The books of jedusor

[jedusor]

I met my roommate's dad last night. At one point, he made a comment about the books on my shelf being an interesting collection. I only let myself bring one box of books, so I had to cut it down to the absolute essentials--a combination of can't-live-without favorites and books I've been meaning to read. Here are the ones that made the cut:

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
the Douay-Rheims edition of the Bible
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
a copy of the Koran
Mind Fuck by Manna Francis
a Japanese copy of the first Harry Potter book
a French copy of the first Harry Potter book
a French-English dictionary
a book of French poetry
The Little Prince in French
The Little Prince in English
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett
Strata by Terry Pratchett
Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
The Dialogues of Plato
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Bullwhip Book by Andrew Conway
Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Yeah, I can see why a Long Island businessman might find this shelf unusual.

Comments

[cometcrazie113.livejournal.com]

gorgeous collection. do you speak french & japanese?

The Bromeliad Trilogy is one of my favourite all time books. (So are a couple others, but I've never heard of anyone else reading this one.)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I speak a bit of French and a tiny smidge of Japanese. I'd like to become more fluent in both.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, yes! The Bromeliad Trilogy is the book I name when someone forces me to pick a favorite book, and no one except me has ever heard of it. It's just such brilliant layering of meaning--I read it when I was eleven and thought I understood the whole thing, and read it again and picked up a lot more, and then read it a few years later and realized a whole different level of metaphor... but it's not like The Little Prince, which you read when you're a kid and get kind of confused. Every level of meaning makes sense in the book.

Yes. Love love love. :D

[cometcrazie113.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I understand more and more each time I read it, too (although I was probably 15 or so the first time). I actually got my mom to read it this summer, and she loved it :D I wonder if maybe I first read it bc you recommended it or raved about it somewhere? I think I just randomly requested it from my library when I was on a Terry Pratchett kick, but I don't really remember. Either way, great book. :)

[ertchin.livejournal.com]

Are the Pratchetts can't-live-withouts or meaning-to-reads? I mainly wonder because, for the two solid shelves of Discworld books that one can find in any respectable bookstore, I never ever see a single non-Discworld Pratchett next to them.

I am afraid to find out more about The Bullwhip Book. But I know I'll look it up anyway.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

The Bromeliad Trilogy is a can't-live-without (see above comment for rambling about that). Strata is a meaning-to-read.

The Bullwhip Book is just a handbook for technique. Andrew Conway is a friend of my mom's, and gave me two whips and the book when I was nine or ten. I'll probably take them out on the quad and scare people sometime.

[misterajc.livejournal.com]

I'm flattered that I made the list. Remind me to give you a copy of the second edition the next time you are in SF. It's much cooler, though I say so myself.

Andrew

[lonesomepolecat.livejournal.com]

Take "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" with a grain of salt. A big one.

I know a few linguists and let's just say they're not impressed with it.

Otherwise, a very interesting collection.
The Koran is the one that confuses me the most.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Nod. It annoys me quite a lot, not least because she will say "NEVER EVER DO THIS" and then... do it half a page later.

Julia: I recognise some of those titles... :) *hugs*

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I grabbed the French copy of The Little Prince and read the first few chapters aloud to myself a few days ago when I was feeling tense. It helped in that the focus of my tension moved to my throat. I forgot how taxing French Rs can be. :P

*huuuugs*

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. :P

I haven't actually read the Koran yet. I definitely want to, though. There are so many misconceptions about Islam in American culture that I'd like to be able to discuss it intelligently.

[cometcrazie113.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend you get a textbook on Islam to go along with it, though. Reading the Koran by itself is rather difficult (although there are some lovely parts). There's probably something in your school library.

[lonesomepolecat.livejournal.com]

Like Christianity, what the book says and what the people do are usually diametrically opposed.

The Koran is pretty positive about women, most Islamic countries not so much. :-/

[gerald_duck]

Hmm. I know from my own experience that books I can't live without forever and books I can't live without for a term are quite different matters.

For example, I re-read Lord of the Rings every two or three years and I'd hate not to have a copy, but I didn't take it to university. When the object is to live happily for two or three months, new reading material is much more important to me.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Note that Lord of the Rings is not present in this list, and neither are the Harry Potter books, or Good Omens, or any Calvin and Hobbes treasuries. I did strike a balance.

Also keep in mind that this is not just for the semester. I'm not "going home" over breaks; I view myself as moved away from my family, and while they're storing a few boxes for me, I may well not see the contents of those boxes for several years.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

(The Harry Potter books in English, that is. The ones I've got are just for language practice.)

[1firefly.livejournal.com]

I definitely missed getting the book hoarding gene. I enjoy reading but don't live for it. Makes for easy dusting

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

I wish the damn Discworld books wouldn't take freakin' years to come out in American paperback. I still haven't even read Making Money.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Making Money wasn't that great. Going Postal was better.