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June 19, 2005
Better read than dead
There's some sort of awful book confession meme going around the blogosphere, and last night I learned to my horror that Matt Sheffield has tagged me! (Which means I have to disclose personal information about my precious books.) The last time something like this happened, Nick Packwood asked me embarrassing occupational questions. So now it's books. I'll answer the questions in the order they were given: Total number of books owned? That's unreasonable, as I have no idea. I have two residences plus a garage full of books. Has to be at least many hundreds; might be well over a thousand. I've never counted, but space is a serious problem, and many are in boxes. I collect encyclopedias (I have two sets of the great 11th Edition of the Enclyclopedia Brittanica), and multi-volume series like the Harvard Classics and the Great Books of the Western World so it's probably cheating to total them all up and call each one a "book." The last book I bought? The following two. Photography by Phil Davis, and The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. The last book I read? I'll give the one I'm reading right now: Joseph Ellis's His Excellency: George Washington. Five (six) books that mean a lot to me? OK, this is arbitrary, and there are more but these are the ones that stand out enough to be remembered right now first thing Sunday morning. I'm wordy, so I'll give seven or more:Phew. So now I get to tag someone? How many? Much as I'd love to engage in retaliatory tagging, Nick Packwood has already been tagged, and has confessed his favorites. Likewise, John of Locusts and Honey has already been tagged. But I am unable to resist Steven Malcolm Anderson! Steven, you are hereby tagged! (And I can't wait to see your list....) Urthshu, if you haven't been tagged before, I also tag you! (And if Mark keeps supplying these online tests, I might have to steal them and revive my Friday Online Testing!) I hate to do this to nice people, but let's see.... How about Ace at The Pryhills? Last but not least, I tag Justin, whom I accuse of owning more books than I (and reading more too -- especially the stuff I'd never allow myself to read!). As Dennis is already busy with his summer reading list, I won't bother him. I know of no rule requiring anyone to participate in this, nor did I see any warning about the bad luck which would befall those who "break the chain." So anyone who feels unfairly tagged, please be assured that I would fight to the death to support your right to ignore these games.
My apologies to all. posted by Eric on 06.19.05 at 09:07 AM
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Classical Values :: Better read than dead Eric over at Classical Values went and tagged yours truly. Being the contrarian that I am, I'll be presenting my answers my own way, and I won't be passing this on. If you... [Read More] Tracked on June 20, 2005 12:57 AM
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Stories From Old Egypt (the book that made me, before that my religion was L. Frank Baum's Oz series). Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · June 19, 2005 12:21 PM I'd better also throw in Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and other works. Both Oswald Spengler and Ayn Rand were inspired by Nietzsche. The list never seems to end.... Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · June 19, 2005 12:32 PM Oh man. Gotta think about this one.... urthshu · June 19, 2005 01:00 PM My favorite book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series is The Lost Princess of Oz. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · June 19, 2005 01:58 PM 5. Some books I need to get and read in the future include: G. K. Chesterton's A Short History of England Alain de Benoist's What is a Pagan? Leonard Peikoff's forthcoming The DIM Hypotheisis ("DIM" = "Disintegtation, Integration, Misintegration") Jame's Valliant's forthcoming The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · June 19, 2005 02:28 PM Done. :-) urthshu · June 19, 2005 03:08 PM You are asking somebody who's professionally disorganized to write about books you do realize. :) Alan Kellogg · June 20, 2005 12:34 AM It's a good thing you passed on me. I haven't got a clue as to the total number, and couldn't list my most recent purchases if I tried. On Saturday my girlfriend and I bought a combined 100 books. We were impressed with that nice big round number. But in the interests of promoting great prose, I've just begun George Grote's 'A History of Greece,' which is unparalleled. It's an eminently readable specimen of Victorian prose written with great perspicacity by a scholar ahead of his time. He was criticized in the 20th century for an ideological bias towards liberal democracy, as if that were a bad thing, but his treatment of the materials is honest and transparent, and in the Everyman's Library edition at least the abundant footnotes on nearly every page allow you to read the relevant passage of Greek and Latin originals or easily find his sources. A complete set is is difficult to come by and expensive nowadays (usually 10-12 volumes and ranging from about $150-$2000, depending on the edition), but individual volumes can be gotten affordably and there are abridgement's (if you can stomach them). I'm also reading 'Love in the Time of Cholera,' which is immensely entertaining, though Grote keeps me far more interested. The girl and I are reading Livy together as well as Euripides' Medea, will be reading all of Horace this summer with a small group of friends, and, if I have anything to say about it, Isocrates as well. Dennis · June 20, 2005 12:55 AM |
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1. How many books do I own? A couple thousand or so, we have estimated (based on how many boxes of books I had to pack before I moved here). I have 5 bookcases of them here in my living room/computer room, and 6 bookcases of them in my library (which, after W. Cleon Skousen, I often call my "Freedom Library"(, plus books lying all around me here in this computer room and in my mastur-bedroom. Piles of magazines lying around here, too, mostly Astronomy (which I buy at the Crossroads Mall every month).
2. Last book I bought? Colour Perception: A Practical Approach to Colour Theory by Tim Armstrong. That's the kind of book I have dreams about at night. Colors, colors, colors, colors.... Or: Colours, colours, colours, colours....
3. Last book read and book I'm reading now? Just finished G. K. Chesterton's The End of the Armistice (in which, just before his death in 1936, he predicted the coming of the Second World War beginning with an attack on Poland by Bolshevist Russia and Nazi Germany). I'm now reading his essays from the Illustrated London News from 1914-1916.
4. 6 (7? 8?) books that mean a lot to me?
Stories From Old Egypt (the book that made me, before that was L. Frank Baum's Oz series). Also, very shortly after, Hawaiian Myths of Earth, Sea, and Sky
Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Optical Color & Simultaneity by Ellen Marx
Smut: Erotic Reality/Obscene Ideology by Murray S. Davis
Left and Right: The Topography of Political Perceptions by Jean A. Laponce