Thursday afternoon/evening question - what book would you be?

[tjwmason]

I'm guessing that we all realise the importance of books, if there was a Fahrenheit 451 ban on books, and we had to live as out-law communities (as at the end of the film) each learning one book in total to be receited to others - what would you choose?

You can be any style - fiction or non-fiction - modern or ancient - famous or infamous.

[LisaM]

1. "The Great Gatsby"

only because it's a lot shorter than "Middlemarch."

[tjwmason]

4. You better hope that somebody else chooses Middlemarch then

It would be good to see female writers well represented there after all.

[LisaM]

9. Why don't you choose it?

You only have to memorize 600 or 700 pages (or you could be like the most recent Masterpiece Theatre version and eliminate much of it - I had to stop watching, I couldn't bear it.)

[tjwmason]

11. I've still got a very long short-list and am trying to cut that down

There are so many great works, especially philosophy, history, theology, that I'm finding difficult to exclude.

[LisaM]

14. True, though sometimes a good work of fiction

can be all three. More so, to some extent - because history changes as we learn things.

[tjwmason]

21. I've got nothing against fiction - I'd hope that there's lots of it

But I just think that I'd plump for a non-fiction - as per my short-list lower down.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

2. The People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn)

[tjwmason]

5. We should never forget our history

One of the books I'm pondering is "The Peleponesian War" by Thucydides for that reason.

[Arkana]

3. "The Skystone," by Jack Whyte.

If anyone's ever read this, it chronicles the forging of Arthur's Britain--something that's not even part of real history, but the author sure as hell makes it seem that way.

[tjwmason]

15. Myths can be as real as actual history at times

n/t

[Arkana]

18. It's actually the first of a series of six books

It starts at the end of the Roman Empire in Britain, and shows how Camelot (or Camulod, as Whyte calls it) is created by the Romans that stayed there. Amazing series.

[khashka]

6. Can't choose...

Emma by Jane Austen - wise, wonderful and cruel

Raising the Stones by Sheri Tepper - about everything really (fatherhood, love,religion, longing, cruelty, compassion, fighting for the right things)

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - about desperation, fear, loss, love, and doing what needs to be done even when no hope is left.

Khash.

[tjwmason]

10. You better just study hard and learn all of them

I'm quite stuck over a number of books as well - interestingly nearly all non-fiction (well not that interesting as 90+% of what I read is non-fiction).

[khashka]

12. Turnabout is fair play, tj.

What book(s) would you be?

Khash.

[tjwmason]

13. I'm still thinking.

Aristotle - The Politics
St. Augustine - De Civitate Dei (though I'd probably wimp out and use an English translation)
St. Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica
Thucydides - The Peleponesian War
Heredotus - The Histories

among others

[khashka]

16. Interesting choices...

It'd be a tough choice between Augustine and Herodotus.... but in the end, I'd go with The Histories.

May I ask you a personal question? Does anything modern move you? Is it all dusty old libraries and opera? Are you a frustrated wannabe Oxford don? Do I have to mount a campaign to help TJ get his groove back?

Khash, teasing.

[tjwmason]

19. I don't have a groove - never have had

So you can't stick me back into it :P

I'm not that heavily into opera - 20th century French organ music, that's a totally different issue (though rather heretically - I love Lefbvre-Wely as well :hide: ).

There's lots modern that does move me (note, this is a question based on a film - stick that in your pipe and smoke it matey) - but I think that we're in a cult of modernity and youth where the preceeding few thousand years are thought to be empty, those who forget the past are destined to repeat it - and that's modern society.

But now I'm getting far too serious - if you're not careful I'll end up coming out with a long long rant, which is not good.

[khashka]

23. Hmmm

Well you know your quotes....

Actually, I'd like to see you rant. I tend to agree with you... (minor rant mode) we are losing our history, we stand on the shoulders of giants, and more and more we ignore that or never know it. Our education, our knowledge is the most meager watered down porridge when we have been served a magnificent feast (rant over, temporarily).

If you don't want to rant in public, feel free to do so in private - I'd find it interesting.

So no campaign to get TJ's groove back? Kinda figured that. How about a campaign, a charity drive, to donate a groove for TJ?

Khash.

[tjwmason]

24. It's more of a rantlet

but check your P.M.

[hfojvt]

7. hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

Don't panic. It times like that we would need a guide and some help laughing.

[tjwmason]

20. Some humour would definitely be needed

In dire times excess seriousness is not good.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I would hope to be

one of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" or Morrie in "Tuesdays with Morrie"...both by Mitch Albom....

[tjwmason]

17. I'm sure that nobody would be able to turn down your request

:loveya:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. Thank you, love...

You are too sweet to me.......

:hug: :loveya:

[tjwmason]

27. I act like a mirror

If love comes in then love goes out - if sweetness comes in then sweetness goes out.

:loveya:

[Magrittes Pipe]

22. Haw!

Haw!

[WCGreen]

26. On the Road....

Cause the bam boppity bop style of frentic musing would be as easy to memorize as the flowery language of Bill Shakespeare....