Friday, May 27, 2005

Book Meme

I do not know what a meme is but here goes

1 Number of books I own must be in the hundreds as I am a NYC strand book store rat.
I estimate the number to be in the 900 range.

2 Last book I bought
Embarassingly Eric Breindel's A Passion for Truth the selected writtings of Eric Breindel . Only Pam and Jason know who he was but he is my hero. He was the brilliant Conservative who was cool and unafraid to call a Commie a Commie. His Kristalnacht in Brooklyn changed shook the city with a pen.
This is not glamorous or deep reading.

3 Last book I read the same as two Breindel speaks to us loudly even ten years after he is gone.

4 Five Books That Mean alot to me. Unlike Pam and Jason I am a non fiction man. I read next zero fiction as life is too short.

1 Fear No Evil By Sharansky . Anatoly Sharanskys account of prison life is comedic
and inspiring. There are times when I turn to Anatoly for inspiration

2 Lovesong by Julius Lester . Lester's account of a black man reclaiming his Jewish
roots is unforgettable. I have corresponded with the author and he is the nicest writer. Regular readers of this blog know I have two brothers Rav Roov and another brother who is a Comander in the Navy.There was a Jewish history question that stumped two rabbis and four historians. I asked Prof Lester and he explained why the question was wrong.

3 Indigenous People Under The Rule of Islam by Fred P Isaac. This book is invaluable in the war on Terror. Repeating the premise will get you threatened by a leftist Utopian or Muslim Radical. So unless your name is Jason or Warren do not open that book. Reading that book will change your mind on the role of terrorism in Islam . If you are not prepared for verbal combat leave this book alone. Prof Issac also explained the missing parts in an Email. I was confused as to Islams history with Sikhs , Druze and Alawies . Isaac is an Assyrian please do not forget them.

4 The Great Divide by Alvin Schmidtt. This book compares the impact of Christianity
and Islam on their respective societies. This book is invaluable when Islamo apologists say well so did Christianity. The book is upsetting so unless you are Jason , Warren and Always on Watch leave it alone .

5 The Black Book of Communism as it is invaluable to kicking Communists in the rear end. I can not tell you how many Communist I have argued with over this book.I am a life long anticommunist liberal in the mode of Rudy.

5 Tag three people and ask them the same questions
1 I would love to Know what Warrens been reading as he is so tough
2 Always on the Watch is well informed and I am curious
3 I also want to know what Elijah reads .

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beak,

I won't take the test, but would simply encourage you NOT to "completely" ignore fiction. For sometimes "fiction" is the best path towards developing a real understanding of "truth" (Greek Comedy and Tragedy comes to my mind).

-FJ

beakerkin said...

Farmer John

Life is too short and there is way too much history we must learn. We
must combat the left wing authoritaians in every manner. The
Black Book is more valuable then
Orwell and Rand .

Yesterday the sailors picked my brains on history , NYC and how it all fits together.

You do not have a blog but answer the questions in my comments section. It is a fun excersize .

Anonymous said...

Okay...

1) I own thousands of books, but I only keep handy and regularly refer to only about 100. The "others" are mostly left-overs from college and raising 3 kids

2) The last book(s) I bought (3 from B&N.com) were Freud's "Moses and Monotheism", Freud's "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego", and Aldous Huxley's "Island". They were all ordered and received together.

3) The last book I read was Huxley's "Island". I had read and loved his distopic "Brave New World" in high school, and thought it time to read his utopic "Island". I think high school kids would be better served if they were required to read, contrast, and compare both together. They would then learn "why" there are no perfect utopia's.

4) My five books that mean a lot to me...

a) Will Durant's "Story of Philosophy" - introduced me to the great thinkers of western civilization.

b) Plato's "Laws" - I saved this "best for last" dialogue to get a feel for Plato's final "ideal societal form".

c) Rousseau's "Emile" - A great thought experiment on how to raise a "free" and "independent" child. [Fenelon's "Telemachus" (for females) and "Robinson Crusoe" (sic) (for males) being the only books Rousseau would recommend for children's reading]

d) Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" - A wonderful primer on post-modernism and the reasons why civilizations fall. (Oswald Spengler was to Nietzsche what Aristotle was to Plato)

e) Freud's "Psychopathology of Everyday Life". If you ever wish to convince yourself as to the efficacy of pyschology, this is the book to convince you. The day after I read it, I was able to explain why a movie-buff friend of mine couldn't remember the name of the movie he had just seen over the weekend, "Pirates of the Carribean", even though he could name all the actors in it and detail scenes for us. He had just previously finished telling us of his son's Carribean cruise, and it was a Monday morning and we were in a car heading for work where he was a member of a project team called the "Pirates" (Answer- He was repressing thoughts of work, and he had just associated "Carribean" with a different topic and so thought that THAT couldn't be part of the title. Curiously, the moment we arrived at work that day, he remembered the title.)

5) I guess that since I don't have my own blog, I'll have to work this one "off line".

-FJ

Warren said...

I read a lot, my house is full of books too. Fiction, nonfiction, biographies, technical manuals. Hell, I'll read the labels on cans if nothing else is available.

The last two nonfiction books were, "American Caesar", (biography of Douglas MacArthur) and, "The Free World Colossus", (David Horowitz's anti-American diatribe from his Commie days). I also have an autographed trade publication of "Radical Son". :^)

I've read some Nietzsche, Rand and others. I've read more Karl Jung than Sigmund Freud and come to the conclusion that Freud had problems of his own.

For red meat, Tom Clancy's books, (his technical details are on spot!), "The Hunt for Red October", "Red Storm Rising".

All the Harry Potter books, (truly) :^)

Robert Heinlein, was my favorite author. The first Hardback book I owed was "Tom Corbett Space Cadet". It was a gift from my cousin when I was eight years old, I still have it!

Now I need to read the books you and Elijah have suggested, they're in the quay.

beakerkin said...

Warren

If you ever read the Great Divide
by Scmidtt or Indigenous people under the Rule of Islam liberals would need track shoes. Much of Indigenous people under the rule of Islam is available on line.

Esther said...

Hey Beak,

Figured I'd bury my email addy deep down here. :)

It's estherhoffman AT hotmail.com

I value your friendship too and would love to hear more.