NOVELS: The Book Meme Catches Up To Me...

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Hi Everyone,

Awhile back, my friend Abba Gav, tagged me with the book meme and I'm finally catching up to it.

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1. Name one book that changed your life:

"This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life" by Herman Wouk.
- This is one of Herman Wouk’s best books in myopinion, a very concise overview of Judaism and its’ meaning for secular Jews and just folks interested in knowing more about their Jewish neighbors from a religious or cultural viewpoint. An older lady friend of mine (as well as a former patient) gave it to me and I still use it at times when I want to re-clarify some point of interest for myself. It's one of my most valued books.

2. One book you've read more than once:

“Space Trilogy” by C.S. Lewis.
1. “Out of the Silent Planet”
2. “Perelandra”
3. “That Hideous Strength”
- I’ve had hankering lately to reread C.S. Lewis’“Space Trilogy” series… books as meaningful as Tolkien’s work or even C.S. Lewis’ better known works such as his “Narnia” children’s books. At times, his Space Trilogy reminds me of Burrough’s Barsoomian tales, Well’s Eloi from “The Time Machine” or even… the Traveller (classic sci-fi RPG) group called the Darrians.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:

“Department of the Air Force, Search and Rescue Survival Manual, AFM 64-5”
- My father gave me a copy of either this manual or a related one as a boy and it was one of my favorite possessions. I still have it somewhere although it’s still packed away from my last move. It has instructions for everything from distilling water to finding food anywhere on the globe and more.

4. One book that made you laugh:

Anything by Dave Barry or Erma Bombeck:
- I can’t remember which one of these two authors I last read, but both Erma Bombeck and Dave Berry make my stomach hurt from laughing too much. Erma Bombeck, may she rest in peace, passed away a few years ago.

5. One book that made you cry:

“Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War” by Dan Kurzman.
- The struggle for Israel’s Independence in 1948 is a heart-wrenching true story of perserverance in the face of what must have seemed like insurmountable danger. There are so many stories of folks struggling bitterly just to survive, let alone prosper. What an amazing story.

6. One book you wish you'd written:

"Treason" by Orson Scott Card.
- Orson Scott Card made his break-through into the sci-fi industry with a short story named “Treason”that later turned into this book. It’s one of my favorites, a genius work that is fun to reread no matter how well you know the story. The story itslef is a classic sci-fi theme about evolution gone wild. I sometimes wonder if the classic fantasy RPG “Tekumel” and “Treason” are somehow related.

7. One book you wish had never been written:

“Orientalism” by Edward Said.
- This book, often considered a founding work in post-colonial theory, has been a huge contributor to the many misunderstandings and great difficulty that many academics, scholars and others have when trying to understand the differences between Western and Eastern cultures. The gist of the book is that Western authors can't critically judge Eastern culture because of their Western-slanted rose-coloured glasses. Meanwhile Said felt perfectly adequate to lay judgment down on Western literature. Moral equivalence and political correctness made great leaps forward when this book became disseminated.

8. One book you're currently reading:

“Mars” series by Kim Stanley Robinson.
- I’m currently on “Red Mars.” I never read the third book in this trilogy (it wasn’t written when I read the first two books in the series) and am looking forward to reading this series from beginning to end.
- I just finished reading David Brin's “Uplift” and“Uplift Storm” series.

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

“The Guide for the Perplexed” by Maimonides.
- I’ve always meant to read this book in its entirety rather than in excerpts sprinkled throughout other texts. The last book I had hankering to read in this manner was Plutarch’s “Lives,” which I enjoyed very much. It's sort of funny that Maimonides' "Guide For The Perplexed" is often mentioned in occult novels such as the Lovecraftian Cthulhu series and, interesting enough... in some of the Ghostbuster's movies.

10. Tag 5 people:

Andy Cowell
http://www.littleleadheroes.com/

Patrick Smyrl
http://pshobbyshed.blogspot.com/

Paul James “Tas” O’Grady
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

PixelGeek (Zac Belado)
http://crusades.blogspot.com/

Yehuda Berlinger
http://jergames.blogspot.com/

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Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.