Book Tag Bingo

June 27, 2005 · Filed Under zeitgeist · Comments

Well, thanks to that pesky Aardvark, I’ve now become part of the in-crowd & get to play Book Tag. What’s that, you ask (and, seriously, if you’re asking, you need to read more than just this blog, although I’m darned glad you read my little soapbox rantings!)?

I’m in the 6th generation in this round: The Aardvark was tagged by Bob Waters, who was tagged by the lovely orthobabe Bunnie Diehl, who had been tagged by Jordan Ballor, who had been tagged by Kathryn Judson, who started the whole shebang.

Kathryn’s rules were simple:
Imagine that a local philanthropist is hosting an event for local high school students and has asked you to pick out five to ten books to hand out as door prizes. At least one book should be funny and at least one book should provide some history of Western Civilization and at least one book should have some regional connection. The philanthropist doesn’t like foul language (but will allow some four-letter words in context, such as expressed during battle by soldiers). Otherwise things are pretty wide open. What do you pick?

Bunnie then added:
1) one book must be something you’re a bit embarrassed to admit is on your favorites list, 2) all books would be suitable for adults and 3) one book changed the way you look at the world.

I will add this one restriction on my listing — I’m limiting myself to books that I’ve got sitting on my bookshelves here at SchloÃŸ Territorial Bloggings. A minor limitation, but helpful nonetheless. And with that said, let’s get on with it…

1) “Worldview Changer” — The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz. I’ve expounded previously on the extent of my LCMS “lifer” status, but there were some things that I just didn’t “get” until after I read this book. I can’t really do this book justice in only a paragraph — it’s that good.

2) “Funny Book” — No one single, monograph type of book here. Rather, I’d offer up the collected works of folks like Charles Schulz (Peanuts), Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), & Berke Breathed (Bloom County - esp. from ~1982 thru 1987). For more off-the-beaten-track humor of the comic-strip type, Sam Hurt’s Eyebeam strip (no longer in production) was quite good, albeit not as consistent & value-laden as Peanuts, consistently magical & insightful as Calvin & Hobbes, or as meteoric as Bloom County.

3) “Solid Values” — Staying in the comics/graphical vein, Jack Berrill’s Gil Thorp was as good & solid as they came during Berrill’s time as the writer/artist, from 1958 until his death in 1996. The strip is still going, but it’s nowhere near as good as when Berrill was at the helm.

4) “Technology” –

Father, Son & Co., by Thomas J. Watson, Jr. — This biographical history of IBM is quite good at laying out the earliest days of “Western” technology.
Accidental Empires, by Robert X. Cringely — Cringely, the former gossip columnist at InfoWorld (who successfully sued to keep use of the name, even as InfoWorld has kept the name & column in production) does a fabulous job of fleshing out the happenings of Silicon Valley during it’s rise to prominence. This book was good enough that it was spun off into not one, but two PBS specials (Triumph of The Nerds & Nerds 2.0)
Apple Confidential, by Owen Linzmayer — You can’t go wrong with a nice, juicy history of Apple Computer.

5) “Western Civ” –

The Two Germanies since 1945, by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr., & The Berlin Wall, by Norman Gelb — So much of the History of the 20th Century is tied up in Germany. These two books (Ashby’s is more “academic” in tone, while Gelb’s is a very enjoyable read) sum up a large chunk of that history. I regret that there isn’t a book about WWI and/or Weimar Germany that I can offer up, but that is almost to be expected, I guess.
D-Day & Band of Brothers, both by Steven Ambrose — WWII is the source of a great many books, and Ambrose does a great job.
Gibbon’s The Decline & Fall Of The Roman Empire — A/The standard bearer for a reason, and well worth the effort to get through it.

6) “Regional” –

Devil’s Night (and other true tales of Detroit), by Ze’ev Chafets — This book doesn’t get it all exactly right, but for me (one of the last babies born at Saratoga General Hospital in Detroit the November after the 1967 riots, and someone who is proud to have grown up around the Motor City) this book really did help flesh out some of the details about just how & why a city that was so great during the time when my dad grew up there in the ’40’s & ’50’s, went to hell in the late ’60’s & ’70’s, and why those forces are still the ones that keep it down to this day.
Anatomy of An Explosion, by Kurt Marquart & A Tale of Two Synods, by Mark Braun — These two books give an excellent rundown of what happened to the LCMS over the course of the 20th Century.

7) “General Enjoyment/Series” — I really like the whole “Jack Ryan” series by Tom Clancy, with the earlier books still being the best - e.g., The Hunt for Red October & Patriot Games, although Without Remorse is also very good. So I guess I’d donate them all (and Red Storm Rising, too, even though it’s not in the “Ryanverse”).
“Guilty Pleasures” –

The Rabbit… trilogy by John Updike. These are richly evocative books, although I fear that they might not pass the “foul language” test. Even so, I’ll donate them & let the powers that be make the call…
Mankind - Have A Nice Day! by Mick Foley — Yeah, yeah, yeah… I like the soap opera that is pro wrestling. What of it?
I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe — It’s technically still in the house, because I haven’t returned it to the library yet. It was troublingly accurate, based on my almost 20 years of exposure to Academe (including four years working at a campus that aspired to Duke/Dupont-level stature…), and that’s perhaps why I found it so disquieting, though still enjoyable.

9) “Too Obvious To Make Further Note Of:” The Bible & The Book of Concord

Folks I am now tagging: David Brazeal, Seminarian Chaz Lehmann, and the Beggars All duo of Tim the Enchanter & Caspar Heydenreich.

Thanks for your attention, you’ve been a wonderful audience!
-ghp