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10 books I’ve never read
By Mr. Stupid | March 29, 2008
Lynnae over at beingfrugal.net has a piece on 10 books that changed her life. It’s part of a bigger “project” by Ryan Healy.
It’s specious to claim that only certain books have changed your life, though. Everything you read changes your life in one way or another. Even the tiniest phrase makes an impression. Sort of a butterfly effect for the brain. Besides the 10 or so books I have listed under “Required Reading” in the sidebar, I can think of lots of books that have changed my life. Lessee….
- Dads & Daughters — Pretty good intro to why I am going to hate my kids when they’re older. Am reading this right now. I doubt I’ll finish before the library wants it back.
- Dungeon Master’s Guide (2nd ed) by the late E. Gary Gygax — Counts as a book, right? Yeah, I used to be the Mayor of Nerd-town.
- A Gamut of Games — This is more my style these days; a book of DIY games by revered American game designer Sid Sackson.
- The Inferno by Dante Alighieri — I read this when I was working overnights at a gas station. It was a dark period in my life. I should get points for knowing his last name.
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman — I carried this little bastard around with me for months, in an unsuccessful attempt at picking up crunchy chicks. Read it cover to cover, though.
- Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco — I read this book because my dad loved it and I wanted to have something I could talk to him about. We talked about it for a few minutes. Mission accomplished.
That’s 6. That’s pretty good. Still thinking…
- The Hitchiker’s Guide series — Classic. I still quote those damn things… “What’s wrong with being drunk?” … “Just ask a glass of water.”
- Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days — This book changed my life considerably. I got about half way through, wrote some scripts, and turned that knowledge into my career of quasi-programming.
- Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged, compact edition) — Yes, it comes with a really cool magnifying glass… and I bought the CD version, too, in case I needed to look something up when I was away from home. It’s amazing what you’ll spend money on before you have kids.
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller — I laughed out loud when I read this. I’d read it again if I didn’t read so slowly. I can manage about 10 pages per hour.
There you have it. I am not much of a reader… I consider finishing Atlas Shrugged (sidebar) a major life accomplishment. It took me about 9 months to get through, even though I skipped John Galt’s speech, which saved me about 10 hours of my life. Objectivism is great and all, but the speech seemed to just repeate alot of Rand’s points that she had already made throughout the book.
If we count books on tape/CD, then I’ve read the Lord of the Rings series (unabridged), more Eco, a bunch of Michael Crichton books, and the unabridged editions of Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code (which I’ll admit I loved). I got through about 2 CDs worth of McCullough’s John Adams before I broke down and signed up with Sirius satellite radio. No more books on CD for me.
What’s more impressive, I think, is the list of books I’ve bought but never read.
Looking around, I can see:
- Cheese Primer — I doubt I’ll ever read it. I just have a penchant for quasi-reference books. I feel like I have to buy them or I won’t be able to access that knowledge. This is a very pre-internet way of thinking.
- The Way Things Work — I’m curious enough about how things work to buy books, but then not curious enough to actually read them. I’ve also bought books on maths, antennae, electronics, LANs, and cooking.
- A Briefer History of Time — WTF, Mr. Hawking? I thought this one was supposed to be in English.
- 1984 — Promised myself I’d read this. Promises, promises.
- Holy Blood Holy Grail — Bought this because of my love of The DaVinci Code. This book is the one Dan Brown supposedly ripped off. Just thinking about this book, I can barely stifle a yawn.
- Nature’s Building Blocks — Interesting, but another “reference book” I thought I just had to have. Uh, wikipedia anyone?
- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco — Picked this up on the discount rack at Borders because it was by Eco. That was a waste of $4.99 + tax.
- Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge — Bought this as a filler for an Amazon order. Now I know better ways to fill out my Amazon orders.
- Complete Fairy Tales of the Brother’s Grimm — Bought it when I found out my wife was pregnant with our first child. At the time, I was determined NOT to have princesses, Berenstein Bears, and Dora books in MY house. What bullshit thinking that turned out to be.
- Primitive Mythology — You can’t swing a dead cat in a Liberal Arts department without hitting someone who worships Joseph Campbell. I tried to go to His church, but I couldn’t get past the 2nd page.
Buying books makes me feel smart. Not buying them would be Stupid.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Read 1984 - short and excellent book.