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25 August 2005

You're It

I've been tagged to answer these questions. They're about books. A jolly good time will be had by all. Off we go:

1. Number of books you have owned: Hell if I know. But our current count (I share with Mrs. Wasp Jerky) is 613, give or take a handful.

2. Last book I bought: Krystyna Zywulska's I Survived Auschwitz and Miklos Nyiszli's I Was Doctor Mengele's Assistant, both of which I purchased at Auschwitz while I was there this summer.

3. Last book I completed: I think it was George Khoury's The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore, which is a book length interview with Moore about his 25 years of writing.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

1) Franky Schaeffer's Addicted to Mediocrity

Schaeffer is the son of Francis Schaeffer. At different times in his life he's been a painter, filmmaker, and more recently, novelist. This book, and a follow up called Sham Pearls for Real Swine, had a huge impact on me in college. Back then I was moving away from being a fundamentalist and realising that Christianity was more than the lies I'd been told for 20 years. Schaeffer writes about the arts, about Christians who insist on a dichotomy between the secular and the sacred, and about how ridiculous that is. He writes about using art to propagandise for Jesus. And, really, all this is just a microcosm for what Christianity has become, and why that's completely wrong.

2) Alan Moore's Watchmen

I grew up on comics. I was reading Spider-man on hot, sticky summer nights (hey, keep it clean!) when I was just a little tyke. If you love the medium, you know that there's a certain segment of the population that considers comics as being "for kids." Even though that's changed a lot due to people like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Marjane Satrapi, Daniel Clowes, Harvey Pekar, and Craig Thompson, there's still a stuffy sense of superiority in some quarters about this sort of thing. You'd think Maus winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 would have cleared this up. Anyways, Moore's was the first time I realised that comics can do some fucking brilliant stuff. Moore's storytelling is unmatched. And the subtext here, the way the words and pictures comment on one another in the most subtle ways, the way that even the tiniest of details has tremendous importance, is just breathtaking. Non-linear, sophisticated, psychologically penetrating, with a plot featuring perhaps the ultimate "Do the ends justify the means scenario?," this is one of the best novels I've ever read. Period.

3) Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

I led a pretty blissfully ignorant life for many years. I've been waking up slowly, probably ever since I started encountering what I would call real Christian faith. It's been the same way with politics. Up until 9/11 or so, I was content to watch the mainstream news and believe what I was told. Not anymore. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, when I stopped trusting the media machine and the lemming-like way we're all walking over the cliffs. Greg Palast's book is a pretty good symbol for it, though. When I started learning about how tens of thousands of voters, a disproportionate number of which were African American (and consequently Democrats), were illegally removed from the Florida voter rolls in 2000, about how voting machines in black Florida voting districts were programmed to "eat" "spoiled" ballots, the world sort of spun upside down. And then shattered. The truth really does hurt, like a shotgun blast to the chest. I've got Palast and others like him to thank for it. Palast may be the finest journalist alive today. That's why you've probably never heard of him.

4) John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany

I think Owen Meany was the first book my wife ever made me read while we were dating. It's special for that alone. Plus it's a great meditation on faith, doubt, mystery, and circumstance.

5) William Hendricks' Exit Interviews

This one really probably doesn't go in my top five. But I thought of it, so I'm claiming it. Exit Interviews is a book of feature-style interviews with people who have stopped going to church. Back when I first read it, I could completely relate. I still can.

4b. What are you currently reading?

I'm reading Marci Hamilton's God vs. the Gavel : Religion and the Rule of Law and Stephen King's Different Seasons.

5. Which 5 bloggers are you passing this onto?
1. Hipchickmama
2. Adam
3. The McCartys
4. Ramblin' Educat
AND
5. Stephanie

And no, you don't have to do mini-essays about every book the way I did. But you can if you want.

Comments on "You're It"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8/25/2005 11:18:00 PM) : 

1. I've probley owned like 100 books. 75 are prob text books. 10 are probley Bibles, 7 are like some kind of Christian-have-a-better-quiet-time/theology books and the other eight consist of plays, poetry, and cookbooks. I never liked to read growing up. . . I thought it was boring.
2. Last book I bought: I NEVER buy books. So the last one I bought was probley a Group Psychotherapy book for class last year. But I'll problely sell it on the web.
3. Last book I completed: Traveling Mercies by Lamott & Angels and Demons by Brown
4. Five books that mean a lot to me: 1. Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss 2. The Glass Menagerie 3. THe Catcher & the Rye 4. On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers 5. lyric books to all my favorite bands i.e. coldplay, u2, counting crows,tori amos
sorry to disappoint. truth is i've never been much of a reader. i've just been getting into it since i've graduated from school. when i was in school for like the last too many years i only read what they made us and in my free time i never wanted to look at a book. ever. and growing up i was too busy fighting with my sisters to care. this would be fun though if i had more knowledge.
maybe we can rephrase the question for music albums. . .hmm. . .:)

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8/25/2005 11:22:00 PM) : 

Very nicely put, greg. If there's a story behind that, I'd love to hear it someday.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8/25/2005 11:38:00 PM) : 

oh fuck. . .here come the big dawgs. . . grrrrr. . .

 

Blogger Reverend Irreverent said ... (8/26/2005 10:16:00 AM) : 

I, too, just finished reading Owen Meany and found it tremendous for my faith journey. I'm sure it'll find its way into many a sermon.

Also, have you read Portofino by Frank Shaeffer? It's a "fictional" account of a boy on holiday in Italy with his fundamentalist missionary parents who work in Switzerland. Growing up overseas surrounded by missionary kids and fundamentalists, it was a hoot!

 

Blogger Wasp Jerky said ... (8/26/2005 11:05:00 AM) : 

I'd love to hear that story, too, Greg. Thanks for dropping by.

I thought about turning this into a music thing, Stephanie. I might do that sometime.

I knew there was a reason I love you, Meg. Portofino is awesome! It's very much based on Schaeffer's own childhood growing up as the child of Francis and Edith Schaeffer (who founded L'Abri). It's actually a trilogy. The other two books are Saving Grandma and Zermatt. If you haven't read the other two books, you should definitely read them. Zermatt is especially interesting because it has a lot of sexual themes (something that many evangelicals don't really know how to deal with).

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8/29/2005 09:25:00 PM) : 

Kevin, I have not forgotten that I've been tagged! Thanks and I plan on posting this tomorrow. Love reading everyone else's answer's to these questions. I feel like I talk enough about books on the blog that no one will be surprised by the answers, but still, another chance to talk about books! Alright...

Kristen M

 

Blogger Wasp Jerky said ... (8/30/2005 09:09:00 AM) : 

I knew you'd pull it off, Kristen. I'm looking forward to reading your answers.

 

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