Not My Typical Update
This isn’t my typical style of update, but I’m hoping it’ll get the ball rolling again since I havn’t posted in a while. Anyway, my brother at zogworld just hit me up to do a book meme. What the hell that is I’m not really sure, but he’s got links and stuff on his website, so you can check it all out there. Anyway, looks like there are 9 questions and 1 request to be covered, so here we go:
- One book that changed your life
- One book you have read more than once
- One book you would want on a desert island
- One book that made you laugh
- One book you wish had been written
- One book you wish had never had been written
- One book that made you cry
- One book you are currently reading
- One book you have been meaning to read
- Now tag five people
So, one theme I consistently see here is “one”, so I am going to try and limit each answer to one book though for several of the questions several answers come to mind.
- One book that changed your life: Well, that is a large cup o tea right there, that is. Anyway, … I’d probably have to go with Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn. The reason I say this, was it was at a very influential time in my life. First, I had just quit my job and would not work again for a year. Second, I was very disappointed with the direction in which my life was heading and was trying to “self educate” to help give my life new direction. Third, I was preparing for my Outward Bound trip, which is an experience that totally rearranged a lot of stuff for me for a while, mostly positively. And fourth, this was the book that made me realize that I liked reading. Throughout my life I had always been “forced” to read books. I was told what to read, and when it had to be done by, and then I’d either be tested on it or have to write a paper on it. I read very little books for pleasure until after I was 21. Not all will agree, but I also liked Daniel Quinn’s writing style and since then have purchased and read all of his other works, including some hard to find ones.
- One book you have read more than once: Easy, The Bones on Black Spruce Mountain by David Budbill. I have seriously read this book 10+ times. I would say this book falls into a ‘favorites’ category for me easily. It is a book written for young readers, I probably read it for the first time in about 5th grade. It most likely took me quite a while to read at that age, not really being into reading, but now when I read it, it takes me an afternoon. This is just one of those books, I bet you have one too.
- One book you would want on a desert island: No idea. Maybe, Survive on a Desert Island by Claire Llewellyn. Really the only thing that would make sense would be a survival book or something along those lines. I mean, I would probably use the book to start a fire with before I would allow myself to get all wrapped up wondering about the wonders of life. Water, shelter, food, and rest all come before books. Oh, well.
- One book that made you laugh: Book that made me laugh? I’ll go with Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I probably started reading this book about whenever I started to read and have always read it. The poems are smart and funny the pictures are the same. I have recited many a poem from this book for school, and still have some memorized today. Listening to Shel read it on audio book is classic too.
- One book you wish had been written: What an awkward question (< what an awkward word to spell). The “book” that is actually being written now, the “book” of my life. But, if it had been written, I could read it and skip ahead sometimes when I got confused and see what the outcome would be.
- One book you wish had never had been written: I can not think of any book which I would wish it not to be written. But how about this, can you imagine the impact (or lack there of) if a certain book had never been written: The Bible. Now that would be something.
- One book that made you cry: Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom. I don’t remember why, besides the story obviously, but this book tore me up. Tears running down my face tore me up. Could get out of bed and be productive tore me up. I think I literally stayed under the covers in bed one day while house sitting a friends house and read this book and cried. It was bizarre, it was release, it was a good book.
- One book you are currently reading: Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles by Ray Daniels. This book was recomended to me by another brewer friend. So far it reads like a lot of books about brewing, technical and repetative, but always informative. To actually really retain the information, you have to read it in chunks. then once all the chuncks have been read, this will be a great reference book for trying to brew to a particular style and how to adjust things properly.
- One book you have been meaning to read: Diary: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk. I actually just ordered a signed 1st edition, 1st printing, now out of print hard cover of this book yesterday. Can’t wait to carefully read it. I really like Chuck’s writings, if you haven’t read any of his stuff you totally should, he’s more than just Fight Club.
- Now tag five people: 1 – Erik Mitchell, 2 – B.T., 3 – Richand and/or Ann, 4 – Garrett, and 5 – Jack Curtain (hey, why not!)