the dao of diane: five...no,six books

[bluegreen17]

recently, lucretius in the community booktards, posed the question...i'm paraphrasing...what
five books would you recommend to a new acquaintance that would help them get to know you better?

there are some interesting answers here.

my original answer was:

ramona the pest-beverly cleary
i loved the ramona books as i kid (and later the public tv series). i could always relate to ramona. i was/am pesty and can be really annoying but i have a good heart.

siddhartha-hermann hesse
there's one chapter i read over and over. i think it's chapter 11 called 'om',where he realizes every bit of life is important and that the best thing to do is embrace and accept and love it ALL,in order to be enlightened. i first read an excerpt from this chapter in henry miller's nonfiction book stand still like the hummingbird. and i was turned onto henry miller's nonfiction by sark!

the game of life and how to live
it-florence scovel shinn
this is a philosophy i'm generally trying to follow these days,with various modifications,but the basic principles of 'new thought' are explained in a friendly manner here.

visions of gerard-jack kerouac
i love the way that this is written and i can relate to a lot of it as kerouac had the same french canadien american background i do. and i have always been able to relate to jack because of his tendency to melancholy.
i'm fortunate in not being addicted to alcohol,so with my sugar addiction i will possibly live longer than he did.

a collection of u2 lyrics (i'm sure one exists!)
i love u2's sound. it's just a bonus that the lyrics continue to knock me over the head even though sometimes i've heard them many many times! they can be interpreted a lot of different ways. it would be interesting to see how a new acquaintance would interpret them. if they 'get' some of the same things,perhaps then they will also 'get' me...at least parts of my personality and spirit,anyway.

however,after writing that, i realized i had to fit in rodolfo scarfallotto's alchemy of opposites in there somewhere,so what would i remove? now,that's a tough one.
ah,forget it. i'll just add it on. i love this last one because it embraces everything in life and explains how opposites are the same if one can perceive it. this i aspire to do. contradictions become (w)holy paradoxes.

so,what about you?

Comments

my choices...?

[nimoy.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is really difficult, so I guess I'll just have to do with what I come up with at first.

Hm---wow.

A few favorites--

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series: Good lord! During junior high+ these books shaped my mind so much. Fantasy/sci-fi to the max, yo. I always wanted to be an Aes Sedai. Sadly, I stopped reading them after the seventh one or so, it seemed too mass-produced.

Nancy Drew TOO! I love Nancy Drew.

Nine Short Stories and Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger: I know so many people list Salinger as their "favorite author" but I identify very much with his character Seymour.

Prozac Nation: Young & Depressed in America by Elizabeth Wurtzel....this one made me realize I'm not alone in my emotions.

every Peanuts comic ever written...

I don't know if this would help someone understand me, so much as give them an eensy-weensy peek into my life.

Re: my choices...?

[bluegreen17]

i think this is a fascinating look into someone's psyche. i could have easily found five kids books to explain myself. i didn't even have room for pippi longstocking or the little house on the prairie books or even the bobbsey twins! (i read them instead of nancy drew.)

william styron's 'darkness visible' had a similar effect as prozac nation did on you...it made me feel much less alone. i read it when i was seriously depressed and it helped in an empathetic way. i wasn't crazy. or at least...i wasn't the only one who was crazy!

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

the bell jar Silvia Plath
the complete Works of William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Socerer's/Philospher's Stone J.K.Rowling
Homicide: a Year on the Killing Streets David Simon
How the Scots invvented the Modern world Arthur Herman

those would be my five... should be obvous why... ^_^

[bluegreen17]

that's quite an interesting combo! oh,and who's the prince of scotland? as if i didn't know...

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

hehe.. you know... Billy of course... *snicker*

well... I really didn't wanna go in too deep into why each book would fit me simply because each one is a significate part of my personality...

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

I apologize for replying to myself here but i am going to go explain the list over on my journal... *smiles*

books

[sstitch.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm... The Riddle of Stars trilogy by patricia McKillip
The Lord Of The Rings trilogy
The Prophet
Dune et al
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I spent my summers reading my way through our town library. Any one remember the Great Brain series? I could go on and on but well..it's impossible to name them all...such GOOD friends.

Re: books

[bluegreen17]

yeah,i've read my way through libraries too. i think 'the great brain' was when i was older,but i read 'encyclopedia brown' and 'danny dunn'.

Books, Books, and More Bookie Questions (il est...)

[allogenes.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm...

[1] The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Faulkner (trans.)

[2] Magic and Mystery in Tibet, Alexandra David-Neel

[3] An Introduction to Cybernetics, W. Ross Ashby

[4] Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges

[5] The Geometry of Biological Time, A.T. Winfree

Ask again in one year and the list will undoubtedly be completely different... :-)

[oxhead.livejournal.com]

This question by Lucretius is problematical mainly because of how it limits us who respond. Most strong readers are loathe to pick only five books that would "define them." I tried, but I can't really do it.