The three-book challenge
Wherein I'm probably serious about this
Just picked up a copy of The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History, by Jim Walsh. Almost brought home a biography of Pol Pot or one on Herman Melville. I opened the Melville to a random page and read how the following passage was a description of a circle jerk (from the chapter "A Squeeze of the Hand"):
I can't argue with that. Also, that's some weird stuff; I definitely need to read some Melville. Which brings me to the 3-book challenge. I've asked before for book recommendations, but I thought I'd try something different. I will read the first three books suggested* (one book per person). Assuming the book is not so obscure that it requires an unreasonable amount of effort or funds to acquire. You can leave a description or just a title and author. Any genre is fine, don't pick a book you think I'd like, pick a book you like and wish more people would read. Or just screw me over and make me read something wretched. Your choice. I'll pay attention to other recommendations, though I only promise to attempt the first three.
*After I finish the Replacements book and taking a break, if necessary, to read the new Neal Stephenson.
Just picked up a copy of The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History, by Jim Walsh. Almost brought home a biography of Pol Pot or one on Herman Melville. I opened the Melville to a random page and read how the following passage was a description of a circle jerk (from the chapter "A Squeeze of the Hand"):
Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself
unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers' hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,--Oh! my dear fellow beings, why
should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.
I can't argue with that. Also, that's some weird stuff; I definitely need to read some Melville. Which brings me to the 3-book challenge. I've asked before for book recommendations, but I thought I'd try something different. I will read the first three books suggested* (one book per person). Assuming the book is not so obscure that it requires an unreasonable amount of effort or funds to acquire. You can leave a description or just a title and author. Any genre is fine, don't pick a book you think I'd like, pick a book you like and wish more people would read. Or just screw me over and make me read something wretched. Your choice. I'll pay attention to other recommendations, though I only promise to attempt the first three.
*After I finish the Replacements book and taking a break, if necessary, to read the new Neal Stephenson.
posted by bill at 10:36 PM
9 Comments:
I recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I talk about here.
That's one. I'm looking forward to an antiscience book that thinks the world would be better off if half the population went away. Not to get too prejudgemental.
...
Um... No, that's not what it's about.
Don't worry, it's on the list.
The Gulag Archipelago.
By Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of course.
Are you telling me this won't be about turtles living off the coast of Ecuador?
That's two. One more to go.
His Majestey's Dragon by Naomi Novik. After the Solzhenitsyn, you will need some light reading, and you can't beat the Napoleonic Wars fought with a dragon-based air corps.
That's three. thanks for playing along.
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