Old friend Vern challenged me on Facebook to show 10 books over 10 days that have influenced me. I respectfully decline to turn over this material to Facebook.
And I also respectfully decline to name a new person each day on the grounds that 10 raised to the 11th power is 10,000,000,000. By the the time this chain has gone to its 11th generation, perhaps 110 days from now, there will be enough challenges for every person who has lived on Earth since the invention of writing.
I’m also going to ignore the part about no explanations. For one of these books I don’t recall the title, only the wonderful illustration. Plus it’s an eclectic mix which includes a textbook, a cookbook and a musical score.
So here we go, in no particular — indeed, random — order.
My copy is beaten up worse than this.
Everything a novel should be, everything a novel can be.
My first score. Thumbed to death.
My oldest possession, going back to when I was maybe four years old, is a hardcover edition with color plates of Tenniel’s illustrations. The endpapers were endlessly fascinating.
Purchased at a discount department store somewhere in Ohio, a hard-cover general science book. The last chapters had a ambiguous view of the future that haunted me.
A constant companion in high school and the conservatory.
No idea what edition. We had a ~1948 set in the garage when I was 7-8 years old. I would sit out there for hours reading random articles.
Politics is local. Power corrupts.
Facile choice? Not really. In these days of faux Christianity and false prophets we need to understand it more than ever.
