Tagged for 10 books by Catherine Arnott Smith. Ive never done this on Facebook, but Im curious because (a) even though Im an English professor, I dont read a lot of books anymore and (b) Im curious about what books have stayed with me. 1) Tao Teh Ching (John C.H. Wu translation) -- When I was 17 and looking for wisdom, this was where I landed. More so than any sacred texts, I found this one relevant to the complexities of life. Maybe I should reread it. 2) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) -- Dungeons, pirating, and the improbable tale of a poor man, who was robbed of liberty and love, transformed into the perfect instrument of revenge. 3) Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (Hunter Thompson) -- Meta-analytical depravity. I like the simple things. 4) Lolita (Vladamir Nabokov) -- A profound lesson in the power of language to transform even the most disgusting subject into something fascinating. Makes me think about the state of our current public political discourse. 5) One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Marquez Garcia) -- A perfectly realized monologue of the soul. A deeply interior experience for me. 6) The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams) -- Absurdist synchronicity. I empathize with the protagonist. 7) Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology though Language (James Gee) -- A tremendously accessible summation of everything I was thinking about as I began my dissertation. 8) Go Dog Go (P.D. Eastman) -- Read so many times to my daughter. Read to her kindergarten class. Will be read to my son. Good times. 9) The Great Fires (Jack Gilbert) -- Not my favorite poet, or even my favorite book of poetry, but it is the one I cant let go. 10) The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) -- Received at a critical time in my life. Helped me decide that being an uncompromising lone genius was not as cool as I had thought it was. Howard Roark is an asshole, and Ayn Rand is a hypocrite, but this book was a gift. Keg Young, Elizabeth Fox-Corbett, Kristina E Corbett, and Charles P. Corbett are up if they want to be.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 21:05:52 +0000
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