Loving Book Memes Even More...

Update HERE!!!!

It turns out there are some very self assured motherfuckers on Cath@vwxynot?'s blog, who think that because they didn't fall out of a frakking sailboat, that they haven't been tagged with this meme!!!11!!!1! So chall (I don't care if you're a godless fucking Swede - we still want that list, even if half of it won't be in Americanish), T. Joseph and Mrs. Ch - you are now officially fucking tagged!!!!111!!!!

There have been some interesting discussion arising from this little book meme that we managed to bust out of the confines of FaceBook (which I have managed to get into again - but only because I got "friended" by someone I don't think I've seen or heard from since about 4th grade)...Stephanie wonders why so many of the folks who have outies instead of innies, seem to like 1984, while it was distinctly missing from the lists of most of the innie types. And also...Why The Fuck Does Anyone like that shit!!!!111@!!?????@???!?//!! (Ok, she didn't put it quite like that, because that would be more like something I would do, not Stephanie, but still...

And in comments there, Greg was lamenting the fact that so many people decided to forgo the rules - as he saw it. Only he wasn't talking about my horrifying decision to go all ADHD, when reading his initial post and making a rather longer list. He felt that folks were listing books that might not have had that much of an impact. He gave a three part criteria - A. did I read this a long time ago and B. can I tell you significant detail about what was in the book, and C. does at least some of this detail still matter......

I actually did a lot of discussing 1984 over there and would heartily recommend you check it out...I also responded to Greg, but less adequately than I like. While I can say that for the most part, everything on my list fits Greg's ABC, that is only because I didn't consider posting Don't Remember, But Fuck All Was That Important To Me... Because honestly, some of the most influential books I have read - the ones that really stuck with me, are the ones that I mostly remember by their affect on me. Ones that I may have a few vague images of (I am one of those people who totally animates everything he reads) and nothing more - except the vivid recollection of how it changed my thinking.

I only listed a few children's books for this reason. It's not that there weren't many more (although I still am frakking pissed that I didn't get the Chronicles of Narnia down there) of those children's books that really mucked with my mind - there were a lot more of them. There were, for example, a couple of other books that had much the same message that Matilda did for me. One of them came quite a bit earlier than Matilda, and was much more inclined towards the theme of financial poverty, with intellectual, creative and emotional wealth, being superior to the opposite. Haven't the slightest clue what it was called and seem to recall that at some point financial wealth is also acquired, but that is a couple books on and is entirely secondary to the all important wealth of mind and heart.

I believed then and still today, that love and mind are far more important than material wealth - not to say that material wealth isn't important...But in all honesty, if it were just me - no kids, no Juniper - I would be perfectly content with barely enough. Live in a small studio, with a small space to sleep carved out of the piles of books - along with a small space to sit and eat and write...I am entirely confident that I could have been satisfied with that. But kids and the most beautiful and brilliant lover a man could ever dream of having in his life, this is not such a laudable goal in life. So when I will never be an old women and I shall never where purple...

And there are other books that I simply can't remember, that nevertheless are still a part of my life and who I am. For example, before Encyclopedia Brown, there were other boy detectives and similar adventurers who sparked my sense of justice. Characters who drove solidly home the notion that justice is more important than most anything - including at times, the rules or the law. That underlying the rules and the laws - some of which might actually contradict it, was an evermore important code of conduct - code of justice. And that sense, that drive for justice that began when I read a book at about six or seven, eventually evolved into a pretty absolute belief in the rule of law, true justice and a firm reliance on my moral framework. The absolute I hold these to now, was sparked when I read that now forgotten book at six or seven - though the principles have evolved considerably and matured a great deal in the last twenty-six, twenty-seven years.

So really, my list would have been fleshed out nicely with about eight or nine; Don't Remember, But Fuck All Was That Important To Me...I would even have been willing to give up some of the books on that list to include those.

Books Meme - YAY!!!!! I Love Book Memes...

Updated...And again, with a new tag or two...

Though I usually hate fucking memes...

Greg posted a FaceBook meme to his blog and I really rather liked it, so I thought I would do it here. Because apparently every time I want to go to FaceBook, I have to get a new fucking password - by some quirk, the cookies don't remember and neither does FireFox. Besides, there are lots of interesting people around here...

So the meme as Greg put it, is to list fifteen books that had the most profound impact on you - ones you can think of in fifteen minutes or less. I say fuck that bullshit - don't be entirely constrained by rules!!!!111!1!1* I listed the books that have stuck with me the most, that I could think of in fifteen minutes (honestly, I am not sure about the time, I know it was right around fifteen minutes).

I am going to tag people too!!!! Because people have tagged me with these fucking things, so why should I not torment my friends (and a fucking Canuckistanian or two)!!!!!!11!!@2!! So I want to tag Jason, Cath@VWXYNot?, Lost Marbles and, now that we got those fucking Canucks** out of the way, Toaster, Dan J and Stephanie, who has probably done it on FB***, but Fuck FB, Fuck it up it's stupid, password forgetting ASS!!!!11!!**** And now, Scicurious must be tagged, along with sbh!!!11!!1!! Thus putting the balance where it should be - far more Mrkins, than fucking Canucks!!!1111!!1!

It also occurred to me, that I should note these are all books that stuck with me - had an impact. That does not mean and should not be taken to imply that I endorse everything on this list. There are several volumes I assuredly do not, as well as volumes that I neither liked nor disliked, but which nevertheless are stuck in my head forever. V for Vendetta, for example, is a decent graphic novel and went well with 1984 and Brave New World, but the only reason it's on this list, is because it is also rather exceptionally violent and contains extremely disturbing imagery - fine now I would think, but I read it when I was eleven. And I consider Wesley's Works a colossal waste of my time, but it, along with On Being and Essence (not nearly such a waste of time) largely molded my theological outlook for years.

And I included children's books I love. What should surprise is not that I did, but that I didn't include more of them. For example, I am rather bummed that neither Encyclopedia Brown, nor The Hardy Boys (the original mind) made the list. I spent many hours in trees with one or the other. Duncan McTavish in Switzerland was also rather important to me - eldest rather likes it too, along with Paddington (I love how being a parent, I get to share this stuff with my boys). And I absolutely adored the concepts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a novel that I spent the last few minutes of my fifteen trying to remember in vain. The theme of poverty ridden families being rescued from it by a child was one of my favorites - in spite of the fact that I totally thought my middle to lower middle class family was pretty wealthy...

*actually, I just went all ADHD and didn't read the instructions carefully. Rather amusing, given the title of Greg's post was The Fifteen Book Meme...

** I would have tagged Jodi - actually would love to see her list, but I didn't want to give too much credence to the soon to be Canuckistanian invadees...

***Besides, she probably did the lame, FB version that only allows for fifteen books...

****I would also harass Juniper with this, but I don't want to throw more shit on her plate - though I would love it if she too, wanted to actually do this...

Dune
1984
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
V for Vendetta (Read when I was eleven)
Brave New World
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Doors of Perception
Heaven and Hell
John Keats (Gittings)
In the Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
A Bear Called Paddington
The Art of War
The Godmakers
Endymium
Matilda
Arabel's Raven
Breaking the Spell
Wesley's Works
On Being and Essence (not in Latin)
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Dosadi Experiment
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Demon Haunted World
Cosmos
Crewel Lye
Tarot
Book of the Dead
Book of Living and Dying
The Foundation Trilogy
The Heart of Addiction