Okay, now Schramm has tagged me. Here goes:
1. How many books do I own? Just a ballpark figure, but I suppose about 500 at home and twice that many packed into my office, so let’s say 1500. Not as many as some, but I’m still in my thirties.
2. What’s the last book I bought? Chuck Thompson, The 25 Best World War II Sites, European Theater, for strictly utilitarian reasons--I’m planning a WWII-themed student junket to Europe for next May.
3. What’s the last book I read? Equality, Decadence, and Modernity, a collection of essays by Stephen Tonsor, edited by Gregory Schneider. I was asked to review it.
4. What are the five books that mean the most to me? Well, I guess in a literal sense they’d be the ones I’ve written, but that’s probably not in line with the spirit of the question. So let’s try this:
Goethe’s Faust
Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France
Orwell’s 1984
Albert Jay Nock’s Memoirs of a Superfluous Man
F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom.
My five tag-ees are Bob Lawson at Division of Labour, David Beito at Liberty & Power, Lynne Kiesling of Knowledge Problem, Stephen Tootle of Rebunk, and Tyler Cowen of The Volokh Conspiracy.
Didnt you have an Ayn Rand book (Fountainhead, maybe??) in this blog-post a day or so ago (not in your top 5 list, perhaps, but mentioned), or am I just imagining things??
I did, but a little while later I realized I hadnt included Burke, so there was a question about which one I was going to replace. I decided that since I had to qualify the Rand book (and it was Atlas Shrugged) that I would drop that one.
Dont get me wrong; it would definitely be number 6 on my list. And if we extended the list out a bit more (top 10, maybe top 20) The Fountainhead would have been on it as well.
I think Rand was quite an idiot, really.
I wouldnt use the term "idiot" so much as "fanatic." It was when I read her non-fiction essays--particularly the one where she advocated keeping disabled people locked away, where children couldnt see them--that really turned me off. But, as Ive said, I found her fiction inspiring. I still do.
I second the "Ayn Rand is an idiot" meme.