back to books

It's strange how little reading I do these days, despite the fact that I am doing a Philosophy MA. I don't really think that a day spent reading a mere few pages of 'The Fold' constitutes reading. At least, not reading in the sense that I used to overindulge myself in. That said Smokewriting has expressed a wish that I answer these questions and since I would answer them even if he hadn't wanted me to I will do it happily.

1. You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
3. The last book you bought is:
4. The last book you read:
5. What are you currently reading?
6. Five books you would take to a desert island.
7. Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

1. I have never read nor seen Fahrenheit 451 but having read a synopsis of it over at imdb I'm assuming that either I'm a book that is to be burnt or a book that is to be saved. If I am one that should be saved I would go for Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, perhaps one of the best books ever written and one that I always reread when I'm pissed off with the world. If I am one that is going to be burnt I would go for anything by Wittgenstien, purely for the fact that I haven't read anything by him and if it was burnt I wouldn't have to.

2. Absolutely; continuing with the Dostoevsky theme I would have to say that my biggest Literature crushes are Raskolnikov and Ivan Karamazov. Although I must say that despite my dark, brooding nihilist fantasies I don't think that I would like them if I actually met them.

3. Leibniz's Philosophical Texts, purely for the collection of letters to Arnauld which I am loving right now. I think that the Leibnizian world is a wonderful one, and I also find Leibniz very cute.

4. Last book I read? I have a bit of a problem in that I find it very difficult to finish a book. However I did almost finish Lecourt's The Mediocracy when I was on the train one day. It's a fairly entertaining read about French intellectualism.

5. Flaubert's Madame Bovary; a book which I will finish as it ranks among my list of books which everyone must read.

6.

a) Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Despite my constant bemoaning of the fact that I must read it I think that if I was stuck on a desert island I would be quite happy to have it there. Enter the Matrix et al....

b) Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as I read it when I was about 14 and keep meaning to read it again but haven't got round to it.

c) Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus. I was going to say Deleuze's Difference and Repetition but I really need a library around when I'm reading that text; a few years on an island with D&R would drive me insane when I couldn't chase up the footnotes. However, ATP would be more fun and I might be able to construct a nomadic war machine at night when there's no light for reading.

d) Tolstoy's War and Peace, another book which I have always planned to reread but since it is such a commitment I haven't got round to it.... in fact, thinking of literature crushes, I had a huge crush on Prince Andrei.

e) Anything that anyone could recommend to me that's been written by Murakami. He's an author that I'm told is fantastic but I havent'read anything by him yet so that would be something new.

7. Nina Infinite Thought, Catherine & So this is christmas, johneffay Sweet Effay.

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