fahye | books. everyone loves books.

Alright, so we're playing the 15-books-I-would-take-away-to-college (or get stuck with on a desert island, whatever) game. This is an interesting exercise, because this isn't my 15 favourite books. (I love Good Omens to pieces but know it back to front by now.) My list reflects the books I'd read again and again and again and again, mostly because they have had - and are still having - a great impact on me and my style, and because reading any of these invariably makes me feel like writing. That's something precious.

Comment with your own list? I'm curious. And always on the lookout for new things, despite my staggeringly long existing to-read list.

Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Robert Dessaix: (and so forth)
Jostein Gaarder: Sophie's World
Neil Gaiman: American Gods, Smoke & Mirrors
Peter Hoeg: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
Elizabeth Knox: The Vintner's Luck
Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club
Terry Pratchett: Night Watch
Tom Robbins: Skinny Legs And All
William Shakespeare: The complete works. Shut up, it's a single volume, it counts as one. I will fight anyone who claims otherwise.
Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
John Varley: The Golden Globe
Jeanette Winterson: Art & Lies
Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

House icons! Ooh! I am in great need of some of those :D

OMG MICHAEL ONDAATJE. The only reason The English Patient is not on that list is because I lent my copy out and so it was not on my bookshelf to remind me of how much I love it.

Your list sounds amazing, and I've never actually read any of them (though I own Anna Karenina and I, Claudius, and have been meaning to track down some Rilke for ages.

Yes, House icons. One of the many many balls I have in the air! I have become completely obsessed with this show in the last week (and dragged my poor father down with me, hee!) I really need to stop gawping at the TV screen and actually put the DVD into the computer and *ahem* make some screencaps (or I could just do that while re-watching the eps I've "downloaded"...? Not that there's anything wrong with illegal downloading or anything...)

It's a good book list (anything MO makes me weak-kneed), but of course there are a million things I'm sure I'm leaving out which is why I love that you've posted this meme because your choices and the choices in the comments are all so interesting!

I noticed this in another of your journal entries and I had to cheer:

"In even geekier news, the Co-op was having a sale and I picked up, for the grand total of $9.80, a book about the race to discover the etiological agent of the Black Death, and another called The Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence, which is thick and shiny and covers every major human epidemic in history. DENGUE. INFLUENZA. WEST NILE. CHOLERA. OMG."

I love anything to do with immunology, virology, public health, epidemiology, the history of infection and epidemic, etc. I picked up a used book about Lassa fever a long time ago for .50 cents and it set me on a total tear...one of my favourite all times books in this vein is "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett which is probably outdated by now, but still, a very fascinating read!

...goes back to contemplating House icons...moves said endeavour up on list of priorities...

I am pleased to announce that I bought S1 THIS VERY MORNING :D It is probably a good thing that my laptop is dead, as otherwise I would feel compelled to rewatch it all and neglect my uni work.

(The fact that he specialised in infectious diseases is just another reason to adore House.)

What is it about infectious diseases? So alluring. So horrifying. And somehow simultaneously the tiniest and largest reminder of the fragility of humanity?

Pretty much every single day I contemplate giving up on everything, converting my financial life into liquidity and giving over to some NGO. And I'm an artist with a vaguely astute and never pursued science background. I would be largely useless to them, save my drive?

Don't neglect your Uni work. Here's why, and totally selfish, too! If you do, I won't get to read about it, and I do enjoy your posts on that!

I am so totally obsessed with House for two reasons...

The wait for new BSG is SO hard and also Greg House = my art school professor (GR)...complete with the wierd interactions, drug forays (mine and his) total emotional removal, misanthropy, general crabbiness, wierdly intimate moments, so closely dancing the line of propriety, Oedipal interest, the list goes on...

Really hope you enjoy your new DVDs. I bought them two weeks ago and after thrice viewing had to torrent 1-14 of this season to get up to date.

I don't know, but they're SO FASCINATING. One day I will hunt down some infectious disease geek!icons, though I doubt they're a very popular thing on the intarwebs :D

I won't go into my long rant about how much I wish I had downloads that worked/a country that screened things at the same time as the US. Hooooouse *pines*

books. everyone loves books.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject