Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Immediate Book Meme

DarwinCatholic's got a book meme. That means I'm playing. With the caveat that I'm always reading too many books simultaneously.

Here we go!

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?

Rabble in Arms by Kenneth Roberts

2. What book did you just finish?

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, wonderfully narrated by Derek Jacobi

3. What do you plan to read next?

Whatever my Book Bingo pulls up. It's the joy and terror of complete randomness.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

Art: A New History by Paul Johnson

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien

6. What is your current reading trend?

Big, huge books.

It began when Scott Danielson said, "Hey, let's talk about The Lord of the Rings" on our podcast. It continued when I picked up Rabble In Arms. And then I was given the audiobook of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, narrated by Simon Prebble (who I just can't say no to, that guy is an amazing reader) ... and which I began a few days ago. And have I mentioned that Paul Johnson's art book has a gazillion pages (and not nearly as many pictures as you'd think for an art book).

7 comments:

  1. 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.

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    Replies
    1. Les Miserables finished me ... wow, what a tough book. :-)

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  2. 1. What book are you reading now?

    Uh, if it counts, I'm reading Macbeth. If not then Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.

    2. What book did you just finish?

    That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis and From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz (I tend to read two at a time)

    3. What do you plan to read next?

    Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor and Lilith by George MacDonald

    4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

    A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (I need to concentrate more)

    5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

    The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I keep thinking I'm not ready)

    6. What is your current reading trend?

    If a story strikes me I'll read it. That's not so much a trend it's just how I do it.

    That was fun. I'm not reading a whole lot of current material, I guess I just keep thinking I've got to catch up on what I missed. Even though, obviously, that isn't ever going to happen.

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    Replies
    1. I think A Tale of Two Cities might have been the first book that I "got through" by dint of audio. The LibriVox recording was good and in the end I loved it. Cried like a baby at the last words. An amazing book.

      After attempting The Brothers Karamazov three times and hating it more every time, I have concluded that I will never be ready for Dostoyevsky. :-D

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    2. I haven't read any Dostoyevsky because his stories don't really interest me much at all, not so much his intense and heavy style since passages I've seen from The Brothers Karamazov made my head swirl just from looking them over. The Idiot, though, that one I might just fight through to the end. With a story like that, I'm sure to find something to hook and pull me along.

      I just gotta have some confidence!

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  3. 1. What book are you reading now?

    Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger
    El Dorado by Baroness Orczy
    Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by PG Wodehouse

    2. What book did you just finish?

    Planet Narnia by Michael Ward

    3. What do you plan to read next?

    Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

    4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

    Prayer by Pope Benedict XVI

    5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

    Studies in Words by CS Lewis

    6. What is your current reading trend?

    Intense theology balanced by adventure and silliness.

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    Replies
    1. That's the best way to get through intense theology ... with a good dose of silliness to lighten things up! :-D

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