This Is So Embarrassing
Lynn B book tagged me a couple of days ago, and of course I got confused about what was going on and then forgot about it. She reminded me this afternoon that, while my old blog partner Stan has been a good sport, my failure to play along was making me a humorless prig (she was more polite, of course, and there was a winky-smiley involved, but the point was clear). I told her that my list is kind of embarrassing in that "you really have to try to be this much of a nerd" kind of way, but she seemed unimpressed. So here we go:
Number of books I own: About 500. Starting at my desk and going around the room: 6 shelves of philosophy and rhetoric, 3 shelves of journals, 2 shelves of computer programming and mathematics, 3 shelves of nonfiction (about equal parts political science, economics, and science, with a smattering of Beatles, poker, and wine books), 1 shelf of Judaica, 2 shelves of literature, 1 shelf of humor, 2 shelves of Greek and Roman literature and philosophy, and 12 shelves of science fiction and fantasy. I'm currently thinking of any joke you could possibly make, and I'm finding none of them funny.
Last book I bought: My last order was an Amazon used books order. I bought Science, Reason, and Rhetoric edited by Henry Krips, J.E. McGuire, and Trevor Melia and the 3-volume set of Paideia by Werner Jaeger.
Last book I read: Society Must Be Defended by Michel Foucault, last Thursday and Friday. It was assigned reading.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series was a not insignificant part of my life for several years before high school, and I continue to follow the series. In a desperate and futile attempt to retain some self-esteem after this post, I'm not going to go into details - but suffice to say that online, text-based RPGs were involved.
The Champagne Spy by Wolfgang Lotz. When I was 9 or 10, I was in a used book store and found this book - it's the auto-biography of an Israeli spy who operated in Egypt during the 1950s and 60s, until his capture on the eve of the Six Day War. It paints a realistic picture of how quotidian, human, and even warm life in Egypt was - all the while being undergirded by genocidal anti-Semitism. And it's a spy novel! I read it over and over again.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I had my Ayn Rand phase through most of high school (there's something strangely attractive about an ethic that says that the highest moral good is achieved by cutting yourself off from the world and only dealing with smart people - I blame my freshman year Spanish teacher's obsession with group-work). Said Ayn Rand phase ended the second semester of college, when a philosophy professor told me that he, "like most arrogant, post-adolescent males," had also gone through an Ayn Rand phase - and that I needed to get over it. It doesn't help that, coming back to it now, Atlas Shrugged turns out to be pretty bad literature. That said, Rand's description of how petulance, indignation, and irrationality combine to drive Leftist activism is still very salient.
Rhetoric Revalued edited by Brian Vickers, specifically Vickers's essay "Territorial Disputes: Philosophy versus Rhetoric". I was assigned this essay my junior year of college, and it was the first of a series of books and articles that convinced me to continue studying rhetoric.
Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche. It helped me get through a tough time in my life. The passage toward the beginning about pity is particularly inspired.
Number of books I own: About 500. Starting at my desk and going around the room: 6 shelves of philosophy and rhetoric, 3 shelves of journals, 2 shelves of computer programming and mathematics, 3 shelves of nonfiction (about equal parts political science, economics, and science, with a smattering of Beatles, poker, and wine books), 1 shelf of Judaica, 2 shelves of literature, 1 shelf of humor, 2 shelves of Greek and Roman literature and philosophy, and 12 shelves of science fiction and fantasy. I'm currently thinking of any joke you could possibly make, and I'm finding none of them funny.
Last book I bought: My last order was an Amazon used books order. I bought Science, Reason, and Rhetoric edited by Henry Krips, J.E. McGuire, and Trevor Melia and the 3-volume set of Paideia by Werner Jaeger.
Last book I read: Society Must Be Defended by Michel Foucault, last Thursday and Friday. It was assigned reading.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series was a not insignificant part of my life for several years before high school, and I continue to follow the series. In a desperate and futile attempt to retain some self-esteem after this post, I'm not going to go into details - but suffice to say that online, text-based RPGs were involved.
The Champagne Spy by Wolfgang Lotz. When I was 9 or 10, I was in a used book store and found this book - it's the auto-biography of an Israeli spy who operated in Egypt during the 1950s and 60s, until his capture on the eve of the Six Day War. It paints a realistic picture of how quotidian, human, and even warm life in Egypt was - all the while being undergirded by genocidal anti-Semitism. And it's a spy novel! I read it over and over again.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I had my Ayn Rand phase through most of high school (there's something strangely attractive about an ethic that says that the highest moral good is achieved by cutting yourself off from the world and only dealing with smart people - I blame my freshman year Spanish teacher's obsession with group-work). Said Ayn Rand phase ended the second semester of college, when a philosophy professor told me that he, "like most arrogant, post-adolescent males," had also gone through an Ayn Rand phase - and that I needed to get over it. It doesn't help that, coming back to it now, Atlas Shrugged turns out to be pretty bad literature. That said, Rand's description of how petulance, indignation, and irrationality combine to drive Leftist activism is still very salient.
Rhetoric Revalued edited by Brian Vickers, specifically Vickers's essay "Territorial Disputes: Philosophy versus Rhetoric". I was assigned this essay my junior year of college, and it was the first of a series of books and articles that convinced me to continue studying rhetoric.
Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche. It helped me get through a tough time in my life. The passage toward the beginning about pity is particularly inspired.
