Monday, November 24, 2008

Responding to a Tag

The tag goes like this: Explain why the books are essential reads, in 30 words or less. (For maximum fun, try for 30 words exactly).

(a) Fiction book
(b) Autobiography
(c) Non-fiction book
(d) A fourth book of your choice, from any genre

Fiction: The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Is this perhaps where the deathbed question of knowing whether you’ve lived a life filled with regret stems from? And the price one sometimes pays when they lose their voice.

Autobiography: Does thinly veiled fiction count? Anis Nin’s Incest – a reminder about narcissism. Jack Kerouac's On the Road – hmm, more about narcissism.

Non-Fiction: Why We Can’t Wait. He’s one of my heroes. When I daydream about writing sermons, he’s one person I want to emulate.

Fourth: Bible. While reading the whole book, there where all these moments oh whoa that phrase comes from here and here and wow who needs a self-help book when you’ve got the Bible.

4 comments:

Lee said...

Hmmm..you know, you almost had a rhyme going there between "Why We Can't Wait" and "emulate". (G)

Hugs!
Lee

murat11 said...

jsd: I had a hard time at first with the autobio choice, and was tempted to do just as you did.

I'm still periodically reeling from reading Isaiah and the class I taught this past summer. The poetry, and reading (and feeling) it as poetry, just rocks.

jsd said...

murat: I'm sorry to have missed that class...Isaiah is packed full o good stuff...but one of the more daunting books for length.

San said...

This is an interesting tag. I will be tempted to do it one of these days. I have been out of blogging for a while.