Monday meme: one book Picking up on a literary meme from the obscenely well read Whisky Prajer:
One book that changed my life:The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning. Manning's book about the power of grace and forgiveness helped me to get over a lot of grudges and negative feelings toward others.
One book I've read more than once: I read John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces about a dozen times during and right after college. In my opinion, it's one of the best comic novels since Catch-22.
One book I'd want on a desert island:The Idiot's Guide to Shipbuilding, of course. (With a nod to G.K. Chesterton, who answered this question much the same way back in his day, before the Idiot's Guide series was created.)
One book that made me laugh: Many have made me chuckle and chortle at places, but few have ever made me belly laugh. Probably the first to really tickle my funny bone was something from Dr. Seuss, most likely One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
One book that made me cry:The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, a collection of short stories offering a grunt's-eye view of Vietnam.
One book I wish had never been written:E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace, my first published book. First of all, it's not a very good book; I definitely could have done better. Also, it took too long to get published, making it obsolete as soon as it hit the market; the publishing company's tactics caused much turmoil in my life; and the book itself has led many people to think I'm some sort of super-spiritual Internet evangelist, when in fact I was trying to write a more journalistic book based on my observations, with some how-to stuff thrown in to make it more practical.
One book I wish had been written: The one I've been noodling about for the past three or four years, about the spiritual significance of punk rock (working title: Never Mind the Bibles: A Theology of Punk). I've got the first three chapters in more or less suitable draft form and the fourth chapter is semi-complete. I haven't done any work on any of it for months. I need some motivation. How about a big book deal? Random House, are you listening?
One book I'm currently reading:Jesus Mean and Wild, by Mark Galli. I got it for free from a PR agency. It's actually better than I expected. (Here's an excerpt.)
One book I've been meaning to read: Too many to list here. But years ago, after reading 100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I decided to buy his Love in the Time of Cholera, and placed it on my bookshelf at home. There it sits, unread, to this day.
One person I tag: Anyone reading this. Respond in comments, or on your own blog.