Duane Smith at Abnormal Interests tagged me, and I loves me some books, so who am I to refuse to be mimetic?
1. One book that changed your life?
Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
2. One book you have read more than once?
T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
4. One book that made you laugh?
Sarah Vowell, Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World
(My answer for #5 would also work here.)
5. One book that made you cry?
Armistead Maupin, the Tales of the City series.
(My answer for #4 would also work here.)
6. One book you wish had been written?
The Field Guide to Academic Regalia.
7. One book you wish had never had been written?
The Strawberry Shortcake books — not only banal, but obnoxiously difficult to read aloud. HATE!!
8. One book you are currently reading?
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Mary Jo Nye, Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800-1940
10. Now tag five people –
Just five? OK, how about:
1. One book that changed your life?
but to give the one which I really like to return to…
Daniil Danin, “Story of quanta” (or similar title) – a popular book on quantum physics by a Russian writer which got me to study physics
2. One book you have read more than once?
There’s more of them
Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings”
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
“Analysis”, Krzysztof Maurin – I would learn mathematics to avoid going crazy; and the topics are so difficult for me that nothing short of total seclusion would make me read it.
4. One book that made you laugh?
“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
5. One book that made you cry?
I don’t cry over books.
6. One book you wish had been written?
A history of Africa by Ryszard Kapuscinski.
7. One book you wish had never had been written?
“Das Kapital” (I thougt about “Mein Kampf”, but Hitler promoted his views mainly through speeches and political campaigning, while Marx’s works did poison a lot of minds and cause a lot of grief in the world).
8. One book you are currently reading?
Laurence Oliphant, “The Russian Shores of the Black Sea”
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Steven Runciman, “History of the crusades”
1. One book that changed your life?
Hubert Reeves: Poussières d’étoiles
(when I was a kid, turned me onto science)
2. One book you have read more than once?
“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Douglas R. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
4. One book that made you laugh?
Terry Pratchett, The Discworld series
5. One book that made you cry?
Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
6. One book you wish had been written?
X-Ray Crystallography for Biologists
7. One book you wish had never had been written?
The Bible
8. One book you are currently reading?
Erwin Schroedinger, What is Life?
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
Velcro City picked up on this and it’s spread through the Science Fiction blogosphere like a plague with a bit of help from me.