Just a few things tonight. First, the silly.
The folks on the east coast of the US who are being bombarded by a blizzard should totally have an army of awesome Japanese snow robots that scoops up snow and poops out snow bricks perfect for building snow forts. I’m sure there will still be plenty of snow leftover for the epic snowball fight that all those snow forts will require.
Next, Books as obstacle course, which Javier Marías makes sound rather appealing. The walls of his parents’ apartment covered in books with art hinged to the shelves, what a magical place it sounds!
Remember Dirty Chick? The book is now available on audio read by the author. You can have a twenty minute sample listen at SoundCloud. It’s from the beginning of the book when she is taking care of her parents’ chickens and duck and the duck sexually assaults one of the chickens. It will give you a good flavor of what the whole book is like.
Finally, can books change the world? Sure they can! Darwin’s The Origin of Species anyone? What about 1984? Or Jane Austen’s entire oeuvre? Rick Kleffel offers Nine World-Changing Books from 2014 (via). I’ve heard of some of them, others not at all. And there are several I’d really like to read and a few I’m content just reading good essays about them by others who have read them. Are there other books from 2014 that should be on the list? Are there books there that shouldn’t be? Is there a book from 2014 that changed your personal world? I had a number of books that rocked my world in 2014 but none that changed it. Still, several large book-quakes are nothing to sneeze at.
Ron read Cory Doctorow’s Information Doesn’t Want to be Free and said it changed his views on things. The way we find out who The Prophet is in Station Eleven changed my view on religious fanatics a little bit. It was easy to feel sorry for the little boy who did what was expected.
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Jeanne, the Doctorow book is one of the ones I’d like to read. Oh, good point about Station Eleven! The book I read on climate change, Don’t Even Think About It shifted the way I view the whole climate change debate and the people who deny it.
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I remember snow days and praying for cancellations..lol
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Foghorn, I work at a university and still wish for snow day cancellations. In the five years I’ve been here it’s only happened twice, maybe three times but that never stops me from hoping! 🙂
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I do hear you! It is somewhat criminal… school CANX. lol
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Snow…it happens in winter, I’ve heard. I’ve been wanting to read Thirteen Days In September. I remember those days. Although I’m not a big fan of Carter (even though he was elected governor of Georgia, he’s not terribly popular here – maybe that’s why he’s not terribly popular here) I cried when Anwar Sadat was assassinated. I admired him greatly. I don’t know whether this book would change my mind or not (we often only get the news the media wants us to hear), but it was an important time in my life. I’d like to get the “real story.” The other books listed were completely off my radar.
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Grad, I suppose even a dusting of snow at your place would be an event of major proportion 🙂 I do like Carter, though I like him better since he’s been president than while he was in office (though I can’t say I really remember that much). Be sure to let me know what you think of Thirteen Days when you read it. If you love it, I might decide I need to read it too.
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Love that “Books as Obstacles” article. It’s always nice to read about other families whose homes have books in every nook and cranny. Did you note when looking at the world-changing titles that, yet again, the Chast shows up on another list? I’ve got the Karen Armstrong, and most of the others look really good, too.
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Emily, I know, it makes me not feel so bad about the “clutter” of books at my house! Yes, Chast has been getting lots of buzz. I’m on a very long waiting list at the library. I’d also like to read the Armstrong book sometime.
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I’m lusting after all these 2014 world-changing books! I’m actually on the waiting list for the Piketty one, but the reader before me is obviously in no hurry to return it.
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Smithereens, don’t they look good? Piketty is one that I am content to just read about rather than read for myself. So I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it when your turn comes around at the library!
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You know I have heard about all most all the authors and read some of them, especially Karen Armstrong whose entire body of work is in my collection; however not one of these books have I read…I am getting more and more muddled about lists and the big reads and books you have to read and books that change life/world/universe etc!! Having shared my angst, 😉 I still think the list has some very interesting items!
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cirtnecce, yours is a readerly angst I think most of us share to one degree!
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I’ve read Karen Armstrong’s The spiral staircase and one other, but can’t recollect which one. I’ve heard of this latest and would be intrigued to read it, but probably won’t. A couple of others in the list fall in the same category. Interesting that quite a few are non-fiction.
I’m not sure any books actually changed my world last year, but Flanagan’s The narrow road to the deep north would come close because he gave such insight into a history I knew but hadn’t fully “felt” before (even Railwayman, the film anyhow, didn’t convey what Flanagan did – including some insight into the Japanese side too). A girl is a half-formed thing came close too though not quite in the same way as Flanagan.
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whisperinggums, it is interesting that many of the books do tend to be nonfiction. I agree with you on Flanagan and Girl, they came close. How to Be Both did slightly shift the way I see art and the role/purpose of the painter and the act of looking. It’s still burbbling in my brain now and then.
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I haven’t read that one – would like to, though.
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Yes, please. One of those cool robots–he or she…could walk home with me. I will follow as they clear a path. Oh, a person can dream anyway. 😉
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Danielle, aren’t those robots great? Much friendlier than a snowblower and much less work than a shovel 🙂
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