The One Book That . . .
I came across this meme on Sex Ed Higer Ed and enjoyed it. So here you go:
1. One Book That Changed Your Life: This book had a profound impact on the way I view the world today. Prior to delving into Klein's experiences with corporate America I made decisions unaware of the deep and ethically perverted lengths companies had gone to in branding my world and ensuring my behavior. This anti-Americanization/Globalization book reveals a world of fair-trade, equal rights, worker's rights, consumer advocacy, and justice that lead the way to my vegan/cruelty-free lifestyle today.
2. One Book That You've Read More Than Once: As a middle-schooler I found this book mysterious and filled with images of dystopian fantasy. As a high school student Orwell's message of those who control language, control reality left me enraged with mediocrity and pop culture. As a college student, I find the voice of the lead character's desire for individuality, authentic thoughts and tastes, opposed to the totalitarian control of society, prophetic. His eventual failure in hiding his light under a bushel inspires my sense of justice to fight for a freethinking, rational, and humanistic society. Unlike the non-religious society of Winston Smith's 1984, today's America is jeopardy of falling into right-wing totalitarian religious theocracy. Each time I open its cover I find a new message, a new voice, and a renewed passion for social justice.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
3. One Book You'd Want on a Desert Island: Besides the Dummies Guide to Escaping from a Desert Island I would have to go with this book. Tolkien's original intent was for LOTR to be one novel. However, his publisher and friend convinced him otherwise, breaking it down into Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and Return of the King. I would carry one large bound edition in recognition of Tolkien's wishes, live, and breathe the world of Middle-Earth on my Desert Island. The story has everything. Sword fights, romance, epic adventures, day-to-day tasks, songs, death, life, magic, and realism... the LOTR's has it all.
4. One Book That Made You Laugh: Any of this man's humorist stories make me laugh, often to the point of tears and a pain in the belly. I especially enjoy Sedaris' Live Carnegie Hall reading of his story, Six to Eight Black Men. His NPR sensibility mixed with an eye for the humor in the mundane Sedaris writes the way I wish I could write. Sarah Vowell's book Assassination Vacation has many great chuckle moments throughout her wanderings through America's past.
5. One Book That Made You Cry: Many short stories about the African American Holocaust of Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction America have moved me to tears. The poems of this man on a cool autumn evening with a glass of port next to an open pit fire often move me to tears. I clearly remember crying while reading this, this (each time), this , each of these, and the list could go on and on...
6. One Book That You Wish Had Been Written: I really wish Tolkien could have continued writing about Middle-Earth. Each time I finish his books I mourn for the ending of the story.
7. One Book That You Wish Had Never Been Written: The Bible and John Locke's Two Treatises on Government. Each has inspired more needless bloodshed in the name of irrational belief and/or greed that the world would, perhaps, be a better place had they never been written. However, as I am a true lover of words I must say that even these books serve a purpose in creating a fully more self-realized humanity. This will only be true if we can move past them into a world beyond capitalist greed and religious irrationalism into a world of humanist equality. That is both my cynical and idealist worldviews juxtaposed nicely.
8. The Book That You Are Currently Reading: After selling several books to Half Price, I selected this book on my way out. It feeds my bibliophile tendencies ably.
9. One Book That You've Been Meaning to Read: This novel has been sitting on my shelf for the better part of a year now. It keeps being set aside for a spur of the moment pick. Sometime this semester I will have to dedicate a weekend to reading it.
10. Five People To Tag: I don't tag. If a meme like this tickles your fancy, feel free to use it in one of your posts. If not, no worries.
1. One Book That Changed Your Life: This book had a profound impact on the way I view the world today. Prior to delving into Klein's experiences with corporate America I made decisions unaware of the deep and ethically perverted lengths companies had gone to in branding my world and ensuring my behavior. This anti-Americanization/Globalization book reveals a world of fair-trade, equal rights, worker's rights, consumer advocacy, and justice that lead the way to my vegan/cruelty-free lifestyle today.
2. One Book That You've Read More Than Once: As a middle-schooler I found this book mysterious and filled with images of dystopian fantasy. As a high school student Orwell's message of those who control language, control reality left me enraged with mediocrity and pop culture. As a college student, I find the voice of the lead character's desire for individuality, authentic thoughts and tastes, opposed to the totalitarian control of society, prophetic. His eventual failure in hiding his light under a bushel inspires my sense of justice to fight for a freethinking, rational, and humanistic society. Unlike the non-religious society of Winston Smith's 1984, today's America is jeopardy of falling into right-wing totalitarian religious theocracy. Each time I open its cover I find a new message, a new voice, and a renewed passion for social justice.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
3. One Book You'd Want on a Desert Island: Besides the Dummies Guide to Escaping from a Desert Island I would have to go with this book. Tolkien's original intent was for LOTR to be one novel. However, his publisher and friend convinced him otherwise, breaking it down into Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and Return of the King. I would carry one large bound edition in recognition of Tolkien's wishes, live, and breathe the world of Middle-Earth on my Desert Island. The story has everything. Sword fights, romance, epic adventures, day-to-day tasks, songs, death, life, magic, and realism... the LOTR's has it all.
4. One Book That Made You Laugh: Any of this man's humorist stories make me laugh, often to the point of tears and a pain in the belly. I especially enjoy Sedaris' Live Carnegie Hall reading of his story, Six to Eight Black Men. His NPR sensibility mixed with an eye for the humor in the mundane Sedaris writes the way I wish I could write. Sarah Vowell's book Assassination Vacation has many great chuckle moments throughout her wanderings through America's past.
5. One Book That Made You Cry: Many short stories about the African American Holocaust of Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction America have moved me to tears. The poems of this man on a cool autumn evening with a glass of port next to an open pit fire often move me to tears. I clearly remember crying while reading this, this (each time), this , each of these, and the list could go on and on...
6. One Book That You Wish Had Been Written: I really wish Tolkien could have continued writing about Middle-Earth. Each time I finish his books I mourn for the ending of the story.
7. One Book That You Wish Had Never Been Written: The Bible and John Locke's Two Treatises on Government. Each has inspired more needless bloodshed in the name of irrational belief and/or greed that the world would, perhaps, be a better place had they never been written. However, as I am a true lover of words I must say that even these books serve a purpose in creating a fully more self-realized humanity. This will only be true if we can move past them into a world beyond capitalist greed and religious irrationalism into a world of humanist equality. That is both my cynical and idealist worldviews juxtaposed nicely.
8. The Book That You Are Currently Reading: After selling several books to Half Price, I selected this book on my way out. It feeds my bibliophile tendencies ably.
9. One Book That You've Been Meaning to Read: This novel has been sitting on my shelf for the better part of a year now. It keeps being set aside for a spur of the moment pick. Sometime this semester I will have to dedicate a weekend to reading it.
10. Five People To Tag: I don't tag. If a meme like this tickles your fancy, feel free to use it in one of your posts. If not, no worries.