Tagged . . . damn!

by Ambrose-a-rama (how about Ambrosia?)

I never have anything useful or interesting to say on these things otherwise I would have done it already. Well, get the no-doze and read away:

Total # of books I own: 2,000-3,000 between the wife and me.

Last book I bought: Husserl: Shorter Works and Theological Papers of John Henry Newman on Faith and Certainty (Not very exciting stuff, huh?)

Last book I read: Excluding dissertation stuff . . . I cheat. I read a lot of Sci fi online. For a while I was on a little-known author kick and so I'd buy books of authors like myself who can only hope to sell ten copies of their books. It is quite interesting to read some of this stuff. Many times it is quite justifiably clear why this person is not widely known and many times you find very good stuff. Most importantly, I like the rawness, not in terms of lack of quality, but smaller name authors are generally not commercialized and capture the passion of a niche. That said, I can't remember the names of the last books I read, but it was sci fi. The last book I read/completed was The Oxford Conspirators by Marvin O'Connell. It's a history of the Oxford Movement and Newman in that period: very good book.

Books I'm reading now: Table of the Lord (Okay, I got issues, I actually do enjoy reading my book over and over again and then spend time talking to and interviewing myself about the characters . . . got to get this straight jacket thingy of . . . is ruining enjoyable read): Husserl-Formal and Transcendental Logic, Newman's Idea of a University and his Plain and Parochial Sermons. For fun, I read Tor Books Sample Chapters.

Books that have been important to me: Bible, George Orwell's 1984 (Not sure why, I am addicted to the book.), Douglass Brinkley's Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (I already considered Kerry to be a great guy, but this one definitely upped his pedestal to stratosphere level. Great book for understanding Kerry: riveting and moving), Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris (a history of Science book, very readable and great stuff), Weep Not Child by Ngugi Wa Thiong'a (Kenyan author, powerful novel set in the colonial period), No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (Nigerian writer, sequel to better-known and widely acclaimed Things fall Apart), The Little Flowers of St Francis (written in the 13th or 14th century about the life of st Francis and his circle: was a bridge book for me in my decision to return to the Catholic Church), The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain by B. Netanyahu (No, that that Netanyahu, actually this guy is/was(?) a Cornell professor but his son is that Netanyahu, i.e., former Prime Minister of Israel. 1,400 pages, 4.1 lbs, intense book: I stumbled across the book at the Daemen College library new books section and went and bought it. It was a turning point in my decision to re-consider Catholicism.), Andrew Louth's The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition (Nothing quite orients you about the Early Christian mindset of key figures like this book), finally, Rene Descartes's Meditations (I'm probably one of the few left who does not think Descartes has served his purpose and should be discarded in embarassment.)

If you've gotten this far, consider yourself tagged.