Wednesday, June 01, 2005

I Have Been 'Tagged'

I have been 'tagged' by Mapmaster at The London Fog to take part in a book-based blogging challenge. At great risk of embarrassing myself by the inevitable comparison with the gifted Mapmaster and the other London Fog folk, here goes:

Number of books I own
:

I did some thinning out last year but estimate that my wife and I still own at least 500 books. Yes, I own all of Ayn Rand's books, all of Robert A. Heinlein's works and a lot of early science fiction. My wife and I also enjoy Thomas Sowell and have a number of his books. Charles Dickens and Mark Twain are a must in every library. Many of our books are on political philosophy, libertarianism, free-market economics and on trying to understand the overall human condition. We also have the good fortune to have a public library abutting the back of our property in the small village where we live.

Last book I bought: The last serious book I bought was Unintended Consequences by John Ross. I am still reading it.

Last book I read: Hold On To Your Kids, Why Parents Matter by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté. This is an important book and should be read by every parent with young children. My review and comments on the book can be found here.

Five books that mean a lot to me:

In no particular order of importance,
When I faced some of the darkest times in my life, I often read Rand's Anthem through in one sitting. It invariably supercharged me and helped me cope with whatever problems were besetting me at that time. I liked Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress because of the triumph therein of a bunch of freedom-loving misfits over an oppressive government authority and the empowering message that imagination trumps might. If you feel that you can't get off that pesky daily grind treadmill, read Browne's How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.

Another book that has influenced me is The Law by Frederic Bastiat. The Wordclix.com division of my software company has a free e-book version of this important work and if you wish a copy, simply press this link to download it with my compliments.

I guess I am now to tag five other bloggers with this same challenge, so here they are:

3 comments:

  1. Thanks Atavist — you're a good sport! I've always loved to bother people about what they're reading, so this blog game appeals to me. I'm especially intrigued by the Robert Heinlein and Harry Browne suggestions — I read Past Through Tomorrow as a youngster, but I haven't gone back to Heinlein since. I think I'll have to rectify the situation, especially as I love science fiction anyway. And you're the second tagged blogger to mention Harry Browne (Blank Out Times was the other), so there's another one to add to my list. OK, there's one drawback to this blog game — more books to read!

    And thanks for the link to The Law — I put it up on our sidebar too, with credit to WORDclix.

    Regards,
    MapMaster

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  2. Thanks for the Wordclix link. Heinlein was, I think, the best of the SF writers. He had a breezy writing style, interesting characters and a wild imagination. L. Neil Smith writes somewhat like Heinlein and has some promise but he isn't consistent. The Probability Broach is probably his best work.

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  3. Ok, so I know I'm going to look like a total neophyte by asking this, but I've been Googling around, and I can't find the answer: How exactly do you "tag" someone officially? By email? By saying so on your blog and hoping they read it? By commenting on THEIR blog? If you feel compassionate, please email me an answer. Thanks!

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