The games we play.
Jason at TheoSpora tagged me with this little book meme, and I have to confess that I experienced a brief moment of book-status anxiety. Having the library of my life on display makes me feel a little bit vulnerable. Is my nerdiness cool enough for those I wish to impress? Oh well, here goes:
1. Total number of books I've owned: Total, ever? Probably close to 250 in my adult life. I have around 150 with me right now. I love to buy books, but sometimes the library makes more financial sense.
2. Last book I bought: I just picked up Steinbeck’s East of Eden. He has always been one of my favorite novelists, but I’ve never gotten around to reading this one.
3. Last book I completed: It was Thomas Soule’s Applied Economics. Sounds exciting from the title, huh? My dad had been asking me to read it to give some context to our conversations about economic policy.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me: It was hard to pick just five. There are so many which have been immensely formational.
The five on this list have come from some of the different categories of my interests, and they are in no particular order:
1. Figuring the Sacred by Paul Ricoeur
2. A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry edited by Czeslaw Milsosz
3. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
4. Foe by J.M. Coetzee
5. Christianity Incorporated by Michael Budde and Robert Brimlow
The five on this list have come from some of the different categories of my interests, and they are in no particular order:
1. Figuring the Sacred by Paul Ricoeur
2. A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry edited by Czeslaw Milsosz
3. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
4. Foe by J.M. Coetzee
5. Christianity Incorporated by Michael Budde and Robert Brimlow
4b. What are you currently reading: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder.
5. Which 5 friends am I passing this on to? (If they are not too cool for memes. I’m obviously not.)
posted by Erin 10:45 PM
8 Comments:
Oh Dear. Should it worry me that I've still not read any of the books on your top five? I feel distant...sort of...some sort of literary gap between our two souls.
But hey. Spice of life, variety, and all that.
Thanks for the tag! I love to hear other people's book recommendations. I've heard several people mention Sophie's World and proclaim it brilliant - what do you think about it? That you read an economics book in order to ground your discussions with your dad - that practically brought tears to my eyes :-).
1. Total number of books I've owned: I had accumulated around 1600 before I started thinning out the collection when I got pregnant and needed a free room in the house. Now, I'm probably down to maybe 600-800.
2. Last book I bought: Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction From The Edge. Picked it up at a new remainders store that opened near my house.
3. Last book I completed: The Arabs by David Lamb. A collection of this journalist's essays, sometimes clearly written twenty years ago with updates tagged on to the ends. His voice was inconsistent, but it was interesting reading.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
The Year of Living Dangerously by C.J. Koch
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
e.e. cummings' Selected Poems
my paperback Oxford English Etymology Dictionary
4b. What are you currently reading: The Hadj - An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca, by Michael Wolfe.
Dot- well then get started with that reading. I know you have a lot of time to kill these days. Ha. Hey, I just checked out The Alphabet and the Goddess from the library. I am looking forward to actually reading the book that you've been talking about for so long.
Nancy- I like Sophie's World so far. Gaarder is clever about disguising a philosophy class in the form of a novel. I am learning quite a bit.
And thanks for the list! I always enjoy seeing what others are reading. You will be glad to know that I just finished watching The Year of Living Dangerously. I really enjoyed it. I'll have to send you an email about it when I have time.
I'm floored and honored by your request/meme that I might respond to these 5 questions. I appreciate your willingness to have me contribute so directly to your blog here.
1) Total Number: I'd have to guess in the range of 500, mostly because I studied Political Science, Economics, and History in college (including a bit of grad school & English classes). The social sciences lead one to purchase a great deal of books & I've never been one to sell back my books after the semester, esp since you don't really get all that much back from campus bookstores. Granted, I've worked in a bookstore for the past 6 years and a 30% discount on my purchases has always been a GREAT incentive to buy more. It just happens....
2) Last Book Purchased: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, though I haven't begun to read it yet. I have this strange tendency to buy books 4-6 months in advance of being able to read them. They just tend to fall into place on my "Books to Read" list.
3) Last Book Completed: Can I choose two? If so, in the past 5 days, I've completed Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis and Conversations with Bono by Michka Assayas. Granted, I'd really be interested to hear what your thoughts on that Applied Economics.
4) Wow.... 5 books that mean a lot to me.... Can I choose more than 5? Probably not.... Dang it.... Oh well....
1) Finding Faith by Brian McLaren -- While I suggest his Generous Orthodoxy to most people first, I'm not sure where I'd be without FF. It brought me through my dark night of the soul and I'm forever thankful to McLaren for this work of his.
2) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond -- This book was immensely helpful and beneficial to me as I rethought and reoriented my view of the world around me.
3) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck -- I thought about classics like East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath, but few books have ever captured the depth and breadth of a writer's natural tendencies, thought processes, and how sight impacts writing than this book. This book made me want to be a writer.
4) Perelandra by C.S. Lewis -- Well, I thought about other works of his that I could mention as formational (oh, Mere Christianity come directly to mind), but Lewis' fiction is so VERY important to me as a writer, thinker, wannabe theologian, and follower of Christ.
5) America by Tindall and Shi -- I'm not quite sure why I include this, but it is probably one of the best, most comprehensive textbooks on American history I've ever read. Granted, one of my favorite professors from college used this book in his U.S. History classes, so I guess that I'm a bit biased. If I had to make an alternate choice here, I'd choose People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
4b) What you are currently reading: Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis and Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.
5) Which 5 friends? Good question there. I'm not sure how to send these memes to other people.
Thanks for the response, N. I know what you mean about not being able to sell books back to the bookstore. I develop an emotional attachment to the books I read.
You can pass the meme on by using your reply to me as a post on your own blog. Then just tag the friends that you would like to have respond (like I tagged you). They will post it on their site, etc. etc...
I've been busy and even slow to post on my own blog. Thanks for the tag and will respond tonight when I get home.
1. Total number of books owned. 100-150. Spending 8 years post-high school studying hard science left little room for more than a pile of textbooks. But, slowly I've gained speed and my library has expanded.
2. Last book I bought. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. So many people loved it, I had to buy it.
3. Last book I completed. Ethics by James McClendon, Jr. The first in his three part on systematic theology. I will need to read it again.
4. Five books that meant alot to me.
Ok, here we go.
- Fooled by Randomness:The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. What was started as book on markets and probability, changed my view of events, their outcome and risk.
- A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. It began my transformation both religiously and spiritually.
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I just love to read Faulkner and this is by far my favorite.
- The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charles Papazian. More of textbook, but I've read it more than any book I own. Mmmm. beer.
- Textbook of Medical Physiology by Guyton. Once again another textbook, but it is difficult to ignore my favorite subject.
Looking back, it is a bit eclectic.
4.b I am currently reading Lamb by Christopher Moore.
5. My blog world is so small. I will work on this one for later.
Thanks for the tag. I had not thought about my reading habits, ever. BTW, I do enjoy your blog.
Thanks for sharing your list, Tofflemire. I also am a fan of the great Faulkner.
I certainly understand why textbooks become favorite books- it means that you are studying the right things!
And thanks for the blog kudos- I'm glad you stop in.
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