Finding books for me

[mtbc]

It occurred to me that mentioning some of the more favored books that I own might be a useful way for me to share about myself and, best of all, inspire recommendations of ones I'd like.

I'll skip some categories for various reasons, including that they may not serve such purposes well, or there were too many CueCat^*-resistant exceptions. Those exceptions include, I have a fair assortment of math and computing books, helpful texts for learning French and Chinese, and others for playing Chess, Chinese Chess, Shogi, and Go. Also, there are some basic staples like a dictionary and Shakespeare (my favorites are Macbeth and The Tempest), also books like Debrett's New Guide to Etiquette & Modern Manners.

I'm curious about sound synthesis, hence Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance (Jerse, Dodge) and Music, Cognition, And Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics (Cook). Other somewhat academic interests are reflected in On Intelligence (Hawkins, Blakeslee) and Dynamics of Complex Systems (Bar-Yam).

I'm curious about gaining some perspective through meditation, hence Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation (Zinn) and Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy (Sekida). In terms of attitude to life, I have appreciated Colin Wilson's work, I own The Outsider, Religion and the Rebel, and Introduction to The New Existentialism, also Robert Pirsig's, Zen And the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila.

I am interested in Christianity. My favorite Bible is New Jerusalem Bible: Standard Edition, I also have Asimov's Guide to the Bible which is loved more by laypeople than experts. On Christianity in general I also have, The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide (Charlesworth), Lost Christianities (Ehrman), The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity (Maccoby), The Gospel Of Jesus: In Search Of The Original Good News (Robinson), Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Aslan).

I have a few history books, abridged A Study of History (Toynbee), A People's History of the United States (Zinn), Killing Hope (Blum), the Maus graphic novels (Spiegelman), Lies My Teacher Told Me (Loewen). Also, history of food: The Englishman's Food (Wilbraham, Drummond), A History of English Food (Dickson Wright), Food in England (Hartley).

My more cookery-related books include, The Chinese Kitchen (Hsiung), The Times Book of Vegetarian Cookery, The Encyclopedia of Family Cooking, The Conran Cookbook (Conran, Conran), Leith's Cookery Bible (Leith), The Sunday Times Cook's Companion, The Complete Cookery Manual (O'Reilly), The Complete Kitchen Companion (Chandler, Yates). In terms of food and health, I appreciated The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan (Reinagel) and The China Study (Campbell, Campbell).

I have had a long-standing interest in UFOs and the paranormal, books reflecting this are, Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (Sheldrake), Life in the Universe (Irwin, Schulze-Makuch), The Conscious Universe (Radin), UFOs & Anti-Gravity (Cramp), The UFO Evidence (Hall) (two volumes), and Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis (Hill).

My favorite classic literature is War and Peace (Tolstoy), The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky), Wuthering Heights (Brontë), The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving), 1984 (Orwell). My favorite science fiction includes Greg Egan's Axiomatic and Luminous, and Iain M. Banks' The Player Of Games and Use Of Weapons. In regular fiction, I also like Banks' The Wasp Factory and Whit and couldn't resist Tom Baker's The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. The Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister books (Jay, Lynn) are an excellent way to experience the episodes without the canned laughter.

It's worth noting that many of these are older books that have survived multiple culls, in some cases been replaced. This makes me suspect that I missed out on some worthwhile books in more recent years.

^*A barcode scanner, perfect for ISBNs. The business model may have been justly derided but the device itself is an ongoing boon.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Ah, a barcode scanner is how you keep track?

I have too many books - between paperback, hard back, audiobook, and kindle. Plus all the books that are in the basement laundry room. Yet, I still buy the buggers.

I've read some of the ones you listed, and enjoyed most of them.

The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Wuthering Heights (play mainly) and the novel - I liked the play better which I read first, A Prayer for Owen Meany - my favorite of Irving's novels and in my opinion his best, 1984. Also Maus, Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (audiobook - the audiobook read by the author is actually pretty good), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

My father had The Historical Jesus, which he loved and quoted from a great deal.

Anyhow, enuf about me - it's an interesting and intriguing list. Thank you for sharing - some nice recommendations in there.

[mtbc]

You're welcome, I'm glad it was worthwhile.

At least, the barcode reader was how I occasionally tried to keep track. (-: But, at least in this instance, taking books by the handful then swiping their barcodes was easier than reading and typing all the titles and authors, or at least less tedious.

I used to buy books as if I were preparing for libraries to not longer be easily evailable to me. For instance, with the religion stuff, I had decent versions of apocrypha and such too. I've cut down my library to a small fraction of what it was, mostly based on, what do I very rarely read and could easily borrow? (and, most recently, what do I want to pay to ship intercontinentally during supply chain disruption?). Still, going into a discount bookstore is dangerous for me, I ought to find which local community library I could then dump things at. Oddly, the pandemic has saved me here: the last cheap bookstore had narrow aisles with plenty of customers, it wasn't worth the risk. Also, that Maccoby Mythmaker book is to be treated with a pinch of salt: it raises some interesting points but may be too eager to draw conclusions, The Historical Jesus and Zealot seem far better to me in that regard.

I was unaware of a Wuthering Heights play! Of the movie adaptations, the 1992 Binoche/Fiennes one's my favorite, it omits less than usual from the later part of the book and, in my view, nicely conveys a heavy dose of psychopathology among the dramatic romance.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was a lucky find in my attempt to remedy my (continuing) ignorance of classic American literature, an attempt to integrate into my adopted country and, indeed, such gave me common ground with one of my neighbors where I last lived there. I find some of the present-day passages less engaging but the bulk of it, recounting the past, includes some really funny parts, including the Christmas pageant. Many books can amuse me but few can make me laugh.

[shadowkat]

Have had a somewhat similar experience with book stores. The pandemic has oddly helped, as has the Kindle, prevent me from buying more paperback and hard cover books that I don't need. The basement of my apartment building is rapidly becoming crowded with books discarded by everyone who lives here or moves away. It's a virtual library. I can just check books out from there - if I want to. Also there's lots of little book houses in the neighborhood - little depositories where people leave books and pick up new ones. This however doesn't keep me from buying books on my Kindle - I bought another one recently for $2, it was by a Latin American author, who writes gothic horror novels. This one was the Daughter of Doctor Moreau, a retelling of HG Wells the Island of Doctor Moreau - which I've read.

I have a vague memory of Mythmaker, I think I may have read or scanned it once. And my memory fits with what you've said about it above, it's sketchy. The Historical Jesus I may try at some point, my father was impressed by it and quoted from it often. Zealot - I found interesting because it was a Jewish/Muslim/Christian's take on the Jesus story - also, it provided a lot of back story on the time period.

In high school, I had to read about 100 plays for a drama course. There was a book of adapted plays from literary works in the library. Among them were - Wuthering Heights, Turn of the Screw, Anne of Green Gables, and a few others. It was huge. Because of this course, which I took for three years, I read all of Woody Allen's plays, all of Neil Simon's, pretty much every play that was available. I even got plays in the mail through a book order service - so I read all the musicals too. As a result, I've read over 1000 plays in my lifetime. Everything from Harold Pinter to Marlow to Shakespeare to Lerner and Lowe. Also a lot of female playwrites, whose names I can't remember at the moment for some reason or other.

Anyhow, I agree - the best Wuthering Heights that I've seen was the Fiennes/Binoche version that focused on the later years. Most don't. And the part of the play that I found the most interesting was the later years. The story is kind of told in flashback, and is almost a ghost story. The book is interesting in that respect. And versions that focus on that - are better, I think.

A Prayer for Owen Meany - is hilarious in places. And I'd agree - few books make me really laugh, amuse yes, laugh no. And Owen Meany managed to make me laugh out loud, and cry. I also agree - that the flashbacks to the past were more engaging than the present day bits. A friend foisted it on me in college - insisting I read it and it was the best thing ever - and she was right. I fell in love with it.

[mtbc]

Mythmaker: Barnes & Noble were selling it for $7 so I don't mind having paid that but, unlike the other books in that group, I'd not bother replacing it.

Goodness, that's a lot of plays, I tend to like some of the more theatrical dramas so I might tend more toward plays than many but I am unfamiliar with the work of many major playwrights. I suppose that leaves me plenty of new things yet to discover.