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Books (Expanded)

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But How Will Nicholas Turn Out in the End?

Tagged by Daniel Larison 

1. One book that changed your life?

G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man

I read this book in England during my senior year of high school, in tandem with C.S. Lewis' Letters to Malcom - basically I became a believing Catholic again, for the first time in years. I suppose that is a changed life.  

2. One book that you have read more than once?

George Plimpton's Open Net

Probably Plimpton's least celebrated "participatory journalism" experiment in sports - but one very dear to me. Hockey is a great sport. Football gets too much credit for being tough. And basketball gets too much credit for being graceful or fluid. Hockey has them beat in both categories. 

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Flannery O'Conner's Collected Stories

The more I think about this, the more I really wonder if I'd like to be marooned with a bunch of defective and deformed Southern Protestants - but basically, I'd try to figure out what makes her so great.  

4. One book that made you cry?

Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park (I know!)

I'm sure there are other books that have made me cry, but this is the most recent. Everyone has gripes with Ellis - but I thoroughly enjoyed this book of horror. 

5. One book that made you laugh?

Scott Dikkers' You are Worthless

This book is amazing and came out at the peak of the self-help book craze. It is crude, offensive and at times, blasphemous.  It's great

6. One book you wish had been written?

Bernard Henri Levi Wrong All Along: An Autobiography.

Levi has the flimsiest intellectual credentials I've ever seen. Basically - a semi-literate guy with a half decent zeitgeist detection system. 

7. One book you wish had never been written?

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Without this book Protestantism would have gone the way of past heresies.

8. One book you are reading currently?

Dominic Lieven, Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire

One of the first major revisionist histories of Nicholas II, written after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Very even-handed.  

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

Evelyn Waugh, The Sword of Honour Trilogy

I cant' say much about it because I haven't read them yet.  

10. Pass it on

Peter Suderman and Kevin Michael Grace

Posted on 9/28/2006 07:44 PM by Registered CommenterMichael Brendan Dougherty in | Comments9 Comments
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Reader Comments (9)

Waugh's "Sword of Honor" trilogy really is a masterpiece and, of course, it's especially timely. Every time I hear folks pounding their chests, boasting about manliness and pontificating about the need for America to reclaim its "moral purpose" by waging war abroad, I want to thrust a copy of this book on them. Beyond all that, though, Waugh gracefully combines his gift for satire and his fundamental seriousness about the human condition.
9/28/2006 09:00 AM | Unregistered Commenterscriblerus
Fun.
Here's my list, for what it's worth:
1.This Tremendous Lover - Eugene Boylan
2.Brideshead Revisited - Waugh
3.Occasional & Pastoral Sermons - Ronald Knox
4.Hosea
5.A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle
6.The Personal Relationships of the Saints
7.A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken
8.Life of Johnson - James Boswell
9.Dynamics of World History - Christopher Dawson
9/28/2006 10:58 AM | Unregistered CommenterVicki
The Lutheran and Anglican churches were well under way by the time of the Institutes. Unless you are not counting them as protestant, which they themselves occasionally do not.
9/28/2006 04:00 PM | Unregistered Commenterjoey
Oh- I just think that Protestantism would have been extirpated from Christendom if that book didn't sustain the Calvinist movement. I think the Calvinist movement provided the intellectual heft and the critical mass that helped to sustain these multiple heresies as long as they have.
9/28/2006 04:07 PM | Registered CommenterMichael Brendan Dougherty
Do you accept ties? I have lots of ties.

1. The Alchemist - Paulo Cohelo
2. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway, Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen (I'm sure it's about even)
3. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende (in a bad way) The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (in a good way)
5. The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten
6. The Truth about August 5, 1962 by Eunice Murray (Marilyn Monroe's housekeeper)
7. The Da Vinci Code or anything by Danielle Steel
8. Sentimental Education - Gustave Flaubert
9. Ulysses - James Joyce, Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
9/28/2006 04:48 PM | Unregistered CommenterAnnie Wilson
No, Luther and the Anglican divines had a lot more historical heft than Calvin.
9/28/2006 04:56 PM | Unregistered Commenterjoey
You're quite right about Hockey being both tougher than football and more fluid than basketball. I just never thought I'd see an American say it. You're not from North Dakota, are you?

Wow, Flannery O'Connor on a desert island. She's brilliant, of course, but I think it rather indicates you've already despaired of keeping your sanity if shipwrecked.
9/28/2006 05:24 PM | Unregistered Commentergabriel
How come no one ever picks something like "the US Armed Forces Survival manual" for their desert island picks?

(Apparently survival manuals are often riddled with incorrect and out-of-date information, at least according to this source.
http://ridgerunnersurvival.tripod.com/da1.htm

So maybe we need a 'how to survive survival manuals' manual.)
10/11/2006 07:49 AM | Unregistered CommenterTim
you are correct, they are very much outdated in many ways. however there are many very good sources for wilderness skills and survival info. The Woodsmaster video series is one. You can also look at a large selection of good books on the outdoors at http://www.survivalbiz.com (this is not my site!) but in the end, you cant learn everything about a subject from a book. you need to practice the skills you learn and above all, read carefully and cross reference where you can.
Survival is serios business, and should be studied like any other subject of vital import..
RR
12/20/2007 06:14 AM | Unregistered CommenterThe Ridge Runner

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