Ack, another book meme.
CC tagged me with a book meme. Here's my answer:
1. One book that changed your life?
Sydney Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People. I read it in 1976 for a college course of the same name, taught by Professor Ahlstrom. My parents had fallen away from UUism because they thought (even back then) that it had grown too diffuse to compete with other claims on precious weekend time. Reading the book taught me for the first time that there was in fact tremendous substance in my liberal religious heritage, but also, that my denomination was for the most part neglecting it, and it needed to be reclaimed and preached vigorously again.
2. One book you have read more than once?
Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, Goodnight Moon. Like most parents, I’ve lost count on this one.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Barnes & Noble’s single-volume edition of The Yale Shakespeare. Considering the circumstances, I’d probably read The Tempest first.
4. One book that made you laugh?
Dave Barry, The World According to Dave Barry. It has a permanent spot on the shelf of our guest bathroom.
5. One book that made you cry?
Books don’t seem to have that effect on me any more. I think the last one that did may have been one of the classic dog stories by Albert Payson Terhune.
6. One book you wish had been written?
Two:
My half-begun project that might eventually become an anthology of essays and original source material in American Unitarian history.
My other half-begun project that might eventually become a how-to book for tying and fishing trout flies to match the various life stages of the most common East Coast aquatic insects.
7. One book you wish had never been written?
Anything by Ann Coulter.
8. One book you are currently reading?
John Gimlette, Theatre of Fish. A droll romp through the eccentric history of Newfoundland and Labrador.
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
At least four:
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.
Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God.
George M. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life.
Charles Chauncy, The ... Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God ... . (The complete title is much longer.)
10. Five people to pass this on to?
I don’t like to perpetuate chain letters, but anyone who feels the urge to respond is hereby called.
posted by fausto @ 10/15/2006 10:02:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
((
My half-begun project that might eventually become an anthology of essays and original source material in American Unitarian history.
))
I would SO buy that...
(Ok, I'd buy the fishing one, too, but only because you're my friend. I'd READ the Unitarian History one.)
CC
I won't blog on the whole meme, but I remember weeping on a train in England at parts of _The Cider House Rules_. I wish _Mein Kampf_ and "The Malleus Maleficarum" had never been written. A book that changed my life was -- and I'm embarrassed to admit this -- _The Mists of Avalon_ by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It was the first time I ever considered that there might be a woman's historical experience that had never been accessible to me.
I've been meaning to read _Judge Sewall's Apology_ and _Constantine's Sword_ and to finish the John Adams bio by David McCullough.
I am currently working through _The Faithful Shepherd_ by David Hall, _Moses: A Life_ by Jonathan Kirsch and _Errand Into the Wilderness_ by Perry Miller.
I'm glad I got to do so much relatively fun reading over the summer.
That is a book I've also wished to be written (or rather compiled). I'd also really like to see some original source material of the "transition period" to see just how Unitarianism and Universalism have evolved. There's a big gap in between Rev. Starr King and 1961 in my knowledge of the tradition. I've got a vague notion about the rise of Humanism in there, but that's about all I know, aside from some minor details about specific congregations.
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