0
Book choices and playing tag
25 June 2005
I posted the original of the following on Ian Adams' East-End Blog. Adams is challenging readers to form a 'Collingwood Book Club'. He asked five people to respond to his categories (read below) and then send out the challenge to five others (tag). My tag-ees are: Rick Garner, Jim Collis, Councillor Rick Lloyd, Harold Wright and Dean Hollin. I have enhanced my original post somewhat:
Hmmm... books. Gawd you sure know how to catch this fly in your virtual paper...
Books I own: Several thousand. No exaggeration. We have bookshelves in almost every room, even the hallways (which present a serious challenge to any effort at home design and cleaning). I read several books at a time. People who don't read scare the stuffing outta me. What can people offer their children if they don't read to them? What can people talk about at social dinners if they don't read? How can people learn if they don't read? How can people make acute political, financial and moral judgments if they don't read? How can people even judge the artistic merit of any film if they haven't read the book first?
Last book I bought: Dozens. I buy books online by the carton. I bought five boxes of great books at a yard sale last month, mostly recent titles. Among the most recent books I've purchased - a guide to learning Egyptian hieroglyphs, a biography of Dr. Dee, a price guide to classic motorcycles, Corporate Nation, a book on scripting PHP, a book on evolution and paletontology, some Buddhist titles, a book about irregular verbs, Thackery's Vanity Fair, a bio of Ho Chi Minh... and many, many others. You can never own too many books.
Buying books is my greatest shopping pleasure (outside buying motorcycles) and my main personal indulgence in using what little personal income I have left.
Most recent books I read: This is a list always in flux. Sometimes I read a book from cover to cover. Other times I put it down and only return to it weeks or months later. At night when I go to bed I read parts of at least three books, sometimes half-a-dozen. I carry a book in my knapsack to read at work, in my car, in my laptop bag... I read a book if I have to wait in line at the bank, I read a book if I have to wait in a doctor's office, I read at every opportunity. But here's a partial list of the most recent:
William Taubman's biography of Nikita Khrushchev (very good - new material really sheds insight on the man - also read Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar), Dinty Moore's Accidental Buddhist (light and funny), Freeman's Closing of the Western Mind (religion versus intellectualism), Idres Shah: The Pleasantries of the Mullah Nasrudin (an oldie I've had for 30 years just rediscovered), William Saffire's No Uncertain Terms (I read all of his language columns when collected in books), Bawlf: The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake (part of my ongoing research into Elizabethan exploration and economy), Michael Moore: Dude Where's my Country? (everyone should read Moore, especially Americans) Coelho's The Alchemist (a modern fable, given to me in Spanish by my friend in Zihuatanejo, I have to admit I read the English version to be sure I understood it). There are several others, but that's all I can remember right now.
Mostly non-fiction with an emphasis on history and science. I don't read a lot of popular entertainment-only titles. They're okay - a bit like popcorn at the movies, sort of an accessory to the main reason you're there. I do enjoy reading Dickens, Fuentes, Marquez, Asturias, Dostoyevsky, the great writers when I have the time. I also read some science fiction because I like the escape. I used to read more thrillers and detective works, but not much any more. Perhaps it's because an increasing level of violence seems to have slipped by osmosis from TV into mass market fiction and it doesn't appeal to me.
What I'm reading now: Polyani: The Great Transformation, McCullough's bio of John Adams, Mick Walker's Royal Enfield: The Complete Story (a bit of self-indulgence since I just got an Enfield...), PG Wodehouse: The Second Jeeves Omnibus (Wodehouse is always a joy), Greenblatt: Will in the World (How Shakespeare became Shakespeare), The Calendar by David Duncan, Richard Lederer, Crazy English, volume 8 of the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (been reading his 12-volume memoirs for a decade now), Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief (about the Gospel of Thomas and other Gnostic works), McLynn: Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (reread that is: just saw the movie), Millennium: The History of the Last 2,000 Years (although it incorrectly dates the "millennium" as the year 2000), and a couple of science fiction novels, and teach-yourself Spanish books.
But at any time, I am prone to grabbing a book from any bookshelf, reading a chapter or two, then returning it to the shelf for later. Sometimes a reference in one book will lead me to another. With many non-fiction titles I may just read a chapter.
Plus I read all the documents on planning, development and whatever else council requires. Last week the council package was almost 200 pages. This week it's about 120.
Five books that mean a lot to me... Only five? Tough call. That's like asking which molecules of air were tastiest today. These come to mind now, but this list could change by the hour:
Last comment: On average Canadians watch 22 hours of TV a week: that's a full day out of every week wasted, sitting on a couch staring at a piece of furniture. Wake up, folks: watching TV isn't living. Get off the couch and go outside! At least try to spend some of that time reading - it will help exercise your brain while TV only puts it to sleep. TV has created a generation of brain-dead zombies whose critical choices in life are being made through the influence of sitcoms and commercials. How can people choose their leaders if they're only schooled on TV?
Today we must all be autodidacts, skeptical and suspicious ones at that. We cannot trust in corporate media to keep us informed, educated and aware of our choices. TV doesn't encourage critical thinking, analysis and comparison. Only reading will give us our freedom. Only reading will make us into informed consumers. TV is meant to enslave us. Read, damn it!
PS Mr. Adams: You should include a category for books readers thought were absolute dreck... coming to mind are The Hiram Code for example, or that masterpiece of inane puffery, The Celestine Prophecy, any novel by L. Ron Hubbard or any of Anne Coulter's pathetic efforts to prove she's capable of cobbling a sentence together in some form of coherent politcal thought (she isn't...), any of a thousand self-help titles and pop psycholgy tomes, most works on astrology, anything by creationists and other anti-intellectuals... even the DaVinci Code belongs here because the popularity that has driven it from a merely amusing bit of fiction to cult status...
Hmmm... books. Gawd you sure know how to catch this fly in your virtual paper...
Books I own: Several thousand. No exaggeration. We have bookshelves in almost every room, even the hallways (which present a serious challenge to any effort at home design and cleaning). I read several books at a time. People who don't read scare the stuffing outta me. What can people offer their children if they don't read to them? What can people talk about at social dinners if they don't read? How can people learn if they don't read? How can people make acute political, financial and moral judgments if they don't read? How can people even judge the artistic merit of any film if they haven't read the book first?
Last book I bought: Dozens. I buy books online by the carton. I bought five boxes of great books at a yard sale last month, mostly recent titles. Among the most recent books I've purchased - a guide to learning Egyptian hieroglyphs, a biography of Dr. Dee, a price guide to classic motorcycles, Corporate Nation, a book on scripting PHP, a book on evolution and paletontology, some Buddhist titles, a book about irregular verbs, Thackery's Vanity Fair, a bio of Ho Chi Minh... and many, many others. You can never own too many books.
Buying books is my greatest shopping pleasure (outside buying motorcycles) and my main personal indulgence in using what little personal income I have left.
Most recent books I read: This is a list always in flux. Sometimes I read a book from cover to cover. Other times I put it down and only return to it weeks or months later. At night when I go to bed I read parts of at least three books, sometimes half-a-dozen. I carry a book in my knapsack to read at work, in my car, in my laptop bag... I read a book if I have to wait in line at the bank, I read a book if I have to wait in a doctor's office, I read at every opportunity. But here's a partial list of the most recent:
William Taubman's biography of Nikita Khrushchev (very good - new material really sheds insight on the man - also read Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar), Dinty Moore's Accidental Buddhist (light and funny), Freeman's Closing of the Western Mind (religion versus intellectualism), Idres Shah: The Pleasantries of the Mullah Nasrudin (an oldie I've had for 30 years just rediscovered), William Saffire's No Uncertain Terms (I read all of his language columns when collected in books), Bawlf: The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake (part of my ongoing research into Elizabethan exploration and economy), Michael Moore: Dude Where's my Country? (everyone should read Moore, especially Americans) Coelho's The Alchemist (a modern fable, given to me in Spanish by my friend in Zihuatanejo, I have to admit I read the English version to be sure I understood it). There are several others, but that's all I can remember right now.
Mostly non-fiction with an emphasis on history and science. I don't read a lot of popular entertainment-only titles. They're okay - a bit like popcorn at the movies, sort of an accessory to the main reason you're there. I do enjoy reading Dickens, Fuentes, Marquez, Asturias, Dostoyevsky, the great writers when I have the time. I also read some science fiction because I like the escape. I used to read more thrillers and detective works, but not much any more. Perhaps it's because an increasing level of violence seems to have slipped by osmosis from TV into mass market fiction and it doesn't appeal to me.
What I'm reading now: Polyani: The Great Transformation, McCullough's bio of John Adams, Mick Walker's Royal Enfield: The Complete Story (a bit of self-indulgence since I just got an Enfield...), PG Wodehouse: The Second Jeeves Omnibus (Wodehouse is always a joy), Greenblatt: Will in the World (How Shakespeare became Shakespeare), The Calendar by David Duncan, Richard Lederer, Crazy English, volume 8 of the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (been reading his 12-volume memoirs for a decade now), Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief (about the Gospel of Thomas and other Gnostic works), McLynn: Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (reread that is: just saw the movie), Millennium: The History of the Last 2,000 Years (although it incorrectly dates the "millennium" as the year 2000), and a couple of science fiction novels, and teach-yourself Spanish books.
But at any time, I am prone to grabbing a book from any bookshelf, reading a chapter or two, then returning it to the shelf for later. Sometimes a reference in one book will lead me to another. With many non-fiction titles I may just read a chapter.
Plus I read all the documents on planning, development and whatever else council requires. Last week the council package was almost 200 pages. This week it's about 120.
Five books that mean a lot to me... Only five? Tough call. That's like asking which molecules of air were tastiest today. These come to mind now, but this list could change by the hour:
- * First: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Absolutely could not survive on a desert island without Shakespeare. Every home should have at least one copy.
* Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps. Have given away a dozen copies. Still have the very first one I received in 1968 and it continues to make me sit up and wonder.
* The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Every writer worth his/her salt should read it at least once a year. Given away a few of these, too.
* The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Very inspirational.
* Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. A defining book in Jungian psychology, one that helps me understand the mechanisms of writing, fiction, movies and daily life.
Last comment: On average Canadians watch 22 hours of TV a week: that's a full day out of every week wasted, sitting on a couch staring at a piece of furniture. Wake up, folks: watching TV isn't living. Get off the couch and go outside! At least try to spend some of that time reading - it will help exercise your brain while TV only puts it to sleep. TV has created a generation of brain-dead zombies whose critical choices in life are being made through the influence of sitcoms and commercials. How can people choose their leaders if they're only schooled on TV?
Today we must all be autodidacts, skeptical and suspicious ones at that. We cannot trust in corporate media to keep us informed, educated and aware of our choices. TV doesn't encourage critical thinking, analysis and comparison. Only reading will give us our freedom. Only reading will make us into informed consumers. TV is meant to enslave us. Read, damn it!
PS Mr. Adams: You should include a category for books readers thought were absolute dreck... coming to mind are The Hiram Code for example, or that masterpiece of inane puffery, The Celestine Prophecy, any novel by L. Ron Hubbard or any of Anne Coulter's pathetic efforts to prove she's capable of cobbling a sentence together in some form of coherent politcal thought (she isn't...), any of a thousand self-help titles and pop psycholgy tomes, most works on astrology, anything by creationists and other anti-intellectuals... even the DaVinci Code belongs here because the popularity that has driven it from a merely amusing bit of fiction to cult status...
