Posted 4 years, 9 months ago around lunchtime by oso
Never one to let a good meme die.
Myke asks
1. Estimate the total number of books you’ve owned in your life.
This is gonna have to be one hell of a rough guess. Probably at least half the books I’ve read have been traded with other travelers while on the road. Or with friends and family while at home. In fact, I never really think of me as owning the book, more like the book paying me a visit. So, I’ll say that I’ve probably bought around 150 books. Jesus, what a waste of money when every time I go to the library I always check out more than I can read.
2. What’s the last book you bought?
I think the last book I actually bought was How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers.
3. What’s the last book you read?
Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle. When I first started reading it I was sure it was the seed of inspiration for the movie Spanglish and wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. But T.C. Boyle is a subtle, unbiased, and incredibly observant writer. I had read Drop City by him last year about a group of 1960’s Californian hippes trying to go back to nature in Alaska and the way he can reveal his characters hipocrisies without judging them is incredible. The same is true with Tortilla Curtain; a tragedy about two well-intentioned couples in a suburb of Los Angeles who end up making each other’s lives (and their own) hell through no fault of their own other than self-preservation. Like Barbara Kingsolver, Boyle ties in ecological metaphors (mostly through the fictional monthly column of the wealthy environmentalist husband) that describe the sociological situations of the characters. Highly recommended.
4. List 5 books that mean a lot to you.
Through necessary exclusion:
Immortality by Milan Kundera
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Meanwhile, all the way back in April, Thivai asked all of us:
Q1 — You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to save?
This is the only question I’m willing to answer for all three of us. All back issues of The Onion of course.
Q2 — Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
A couple months ago I was reading Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins and all throughout the book I had a fat crush on Bonanza Jelly Bean.
Q3 — The last book you bought is?
See here.
Q4 — What books are you currently reading?
Finishing up the last 20 pages of Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner, just starting unit 2 of Espanol 3 Para Extranjeros, and just beginning The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky
Q5 — Five books you would take to a desert[ed] island?
That’s a tough one. Probably one book on island survival. Another on botany and what plants are edible. I could finally finish George Bernard Shaw’s A History of Western Philosophy. Probably a book of porn or erotica. And then maybe something by Nietzche in case I need to work up the courage to kill myself.
Andrew, who has a damn cool little mappy thing on his weblog of where in Europe he is at the moment, asks:
Total size of music files on my computer:
3335 songs, 18.50 gigabytes, 10.3 days of music. And then another 100 gb or so on DVD’s that get shuffled onto my computer when I need change.
The last CD I bought was:
I really haven’t the slightest idea. CD’s seem to me about as useful as 8-tracks.
Song playing right now:
Vida de Ot rio por from the City of God soundtrack. I’ve been into funk lately.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
That’s so hard. I feel like I’ve answered this question before though. I can tell you that I’ve been really into the podcast DailySonic lately. Every weekend they get some random person to introduce him/herself and play the tunes they like. And then during the week it’s a whole show with news, music, and specials. I guess they call it an MP3zine – whatever that means.
And now to tag others. Five people, you can choose to do whatever meme you want … or none at all:
- César
- shimonkey – who will have to come up with some clever way to do it on flickr
- Gustavo – I’m especially curious to know what tracks he’s got on his compu
- HP – cause god knows we all need more republican gansta rap … at least I assume he’d do the music since we all now conservatives don’t read
- Paul
Those two memes are two of the few I’d answer as they’re about music & books. It’s interesting to see what has affected people in different ways. It’s also a damned good way to get some new ideas on books to read and music to listen to.
I should be embarrassed that I do not read as much as you do. In fact, I’m making it a goal to read some of the books you mentioned. Starting now. Well, as soon as I finish that Iowa Workshop book I bought.
I still owe you a packet of xeroxed stuff for you to read. It’s sitting on my desk. It will get to you soon.
Oso, keep an ojo out for mine.
100+ GB of music! Good god man.
The Dharma Bums is an excellent book. I think it hit closer to home for me because I could picture the exact streets they were walking down/living on in Berkeley.
Ah….Berkeley….
I just finished reading Freakonomics by University Of Chicago economics professor Steven Levitt. It’s a pretty good book actually, and abortion is among many of the controversial topics it covered. It proves that legalizing abortion in the 1970’s was one of the primary causes of such a drastic reduction in crime in the 1990’s. For some reason, several of my pro-life friends seem to find that conclusion troublesome, and others have even tried to argue against his findings. I, on the other hand, find it overall to be common sense.
As far as Music, that is a no brainer, I like what all conservatives like, Gansta rap, especially that Compton rap dawg!!! Of course, I try to switch it up a little and also listen to oldies and always have to have a CD of Los Cadetes De Linares close at hand for them drinking sessions…
I’d put more but I’m about to go to Tijuana with my roommate and celebrate the finishing of my finals.
I would have a crush on someone named Jelly Bean too.
Where did the Jelly Bean come from. Anyway, my comp/iPod is filled with too many music categories…how can someone (me) know every Jose Alfredo Jimenez lyric and also listen to stuff like Molotov and Nine Inch Nails. Como que no va, o no mezcla pero asi es. I am also into a lot of 80’s music like Duran Duran, The Police and Depeche Mode. Oh and also during high school I listened non stop to Dr. Dre’s the Chronic..and Nirvana’s Nevermind and In Utero. Ay te veo!
EMC,
I only read a lot because I’m so bad at watching television. I don’t know why, but I get frustrated after about 5 minutes of TV so I wonder off and grab a book.
Derek,
Looking good. I gotta get a smile on my gravatar. I like music.
Bobbo,
If you’d ever like to become a buddhist poet and would like to garden with me in a Bezerkeley cottage, you just let me know.
HP,
Have you read the new Freakonomics column in New York Times magazine? Last week there was a pretty good article about monkey prostitution. I heard an interview with Steven Levitt on Weekend America that asked him what he’d do if he was president. He said he’d make abortion illegal to see if his findings on crime were accurate. Portate bien in TJ.
Cindylu,
You should have heard the way Robbins describes the “peach fuzz on the soft peachy skin of her slender thighs and plump breasts.” He was killing me.
Gustavo,
Jelly Bean Bonanza is a character of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. She’s the revolutionary leader of a band of femenist cowgirls who take over the ranch of a millionaire who earned his fortune by selling harmful vaginal spray. She’s got some spunk. I sincerely hope that every californian our age listened to The Chronic and Nevermind in high school. Warren G, Pearl Jam, and Sublime were, of course, also requisite.
Looking forward to reading the memes.
Oso, i just saw this. And oddly enough, just finished reading the Poisonwood Bible. Beautiful read although the sense of desperation would leave me all suicidal at the end of each reading bout. I will indeed try to find some clever way of doing this on flickr, although I must admit I don’t read as much as I would like to.
[...] Wait a meme, guero, EMC has been tagged to yap about books, music, and in the process discovers that his fucking iPod broke again. [...]