Stole this from Brooke...
Total number of books I own:
Well into the hundreds! If I was to do a rough estimate in my head right now, probably close to 1000 to be honest.
The last book I purchased:
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Wonderful writer, she's like the female Jonathan Carroll...Oh wait! that's not the last book I bought, that would be The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction! A very cool looking book the highlights cult authors from the last 100 or so years (mainly focused on the period between 1920-1960).
The last book I read:
ummm, A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain. Very cool book about travelling the world and sampling cuisine.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
In no particular order they are:
1)The Autobiography of Malcolm X - which taught me to stand strong and hold onto my beliefs, even if they anger people. Also that protest can take many forms, and that you can only ever be held or trapped in your own mind.
2)Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll - To me, reading one of his books is like being able to walk through and control a dream.
3)His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - I hated C.S. Lewis growing up, mostly because of the very Christian elements. So Pullman is like an anti-Lewis in some ways, which is one reason. The other, far more important reason, is that he once again established that kids books can be meaningul thought provoking literature. Read it for excitement as a child, read it and just stand in awe and the deeper thoughts, the theology, philosophy, just the intelligence of the craft and prose of this wonderful story.
4)The Sandman by Neil Gaiman - which was the first comic book to show me a comic book that didn't have a superhero. Which was important for me (and most of the comic loving world), as it showed me how adult a comic book actually could be. I still re-read the entire series start to finish every now and then.
5)This Side of Paradise by F.Scott Fitzgerald - I love Fitzgerald, who was a lot like Jonathan Carroll for me at one point, I just enjoyed his style so much. Gatsby is still a great book, the prose and story are much better formed than this book, but Paradise really struck a chord with me. Maybe it's the idea of the Romantic Egoist (as Amoury is so joyfully called), or just the awesome romanticism of the novel itself. I really connected with that over-whealming hopefulness in life, and the sometimes crushing weight of failed relationships. For a time, it was one of those books I could open and find passages and think "that's me" Not so much anymore, if I was to do that now I think I'd relate to Gogol from Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake more. But for a time, oh those days and nights, I walked and jazzed my summer full of weeknight trists through small towns with girls whose names I can no longer recall.
So many more I could do! I was supposed to tag this on to other people, but I don't think anyone else is reading this blog just yet.
_N
Total number of books I own:
Well into the hundreds! If I was to do a rough estimate in my head right now, probably close to 1000 to be honest.
The last book I purchased:
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Wonderful writer, she's like the female Jonathan Carroll...Oh wait! that's not the last book I bought, that would be The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction! A very cool looking book the highlights cult authors from the last 100 or so years (mainly focused on the period between 1920-1960).
The last book I read:
ummm, A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain. Very cool book about travelling the world and sampling cuisine.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
In no particular order they are:
1)The Autobiography of Malcolm X - which taught me to stand strong and hold onto my beliefs, even if they anger people. Also that protest can take many forms, and that you can only ever be held or trapped in your own mind.
2)Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll - To me, reading one of his books is like being able to walk through and control a dream.
3)His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - I hated C.S. Lewis growing up, mostly because of the very Christian elements. So Pullman is like an anti-Lewis in some ways, which is one reason. The other, far more important reason, is that he once again established that kids books can be meaningul thought provoking literature. Read it for excitement as a child, read it and just stand in awe and the deeper thoughts, the theology, philosophy, just the intelligence of the craft and prose of this wonderful story.
4)The Sandman by Neil Gaiman - which was the first comic book to show me a comic book that didn't have a superhero. Which was important for me (and most of the comic loving world), as it showed me how adult a comic book actually could be. I still re-read the entire series start to finish every now and then.
5)This Side of Paradise by F.Scott Fitzgerald - I love Fitzgerald, who was a lot like Jonathan Carroll for me at one point, I just enjoyed his style so much. Gatsby is still a great book, the prose and story are much better formed than this book, but Paradise really struck a chord with me. Maybe it's the idea of the Romantic Egoist (as Amoury is so joyfully called), or just the awesome romanticism of the novel itself. I really connected with that over-whealming hopefulness in life, and the sometimes crushing weight of failed relationships. For a time, it was one of those books I could open and find passages and think "that's me" Not so much anymore, if I was to do that now I think I'd relate to Gogol from Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake more. But for a time, oh those days and nights, I walked and jazzed my summer full of weeknight trists through small towns with girls whose names I can no longer recall.
So many more I could do! I was supposed to tag this on to other people, but I don't think anyone else is reading this blog just yet.
_N
posted by madmuffin at
8:16 PM
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