The Book meme

Fr. Daren Zehnle has hit me with the book meme. I'd have replied earlier, but this has been the week from Gehenna already. Honest. I topped it off by completely messing up the window manager settings on my workstation yesterday. If you don't know what that means, count your blessings. Thanks to commenter Keith for kicking me into gear. The meme:

One book that changed your life:
If it has to be a book, I would have to say Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. It saddens me to think of all the years I wasted not really knowing what marriage and sexuality are all about. The word "love" will never mean the same thing to me.
If I can get away with an encyclical, hands down it's Evangelium vitae. For the first time in my life I was met head-on with argumentation that I simply couldn't refute and it opened my eyes to the great body of Magisterial teachings. It also began my cycle of voracious reading of anything written by a Pope, John Paul II or other.

One book that you've read more than once:
This is tough. I tend not to go back to books very often, which is unlike most bookworms I know. The only one I know I've read multiple times is Eon by Greg Bear. I read this book a few times as a kid - it's a scifi book about a cold war over a near-earth asteroid involving alternate universes and all sorts of fun things like that. It made me think about honeycomb theory at a very early age.

One book you'd want on a desert island:
I read somewhere that you can't say the Bible here. So...other than that, I'd have to say Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologica. I've only ever used it as a reference so reading it cover-to-cover could prove quite interesting.

One book that made you laugh:
This would have to be Umpire Strikes Back by Ron Luciano. It's a collection of stories (true he says, but we'll never know) from his years as a Major League umpire. If you love baseball you simply can't read this and not shake your head chuckling at least twenty times.

One book that made you cry:
Okay, call me pathetic. Lord of the Flies. I have a genuine hatred of seeing people do stupid things, and I just plain can't stand to see people suffer.

One book that you wish had been written:
Other than "How to win the lottery" perhaps it would be "How to talk to kids without sounding like an idiot". Yeah, I can spout theology to adults all day, but get me to talk to kids and I turn into a babbling idiot. That includes my own two some would say.

One book that you wish had never been written:
Too many to list. In my earlier years it would be Oliver Twist (I mean really - who needs to spend five pages walking from one side of the street to the other?). Now...well, shoot, there are so many heresies out there all with their own book it's hard to name just one. I'd say I'm somewhere between Hitler's Mein Kampf and Marx's Communist Manifesto. Keep either one from getting out and who knows how many million lives may have been saved.

One book you're currently reading:
Several. I'm currently working on Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Dr. Ludwig Ott, but my "pleasure" book is A History of Apologetics by Avery Cardinal Dulles. I find I rarely read books not about something to do with the Catholic faith - I have too many pre-conversion years to make up for.

One book you've been meaning to read:
I'm going to skip by the obvious ones. My grandmother (nearly in tears, as I recall) gave me a copy of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis which I still have not finished. I will consider it a bit of a black mark on my record until I finish that book.

Tags: Anyone daring enough to try it. This is harder than it looks.

Tags: Catholic, Books, Memes