I’ve Been Tagged

So here is my entry into chain-meme madness:

One Book That Changed Your Life

Pinocchio. Not the Little Golden Book, Not the Disnoid version with the cricket, the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. I read this with help, at an early age. It taught me that I did not have to be intimidated by grown-up style books, and that magical beings like talking puppets weren’t real. It was also my first experience with allegory. I did not understand the larger symbolism at that time, but I did have someone explain to me what the boys turning into donkeys really meant. This was an eye-opening concept; symbolism versus reality, and was probably the birth of my skepticism.

One Book That You Have Read More Than Once

Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Several social constructs are examined in this work, as well as the almost organic way that the power structures of a culture will defend themselves against competition. If you think it’s all hippy-dippy, look again. This was also written in response to L. Ron’s drivel, and makes a good read from that perspective as well.

One Book You'd Want On A Desert Island

Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen, by Mary Blewitt

A Book That Made You Excited

Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations by Al Franken

One Book That You Wish Had Been Written

The White House Pirates – The investigation, trial and conviction of the men behind the election fraud of 2000.

One Book That Wracked You With Sobs

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

One Book That You Wish Had Never Been Written

Mein Kampf

One Book That You're Currently Reading

The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

One Book You've Been Meaning To Read

Love’s Executioner, and Other Tales of Psychotherapy, by Irvin D. Yalom, MD

Now Tag Five Bloggers

Just this once…I’ll play along. Victims coming soon.