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Fr. Jake has tagged me for a book list...last read, etc. I accept the challenge. Like him I am unable to limit the answer to one book per category. 1. Two books that changed your life. The Geography of Nowhere, by James Howard Kunstler. It completely changed the way I view our built environment, the accepted car culture and the crap-scape it produces. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, by John Shelby Spong. Without this one I wouldn't be a Christian and I certainly wouldn't be studying for the priesthood. It follows that I'd probably still be in Milwaukee, working as an actor...so, yeah. Big change there - emotional, intellectual and practical. 2. Two books that you have read more than once. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The second greatest story ever told. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman. A brilliant historian's look at a deeply fascinating period. 3. Two books you'd want on a desert island. I agree with Fr. Jake on this one... The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. I'm a postulant in the Anglican Church of Canada, but for the Daily Office you really can't beat the American BCP. The office in the BAS is like a box of spare parts, some assembly required. The Bible, specifically the NRSV. 4. Two books that made you laugh. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Actually, all of his books make me laugh. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Hey, I never claimed to be sophisticated. 5. Two books that made me cry...I'm an easy cry, so one is too few. Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik. This one also made me laugh riotously, but it contains some of the most heart-wrenching descriptions of loss and beauty that I've ever read. If you can read the English language, buy this book. Now. And read it immediately. Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It made me cry as a kid, it makes me cry now. Hey, I said I was an easy cry. 6. Two books that you wish had been written. Let Me Clarify "Love Thy Neighbour", by God. The third book of Robertson Davies' unfinished trilogy. 7. Two books that you wish had not been written. I don't really have any, at least not off the top of my head. I suppose the world could have done without Ann Coulter, but then who would we mock? The Bible would be more comfortable without some of the truly horrific images in Revelation, but then we'd lose some of those beautiful images, too, like the saints gathered around the throne. Besides, who says faith should be comfortable? Nope...there's no book I wish wasn't written. 8. Two books that you're currently reading. The Stripping of the Altars, by Eamon Duffy. It's about as biased as a book gets, but interesting anyhow. Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingles Wilder. Yeah, yeah...see a couple entries back for the explanation of this. I'm reading it in the W.C., and I don't tend to spend a lot of time in there, so it's going to be a while. A few pages at a time. I might be the only 33 year old who takes two or three weeks to read a Little House book. 9. One book you've been meaning to read. The Shape of the Liturgy, by Dom Gregory Dix. I'd meant to read it as part of my internship, until I discovered that it was eight million pages long. I've shot myself in the foot, though, because I'll need to read it for my honours thesis. Sigh... And I tag...everyone listed under "Blogroll" over on the right --> |
