Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Immediate Book Meme

photo by Evan Laurence Bench

There are plenty of memes that want to know all about your book history and your all-time greats and your grand ambitions, but let's focus on something more revealing: the books you're actually reading now, or just read, or are about to read. Let's call it The Immediate Book Meme.

1. What book are you reading now?

Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson

2. What book did you just finish?

Mirrors to One Another: Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David Hume, by E. M. Dadlez

Cupid and Psyche ~ A New Play in Blank Verse: The Bad Quarto Limited Editionby Emily C.A Snyder
(Emily was a drama major with me at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Cupid and Psyche just finished an off-Broadway run.)

Cruel Beauty, by Rosamund Hodge

3. What do you plan to read next?

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery, by Dorothy Sayers

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Poetics, by Aristotle
The Four Cardinal Virtues, by Josef Pieper

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

6. What is your current reading trend?

books about philosophy in Jane Austen

23 comments:

Paul Zummo said...

1. What book are you reading now?
Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, by Ronald White.

2. What book did you just finish?

1066: Year of Conquest, by David Howarth.

Hannibal, by Thomas Harris

3. What do you plan to read next?

I don't know, got any recommendations?

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Summa Theologica, by Aquinas
On the Trinity, by St. Augustine

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Yuval Levin: The Great Debate

6. What is your current reading trend?

Wikipedia entries about Dr. Who episodes.

Darwin said...

1. What book are you reading now?

(in print) The First World Warby Hew Strachan

(audiobook) All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

2. What book did you just finish?

(in print) The Long Silence: Civilian Life under the German Occupation of Northern France, 1914-1918 by Helen McPhail

(audiobook) Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford

3. What do you plan to read next?

(in print) Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna

(audiobook) The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Vanity Fair by Thackary -- I started reading this almost four years ago, got 80% through, was interrupted, and somehow never got back even though I've enjoyed it a lot.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

I keep a row of books on the mantle in the library which are the books that I mean to read soon -- it's typically 10-20 books, some of which have been there for years, as my aspirations are always greater than my time.

One that jumps out in memory at the moment is Five For Sorrow, Ten For Joy by Rumer Godden. I also want to re-read Lord of the Rings before the year is out, because it's been a good five years since I've done that -- perhaps the longest I've gone without reading it in my adult life.

6. What is your current reading trend?

World War One (novel research)

Jenny said...

For me 'reading' is a fluid concept. Most of these are on CD during commute.

What book are you reading now?

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (which is tearing my heart out, makes the modern accusations of there being a current 'rape culture' laughable)

Cruel Beauty, by Rosamund Hodge

2. What book did you just finish?

The Sinner's Guide to NFP, by Simcha Fisher

Silas Marner, by George Eliot


3. What do you plan to read next?

Elizabeth of York, by Alison Weir

Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

I Don't Want to be a Hoo-er, by Elizabeth Scalia

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

N/A

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Introduction to the Devout Life, by Francis

The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis

6. What is your current reading trend?

19th Century English novels

bearing said...

1. What book are you reading now? -- Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, by Max Tegmark

2. What book did you just finish? Finish? Who finishes a book? The last book I put down was Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold.

3. What do you plan to read next?

Rome with Kids: An Insider's Guide by J. M. Pasquesi

That's as far as I got before I got interrupted.

Josiah Neeley said...

1. What book are you reading now?

Catastrophe 1914 by Max Hastings

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan

A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark

My First Coup D'etat by John Dramani Mahama

History of the Church by Eusebius

(audiobook) A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

2. What book did you just finish?

The Undercover Economist Strikes Back by Tim Harford

3. What do you plan to read next?

(in print) Love and Economics Jennifer Roback Morse

(audiobook) The Pity of War by Niall Ferguson

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

History of the Church. I read a couple of pages every Sunday, but it is slow going.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

What to Expect When No One's Expecting by Jonathan Last

6. What is your current reading trend?

First World War

Anne Pelrine said...

1. What book are you reading now?

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (audio)

2. What book did you just finish?

Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett

Horton Halfpott or The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset by Tom Angleberger (audio)

3. What do you plan to read next?

Either Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett or Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

My Catholic Faith: A Catechism in Pictures--it's so densely packed with great stuff that I can only get through a bit at a time.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Confessions by St. Augustine

6. What is your current reading trend?

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, mostly, with other children's authors thrown in here and there.

Simcha Fisher said...

Good idea! I'm gonna be obnoxious and leave a link to my post:

http://bit.ly/1fe0oVu/

Darwin said...

Simcha,

Not obnoxious at all! Feels oddly like blogging days gone by before all the dumb fun stuff went to Facebook and comments dried up.

Josiah,

How is Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids? I read part of it (plus a bunch of Kaplan's promotional stuff) when the book came out, and was kind of back and forth in my reactions, but I never got around to reading the whole thing.

Emily J. said...

Fun! - and because I need suggestions:
1. What book are you reading now?
A Room with a View - E. M. Forster
Thy Will Be Done: Letters to People in the World - St. Francis de Sales
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew - Margaret Sidney
2. What book did you just finish?
Morrissey autobiography
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
The Lost Boy - David Pelzer
3. What do you plan to read next?
Need suggestions! Something holy for Lent and something fun to get through last weeks of pregnancy
4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?
Woman - Edith Stein
5.What book do you keep meaning to start?
Story of a Soul - St. Therese Lisieux
Boswell's Life of Johnson
Bleak House - Dickens
6. What is your current reading trend?
A little bit of something spiritual (stashed in the bathroom) for morning/evening reflection
classic novel alternating with contempory fiction/memoir and
something with the kids

BettyDuffy said...

I'll be obnoxious too.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/duffy/2014/02/immediate-book-meme/

I think you've started something.

Darwin said...

On recommendations:

Paul, If you don't mind a fairly dark history read, I'd strongly recommend Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder.

Emily, I've been reading Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise to the kids, that might qualify as fun. Indeed, just about any Lord Peter Whimsey novel qualifies under that header.

Faith said...

I am leaving a link too. Didn't realize it was obnoxious though. Wasn't that how memes were done in the olden days?
http://strewing.blogspot.com/2014/02/immediate-book-meme.html

Josiah Neeley said...

Darwin,

I'm about halfway through Selfish Reasons. So far I'm really enjoying it (although my wife is a bit more skeptical than I am about the behavioral genetics).

Joseph Moore said...

1. What book are you reading now?

The Rule of St. Benedict - short, almost done.

2. What book did you just finish?

Story of a Soul, St. Therese

Categories. On Interpretation. Prior Analytics, Aristotle. Although I must sit down and reread the logic rules with a pencil and paper handy.

3. What do you plan to read next?

Lumen Fidei. It's next up at the parish reading group.

More Hegel. No really. Especially Phenomenology of Spirit. Years off of Purgatory.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Oh, man. Like, what don't I keep meaning to finish?

Tacitus. Was more than half way when the book, an old paperback I'd had for decades, proceeded to fall apart - so, can't take it on trips, can't read it in bed. Going to need to find another copy.

A History of Education in Antiquity, Similar to the above, but not quite so bad. Almost done.

Bunch of Hegel.

And, if I were, in the words of Simcha Fisher, to pull the bed away from the wall look, probably a dozen more.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Phenomenology of Spirit.

6. What is your current reading trend?

German Philosophers (just hit me in the head with a brick now), education history (still looking for some free or cheap Pestalozzi, because one lengthy book of incoherent babbling isn't enough) Spiritual stuff for the reading group (we try to alternate old & new, scholarly and more popular. Been fun) and History.

But the overall trend is: not nearly enough. Been trying to take care of a bunch of deferred maintenance on the house. Very time and energy consuming.

Brandon said...

1. What book are you reading now?

* Joseph Bedier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (translated by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfield)

* Berthelemey Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the Just According to the Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

* Edith Stein, Potency and Act

* Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

* Robert Hugh Benson, Come Rack! Come Rope!

* Fred Karlsson, Finnish: An Essential Grammar

2. What book did you just finish?

* George Berkeley, Theory of Vision Vindicated

* Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being

* St. Basil the Great, Homilies on the Hexaemeron

3. What do you plan to read next?

* H. H. Price, Hume's Theory of the External World

(among quite a few other candidates on the list)

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

* I've been stuck with Sense and Sensibility for longer than I would have expected because other things keep coming up.

* Ditto with Come Rack! Come Rope!

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

* Jake Catlett, Vietnamese for Beginners

6. What is your current reading trend?

* books on early modern accounts of the external world

***
captcha word: studying

jen said...

Here's my link: http://wp.me/p38xoO-1BU

Thanks for creating this! It was fun.

Melanie Bettinelli said...

http://www.thewinedarksea.com/2014/02/20/immediate-book-meme/

Anonymous said...

1. What book am I reading now?

"Wyoming!" by Dana Fuller Ross, one of the Wagons West series (see #6 for more)

2. What book did I just finish?

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. Normally I'm not into post-apocalyptic sci-fi but I spotted this book at a flea market, decided to give it a try because it was supposed to be a Catholic classic, and I'm glad I did... the ending chapters moved me to tears.

3. What do I plan to read next?

"Nebraska!" by Dana Fuller Ross, if I can get my hands on a cheap copy.

4. What book do I keep meaning to finish?

"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin

5. What book do I keep meaning to start?

"Roughing It" by Mark Twain

6. What is my current reading trend?

-- The "Wagons West" series -- one of those sprawling multi-generational American history sagas that were real popular in the 70s and 80s. Most of the books have a state name followed by an exclamation point ("Oregon!" "Texas!", "California!", et al) as their titles. I've been picking up copies at flea markets, thrift stores, etc. so I've been forced to read them out of order but I'm hoping to fill in the gaps eventually.

-- Anything good dealing with U.S. history immediately prior to the Civil War; particularly the 1850s, the Bleeding Kansas crisis and the rise of Abraham Lincoln to national prominence. I want to see just how closely the polarization of the nation over slavery back then parallels the polarization I see taking place now over issues like abortion, same-sex civil marriage and gun control.

Elaine Krewer

Jenny said...

I wish I could go edit my entry. I forgot about the kid books.

Currently reading:

The Children of Noisy Village, by Astrid Lindgren

Book I keep meaning to finish:

Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater.

Paul Zummo said...

Thanks Darwin. Considering my usual tastes, dark won't bother me one bit.

Kyle Cupp said...

1. What book are you reading now?

LOTR to my son. A Dance with Dragons. Gadamer's Truth and Method.

2. What book did you just finish?

Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Adorno
Harry Potter Series

3. What do you plan to read next?

My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Conrad's The Secret Agent

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Augustine's Confessions

6. What is your current reading trend?

Continental Philosophy

Manny said...

1. What book are you reading now?

Washington Square by Henry James.
Well, that’s the main one; there are three others, that I’m bouncing around with. I might as list them too:
Gerard Manly Hopkins: Poems and Prose, Selected and Edited by W. H. Gardner.
Julius Caesar: Life of a Colossus, by Adrian Goldsworthy.
Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity, by Prue, Shaw.

2. What book did you just finish?

Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain.

3. What do you plan to read next?

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis. For Lent.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

6. What is your current reading trend?

19th Century American.

Joseph R. said...


1. What book are you reading now?

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

2. What book did you just finish?

The Year of Eating Dangerously by K. Bennett

3. What do you plan to read next?

Erasmus's In Praise of Folly

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

My gigantic, one volume collection of H. P. Lovecraft stories

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

On Writing by Stephen King (he's been waiting patiently on my shelf almost two years!)

6. What is your current reading trend?

British literature (since we live in England); zombie stories (goes with the blog); books on writing (goes with the blog); Catholic stuff (goes with the Faith)