Friday, February 20, 2009

Monona Library Survey

Labels: , ,
From the Monona Public Library, a reader survey. Post you answers and I will pass them along (actually the staff will just grab them right off of here and save me the trouble. Right?):

Name the title (s) of the books that influenced your life:

The Greening of America by Charles A. Reich and Breach of faith : the fall of Richard Nixon / Theodore H. White by Teddy White. I read these when I was in high school.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman. I now recognize this book has some flaws from an academic standpoint, but it was one of the first books I read after college that ignited a love of reading and continued learning.

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell. Iw rote my first Amazon review of this book and when I noticed the favoroable 'votes' a few months later I was hooked. I'm at 310 reviews and counting.



What was your favorite childhood book and why?

The Cat in the Hat and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss. Why?! Well, the Cat in the Hat is simplest the coolest cat that ever graced the written page. As for Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz , it's remarkable how much my thinking is still shaped by those stories.


What book would you like to see picked for a Community Read? Hmm, I don't know, how about War and Peace (Vintage Classics) by Leo Tolstoy, translation by Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky? I'm already reading it so I have a head start and it would keep everyone busy for some time to come.

Ok, I'll try to think of another offering.



Post your answers!
Posted by Doug Wood on 2/20/2009

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousFriday, February 20, 2009

    Question 1. "I Know This Much is True" - Wally Lamb....perfectly captures the Roller Coaster from Hell that life becomes when dealing with the mental health of a loved one.

    Question 2. "My Side of the Mountain" I must have read it 20 times as a kid whilst plotting my escape from the world. Would only be of interest to kids who enjoy the outdoors and camping.

    ReplyDelete
  2. guilfoilMonday, February 23, 2009

    The Apology, by Plato;
    The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams.
    These two books convinced me that thinking for oneself was not only important, but possible.
    Group think, learning to fear what others say, was being taught in the schools. Memorizing answers to questions asked by others was the desired skill of an older generation.
    Freedom is thinking for oneself in a disciplined, cultured way...not consuming stuff you can buy or get from others.
    There is nothing free about a 'free market', the ultimate slavery to a slogan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Doug WoodMonday, February 23, 2009

    "The Education of Henry Adams." I should give it another go; tried once and got bogged down.

    Have you read Garry Wills book about Adams? He contends that Adams' history of the early 1800s reflected a very different, more optimistic view than his autobio.

    ReplyDelete
  4. guilfoilTuesday, February 24, 2009

    I first read The Education of Henry Adams in college and was amazed at the idea of reading history to understand, rather than to learn the 'accepted myth'. Henry tried to understand Lincoln from the perspective of history rather than the English or the North or the South's propaganda.
    How difficult it is to read history rather than the 'exceptionalism' that usually passes for history.
    Luckily, I had an history professor who showed me how to read Adams this way.
    Wills is helpful in recognizing that we read Adams from the changing perspectives of our experience. As an historian Adams was creating his own mythic viewpoint. Isn't that what we all do towards the end...find our own myth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousTuesday, February 24, 2009

    Tom Friedman Hot Flat and Crowded-I mean how can the town not read anything else or may I also suggest?

    or

    Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan

    Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography

    or
    Parker Palmer?

    ReplyDelete
  6. guilfoilTuesday, March 10, 2009

    Do you know the books of Charles Todd(man and woman team)and their depiction of England and Scotland after the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918; Armistice Day which we have patriotically changed to Veterans Day.
    The police procedural is a vehicle to comment on English/British class society and how WWI haunts it till today.
    Delightful!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)