Book meme!
Kasia May 19th, 2007
Stephanie tagged me for a meme, which I meant to do sooner but have been just too busy with the new job to do yet. Thanks Stephanie! I actually would have said a lot of the same books as you did, so I will try to vary up my answers…but a couple of them are just too spot-on to ignore. 
Three works of non-fiction everyone should read:
1. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I know, Stephanie said it too, but it really is a phenomenal book. I’ve read it twice, once in high school and once at the end of college, and both times it played a significant role in drawing me toward the Faith.
2. Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941 – 1968 by Heda Margolius Kovaly. Kovaly was a Czechoslovakian Jew who has since emigrated to the U.S. It starts with her escaping from a forced march between concentration camps and just gets more amazing from there. In addition to her being an excellent writer, she’s got an incredible story to tell. Be forewarned that it’s painful to read at times – the title is apt – but well worth reading. It also is one of the books that convinced me that Communism, however much its theoretical promises may be alluring (”Enough for everyone! No one goes without!”), is a wretched idea that should be consigned to the dustbin of history. But Kovaly makes that argument far better than I could here…so go read!
3. We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch. Gourevitch is a journalist who went to Rwanda after the genocide. Again, haunting, but well worth reading.
And I have to add one book that I haven’t read yet but that is on my list, as it comes so highly recommended: Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire. Another Rwanda book – Dallaire commanded the U.N. forces in Rwanda, and basically had his hands tied by the higher-ups at the U.N. He could have decided to just up and leave, and take his troops with him, since they weren’t able to do any material good (i.e. save lives), but instead decided he was morally obliged to stay and bear witness to what happened. He is also the person on whom Nick Nolte’s character in Hotel Rwanda is based.
Three works of fiction everyone should read:
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – not only is it a great story and a great read, it’s also a timeless lesson in some of the more common foibles in human relationships.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Quite simply one of the best books ever written.
3. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. They’re child-friendly (I first read them as an under-10) but there’s enough there for an adult to get something out of them too, particularly if one wants to understand some of the more nuanced Christian allegory present in them.
Three authors everyone should read:
1. C.S. Lewis. Simply one of the greatest Christian apologists of the 20th century, and in my opinion, a contender to be one of the greatest (at least most influential), oh, maybe 100 post-apostolic Christian apologists. But I accept that that’s an arguable point. 
2. St. Francis de Sales. Especially if, like me, you’re prone to anxiety or melancholy.
3. Agatha Christie. Just don’t expect to guess whodunit before she tells you.
Three books no one should read:
With the caveat that, like Stephanie, I usually read a book anyway just to know what’s in it, these are a few of the books I don’t recommend anyone bother with.
1. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. It’s well-written, I’ll grant you that, but the story is basically about Constance Chatterley’s journey into self-fulfillment via her extramarital affair with the moody (bordering on bipolar) groundskeeper. Plus, parts of it cross the line into soft-core porn.
2. Anything by O.J. Simpson. Look, dude, you were acquitted. Do you really need to spend the rest of your life trying to convince the rest of the world that the jury was right to acquit you? Just go away. Please. Nothing you say is going to convince the people who think you’re guilty that they’re wrong. (And no, I haven’t bothered to read any of these myself. My attitude is that he was acquitted, and both he and God know whether he’s innocent. I’ll leave it to them to sort out.)
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I really dug it when I was in high school, but now that I’m past my militant feminist/secularist days, all I can say is “Peggy’s got some issues.”
For the record, I also emphatically do not recommend anything by Ann Coulter or Michael Moore. I haven’t had much exposure to Franken or Hannity, so I’ll reserve judgment on them.
Now, let’s see. I tag The Big Seester, Dr. Mabuse, and anyone else who feels like participating. If you don’t have a blog of your own (Jill and Jenn in particular), feel free to leave your responses in the combox. DJ and The Canuck, I have a sneaking suspicion TBS will tag you, so you may want to save yourself for that.
Yay! Good stuff
Hope the new job is going well!
I’ve put up my list, but I expect I’ll change it over the coming days. I didn’t even go downstairs to look at my bookshelves, I just went by memory; I’ll bet if I actually SEE the books, I’ll say, “Oh, wait, I really should have picked THAT one!”
“Ah, I saw yer!” — Sir Pete of Townshend, when Keef Moon jumped up from behind the studio barricades where he’d been sequestered during the recording of “Happy Jack”
Ach, Katie, no, no, NO . . . no Jane Austen. Read Ben. Disraeli, instead.
Okay, well, I’ll do fer yer list, totally off the top of my head. . .
NON-FICTION:
- Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung — Lester Bangs
- The Jewish War — Josephus
- Republican Party Reptile — P.J. O’Rourke
FICTION:
- The Bible — Many, many human beings
- To Kill A Mockingbird — Harper Lee (I’m with you on this one)
- The Jungle Books — Rudyard Kipling
AUTHORS EVERYONE SHOULD READ
- Lester Bangs
- Christopher Hitchens
- Hunter S. Thompson
BOOKS NO ONE SHOULD READ
- Anything by Albert Goldman (especially The Lives of John Lennon)
- Ditto Noam Chomsky
- The most unholy Koran
More later. Oy, the Western air is magnificent.
yrs,
JW
I may give this a go. Check out my blog later today..
Kuz, I love ya, but this just confirms for me that we have nothing in common save some DNA and our skull girths. (And To Kill a Mockingbird.)
Hitchens is a sad, angry, pathetic man. I tried reading Thompson back in high school – when I was most apt to be able to get into his work – and while he’s technically proficient, that’s the only good thing I can say about him. If the stuff about Bangs you’ve sent out is any indicator of his work, I’ve no interest in him.
And just because you resent having been named after Jane Austen is no reason to dismiss her work. I will, however, be happy to take a look-see at Disraeli.
Hitchens is a thinker. Like him or not, he puts the dots together.
Lester is still good. Pick up Psychotic Reactions sometime and just leaf through it. There’s a good bio of him called Let It Blurt. I know he might not be to your taste at first but he was, after all, our hometown guy. When you get into him a bit more I think you’ll understand the Detroit we grew up in in the Seventies and early Eighties.
Yeah, I know, my Jane Austen block is kind of silly. Part of it also has to do with the fact that I tend more toward nonfiction than fiction, I take things way too seriously, etc. But the whole point of a novel is just that, novelty. It doesn’t have to mean too much. Light reading. I can be like my dad and read Freud and Marx and every newspaper in the world while sitting on the john, and also be like my mom and read mystery novels and silly light Victoriana while lying in bed.
To Kill a Mockingbird, incidentally, I’ve always found goes quite well with some Sun Records music as background noise. I’ll send you a mixtape sometime later this summer or maybe over the holidays (have been compiling lists of songs for friends, fiends & family).
Hmm. Does this mean that I have to start posting something on my blog???