Friday, September 15, 2006

 

One Book Meme Game

You've probably all seen this on Division of Labour or the Locker Room, but now it's infecting The Broken Window as well.

Here goes:

1. One book that changed my life: Anthem by Ayn Rand. I read it in 9th grade and it was my first real taste of political philosophy of any kind. An interesting place to start, to say the least.

2. One Book I've Read More Than Once: There are loads of books I've read twice (I'm a devout re-reader), but the best, I think, is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

3. One Book I Would Want on a Desert Island: Just one? It'd have to be both long and good. Could I take the whole Lord of the Rings?

4. One Book that Made Me Laugh: Well, if I ever get around to reading any of Dave Barry's books, I'm sure they'll make me laugh. They're on the ever-growing reading list.

5. One Book that Made Me Cry: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Actually, anything by Wharton falls into this category, but Age of Innocence is best.

6. One Book that I Wish Had Been Written: Hmmm, this is a hard one. So many possibilities. I'm going to have to go with a rather flippant answer here: Hogwarts, A History by J.K. Rowling. It's mentioned dozens of times throughout the Harry Potter series. And now I'm intrigued. Maybe someday, she'll write it for charity like she did Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages.

7. One Book I Wish Had Not Been Written: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Aside from the line "When you wet the bed, at first it's warm and then it gets cold," the whole book was a torment. Actually, almost all of 11th grade English was a torment, so I'll have to add "Invisible Man" to the list of books I wish had not been written. (Everyone on the JLF blog already took all the good, serious answers.)

8. One Book I'm Currently Reading: Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard and Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read: Atlas Shrugged. I just can't manage to get through it - something else less preachy always turns up.

Now, I'm tagging Travis, Chris, Student, Juris and Ron. Have fun!

Comments:
Jenna,

Nice idea. And some good book picks.

Travis,

"sweat from my eyes"
hahhaha
classic.

Though I don't understand your dislike of the General Theory.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post my list sometime today or this weekend.
 
I’ve been tagged.


1. One book that changed my life: Aside from the Bible? If I were being honest, I would say Ayn Rand’s “Philosophy: Who Needs It?” or “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”. I read these books in High School and they were my first introduction to philosophy and economics. As a result, I am probably a totally different person than I would have been without them. But now I disagree with so much of what Rand says in these books that I would much rather say “The Problem of the Soul” by Owen Flanagan.

2. One Book I've Read More Than Once: For Non-Fiction, if I read it once, chances are I will go back and read it again (in part or in whole). The books I re-read most recently are Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity, By Judith Jarvis Thomson by Gilbert Harman and The Self-Organizing Economy by Paul Krugman.

3. One Book I Would Want on a Desert Island: My Life and my Knife. by MacGiver

4. One Book that Made Me Laugh: Most any book by David Sedaris, but I especially liked Naked.

5. One Book that Made Me Cry: Atonement by Ian McEwan.

6. One Book that I Wish Had Been Written: This may reveal my complete lack of literary taste, but I’ve always wanted to see Anne Rice publish a sequel to Ramses the Dammed.

For a more middle-brow answer, I would also love to have seen another novel from Oscar Wilde. His first and only novel--The Picture of Dorian Gray--was engaging, filled with interesting characters, and had some very interesting things to say about the role of Art and the Artist. I can only imagine how great his second novel would have been.

7. One Book I Wish Had Not Been Written: Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. Despite the wonderful movie it inspired, the book was silly and boring. Groom’s Gump is a foul mouthed, idiot-savant that becomes an astronaut! Need I say more? The worst week of my reading-life was spent hoping the next chapter of that book would be better than the last. Guess what? They weren’t.

8. One Book I'm Currently Reading: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.

9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read: Too many! For Graphic Novels, I want to read V for Vendetta and the graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report. For Non-Fiction, Micromotives and Macrobehavior by Thomas Shelling. For “straight” Fiction, Harald by David Friedman and Saturday by Ian McEwan.
 
1. One book that changed my life: 1984

2. One Book I've Read More Than Once: Brave New World

3. One Book I Would Want on a Desert Island: I dunno? Something long and yet entertaining...Or I might just side with Travis on this one.

4. One Book that Made Me Laugh: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (anything by O'Rourke or Jacob Sullum as well)

5. One Book that Made Me Cry: Hasn't happened yet..One emotional book that I enjoyed was East of Eden

6. One Book that I Wish Had Been Written: I have thought about this before, but can't think of anything now... (Perhaps an update to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists)

7. One Book I Wish Had Not Been Written:: If it's more like books I wish I hadn't read, I will agree with Jenna on this one. If it is a list of books that should not have been so influential, we might need to go farther back to Hobbes' "Leviathan" and Machiavelli's "The Prince" (Honorable Mention goes to John Rawl's A Theory of Justice). There are good things in these, but most the negatives were accepted (go figure)...

In all honesty, I would never wish that a book was not written

8. One Book I'm Currently Reading
: Democracy in America by dT and many, many others that get put down and never picked back up...


9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read
: The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and some Ayn Rand. I also want to get to Anarchy, State, and Utopia.
 
"Aside from the Bible?" applies to every category.

1.One book that changed my life: Resident Aliens- Stanley Hauerwas

2.One book I've read more than once: The Imitation of Christ - Thomas A' Kempis

3. One book I would want on a desert island: I dunno, something I could apply if I ever got rescued.

4. One book that made me laugh: Catch-22.

5. One book that made me cry: Too Late The Phalarope - Alan Patton

6. One book that I wish had been written, (the one I hope to write): Jesus and the State

7. One book I wish had not been written: None.

8. One Book I'm currently reading: Never. I'm always reading 5-10. Right now, Man, Economy, and State - Rothbard, Politics of Jesus - Yoder, Antitrust and Monopoly - Armentano, and The Cost of Discipleship - Bonhoeffer.

9. One book I've been meaning to read: Is The Market Moral? McElroy gave me this in the spring, and I've promised him a paper on it.

Nathan
 
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