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

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Advent, Day 12: The Immediate Book Meme

One of these days I'm going to learn that if I want to write something substantive, I need to start before 11:58 at night, but since this is not that day, it's a good time to revive 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?

Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow
The Life of Moses, by Gregory of Nyssa
The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux
Love and Responsibility, by Karol Wojtyla
Isaiah

2. What book did you just finish?

The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers
The Master of Ballantrae, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Hamilton, by Ron Chernow

3. What do you plan to read next?

Two Under the Indian Sun, by Rumer Godden
The Iliad, translated by Caroline Alexander
John Adams, by David McCollough
Psalms

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne (I'm not actually far enough into this to talk of finishing, so I guess I'd just like to progress, but I seem to be as slow in moving forward as the author is.)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Everything on the religion shelf. Sigh.

6. What is your current reading trend?

Biographies of the Founding Fathers

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Hey! I wrote a post!

http://www.justanotherjenny.com/2015/12/the-immediate-book-meme.html

Joseph Moore said...

I'll bite:

1. What book are you reading now?

Somewhither, by John C. Wright. It's a 'this is nothing at all to my taste' book but I'm enjoying it anyway
Mission: Tomorrow. A compilation of short stories about space flight in the post-NASA era. It's got a Mike Flynn story in it, which I haven't gotten to yet.
And have the eternal Mythology and Hegel pile that's more or less in process

2. What book did you just finish?

'Just finish' being a relative concept: over the last couple months -
Orestes Brownson, the American Republic
A ton of Science Fiction off the 50 Essential Authors list put together by John C Wright.
Aside: what reading a boatload of Sci Fi has taught me: while enjoyable, I enjoy reading history and philosophy more. Yep, I'm a weirdo.

3. What do you plan to read next?

The bookshelf is laden with works on American and Catholic education history - works on and by Bosco, Seaton, De La Salle, various leaders in American education. These are up next. Unfortunately, it may have fallen to me to write a book about American Catholic education, how it's gone fundamentally wrong and how to fix it, based on the works of classic Catholic educators. Sigh. But it should be done (even if done poorly) and maybe I'm the guy. This is the goal for 2016: read a tone of education books, start work on writing yet another one.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Dune. Can't get into it, yet.
Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit, and several other works;
War and Peace - embarrassing to say, but I never got to the end of this in college, even though I loved it. (Moby Dick and Don Quixote were in a similar state, but I did eventually read them, so there is precedent)
Also, the Anead is so muddled in my memory that, if I did finish it, I must have been in a sorry state of mind - so, got to reread/finish that one too.

BTW: Can't imagine A Canticle for Leibowitz being a challenge to finish. Then again, who am I to speak?

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

See: education books above.

6. What is your current reading trend?

It's been SciFi, but once I'm done with the couple I got working now, it's off to education. I hope some small part of the world appreciates that I'm reading these tombs so they don't have to...