Parliament of Fools

Welcome! We fools are a mish-mash of lovers of the English language. Pull up a computer chair, and imagine with us that you're sitting by the fire in a local cafe. Sip your cyber-cappucino and discuss with us your thoughts on our latest reading assignment. Hopefully we'll experience all the joy of reading together, without the cost of Starbucks.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

My answers, and my books

Thanks Karen (Queen) for posting your answers. I think you've got good suggestions, especially on how to handle graphic content.

Also, in an email Karen pointed out that this blog is really just "Tim" and the ladies. At least until Rob decided to accept my invitation. So I was thinking that I'd open the invite up to our spouses, if they're interested.

Now! My five books. I am always answering this question on the fly, and I almost do it on purpose because I always remember different books then I did the last time. Books are so good that it's hard to pick a favorite, and keep it. It's kind of like music, there is always a new favorite song to be had. This, then, is my list of my five favorite books of all time, as I see it today.

1. The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien. This is a collection of short stories by O'Brien that are semi-autobiographical about his time serving in Vietnam. It's vivid poetic prose, and reading it is almost as heavy as the humidity in Vietnam would be. I am going to suggest the short story from this collection that bears the same title for our first reading assignment. But that's open to your determination.

2. Troilus and Chriseyde Geoffrey Chaucer. Maybe it's because I loved the class that this was assigned in so much, but this was one of the best stories I ever read. Chaucer is the master of character development and setting.

3. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only is it so good. But is means so much more to me now after studying medieval English. Plus I read it while I was pregnant, so I was much more emotionally connected to the characters.

4. Now it's starting to get more difficult to make choices.
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book taught me what symbolism means. That, and I love the 20s.

5. Son of the Revolution Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro. This autobiography chronicles the life of a young man growing up in Communist China during the rule of Mao Zedong. The story is tragic. Reading it before I taught English in China for a month really helped me understand the culture that I was in. When we were there it was only one generation away from the Revolution, and though no one knew facts about it, or talked about it, you could see that it has devastated their culture.

2 Comments:

  • At 6:15 AM, Blogger Mutti said…

    So far, Lord of the Rings and Great Gatsby are the ones I'm familiar with. This is going to be fun!

     
  • At 9:42 AM, Blogger Devona said…

    90% of book club is about reading things you aren't yet familiar with. That's what makes it fun!

    I'm glad you plan on participating from the side-lines. It'll be good to have you.

     

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