I got tagged

I noticed yesterday that Why Law called on me to share with the entire class. I talk about books all the time anyway, but why not? I can't disappoint my fans.


1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be saved?

Unlike some of the people who have gone before me, I've actually read Fahrenheit 451. I'm not saying that to brag, just to say that I wondered the same thing when I finished reading it. It would be quite the responsibility to memorize a book, knowing that you may be the only surviving source of that material. I couldn't come up with a very good answer at the time, but I think I would pick one of the gospels. Probably John.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Can't say that I have had a crush per se in the way I think of crushes, but my favorite books feature characters that I can fall in love with in one way or another. I'm drawing a blank right now on any female characters that I really liked; most of the books I've read recently were lacking strong female characters of a legal age.

3. The last book you purchased?

That would be the massive Oxford Guide to Wine. I borrow novels; I buy reference books.

4. What are you currently reading?

I'm taking my time with The Cost of Discipleship, with breaks inbetween to read fiction. You can see more of my upcoming selections on the TBR pile at the bottom of the sidebar to your right.

5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?

I know, it's cheating to say "Guide to Practical Ship-Building," right? We're talking about five books that stand up to the test of time, and suffer multiple re-readings, also assuming that these may be the last and only books that one reads in the event of no rescue. Plus you don't want something you can read in an afternoon, because you'd get sick of it really fast. Also, these will not necessarily be the same books I would like to own under normal circumstances. I prefer to buy books that I can't find at the library: foreign works, rarities, graphic novels and independent stuff.

With that said, if I knew that I were about to be stranded for an indefinite period of time in an unfamiliar environment, and disallowing practical guides*, I would take along the following:

1. the Bible, to keep my mind on what matters,
   
2. Complete Works of Shakespeare because I could totally kill time by memorizing all the lines to Hamlet and staging my own one-man show,
3. Finnegans Wake, since I would have all the time in the world to figure it out, and nobody to make fun of me for reading it out loud,
   
4. A big art book full of prints so that I'd have something beautiful to look at, and
   
5. The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, for much-needed comic relief
   

On the other hand, if I'm just sailing out to the deserted island for a week-long holiday, and returning to civilization afterward, I would simply take the next five books from my TBR pile.

*Which I would take the best books I could find on shipbuilding, survival, plant identification, ocean navigation, and maybe some puzzles to keep me from going insane.