrick Stewart), and I wept at the end. Mostly out of envy: I wish I could write with such passion and vigor. Whenever I read Ellison’s Paladin of the Lost Hour, I always weep at the end.

7. 1 book you wish had never been written
Aye caramba! Again, there’s just been so many of these. Multiple religious tomes. Mein Kampf. The Politically Incorrect guide to Evolution. Mastering Witchcraft (that one goofed me up BIG TIME!). C.S Lewis’ marginally awful fantasies. Kinda like going to the dump, and picking the worst garbage. I’ll have to go with Lewis’ Mere Christianity, though, as I’m thoroughly fed up with that ‘objective morality’ crap that keeps cropping up.


8. 1 book you’re currently reading
Currently, I’m reading the Penultimate Truth by Phillip K. Dick. Not his best by far.

9. 1 book you’ve been meaning to read
There are a few of these. I can’t seem to wade through Doestoevsky’s works (I can only take so much angst, before the whining gets to me) – Dickens, Tolstoy. The big problem here is – I may have read all three of these guys (I kid you not – voracious is an understatement when it comes to reading – at one point in my life, I had a six-book-a-week habit).

Now I run off, and yell TAG! You’re it!My buddies, Frances the Magnificent, Aaron Kinney, Mojoey over at Deep Thoughts, Beep! Beep! It’s Me!, and Aviaa.

Addendum: As Beep! Beep! had already been tagged, I just tagged Future Geek.

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10 comments:

Krystalline Apostate said...
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Krystalline Apostate said...
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Stardust said...

I can’t seem to wade through Doestoevsky’s works (I can only take so much angst, before the whining gets to me)

I have a hard time with Doestoevsky's works, too. The characters are numerous and then there is that Russian thing with the several nicknames for the same character. Then all of these characters are coming and going, each character using all these various names. It all gets so hard to keep track of! One needs a notebook to keep lists of who is who and what is going on. The whining is the worst. My son bought me The Idiot a few years ago and I got a quarter of the way through it and had to give it up for my own sanity.

Krystalline Apostate said...

Stardust:
My son bought me The Idiot a few years ago and I got a quarter of the way through it and had to give it up for my own sanity.
I think a great alternative is Woody Allen's Love and Death. A lot of the main characters gaze off into the distance and start soliloquizing about wheat.
It's pretty funny.

beepbeepitsme said...

Thanks for thinking of me with the tag, but I have just recently been tagged by atheist jew for the same meme.

A Book! A Book! My Kingdom For A Book!
http://beepbeepitsme.blogspot.com/2006/09/book-book-my-kingdom-for-book.html

Aaron Kinney said...

Argh ye scurvy dog! I've been caught with my guard down and been tagged!

Fair enough. I will compile a list soon, and post it.

In all seriousness, this look like fun! The only problem is that Ive got lots of books to choose from. It will be a challenge to only select one book for each entry!

Thanks Ka! :)

Krystalline Apostate said...

BBIM:
Thanks for thinking of me with the tag, but I have just recently been tagged by atheist jew for the same meme.
Aye caramba. Is there a list of untagged folks for this thingamabob? I'd tag Loftus, but I don't know if he participates in this sort of thing.
Oh hey. I think I know someone.

Aaron:
Argh ye scurvy dog! I've been caught with my guard down and been tagged!
Hey, ain't my fault!...somebody started the thing. Where did this begin, anyways?
The only problem is that Ive got lots of books to choose from. It will be a challenge to only select one book for each entry!
Hey, I didn't quite play by the rules meself (when do I ever? Maybe the Renegade Atheist would've been a better monicker, ey?).
Still, Everyone's list thus far has been quite intriguing.

Will said...

ag! tagged! I'll have a post up by Saturday...

Aaron Kinney said...

I finally posted a reply!

http://goosetheantithesis.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-got-tagged-by-ka.html

Anonymous said...

Ok, I got mine up too. Sorry about the delay.

Deep Thoughts: TAG - a book meme got me

KA - I'm a big Ellison fan mayself!