The Golden Strawberry

Greetings. Sorry for lack  of recent posting. I just read Hitchens latest anti-theist screed, and am currently drawing up a response. It will be posted this weekend. In the mean time, heres my responses to the book survey.

1. One book you have read more than once

Dune by Frank Herbert. I must have read this about 5 or 6 times from age 12-18. Nerdish? Of course, but it is so incredably imaginative and detailed. Ecology, politics, psychology, psychoanalysis, theology, war and dynastic struggles - this book has it all. I love it to bits and writing this has wanted me to read it again. Maybe I will.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Rosemary Edmonds translation). The best novel I have ever read. Being alone on a desert island wouldn't matter, because with War & Peace with me I would have a complete picture of humanity to delve into whenever I felt lonely.

3. One book that made you laugh

Decline & Fall by Evelyn Waugh. Side-splittingly funny - completly shreds the pretensions of the British upper classes with merciless forensic wit. The account of the school sports day will stay with me forever.

4. One book that made you cry

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Soloman. It didn't quite make me cry, because I'm MACHO, but this momentous study of melahcholy contains some incredably sad portraits of individuals who are suffering. More importantly, it contains many uplifting and inspiring stories.

5. One book you wish you had written

Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens. A blistering defence of the disagreeable mindset, this is full of wisdom, experience and fierce passion. A guide of how to live with your heart on fire and your brain on ice - this is polemic at its finest. Hitchens is a very talented man, and anyone who wants to be a journalist can only be envious of his skills.

6. One book you wish had never been written

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz. A pathetic farce. A plagarism of a fraud; bursting with errors and mistakes so brutally exposed by Norman Finkelstein. All this does is convince that the so called 'defenders' of Israel are not interested in real scholarship and historical writing, only in writing lies to defend the indefensible. THe real defenders of Israel should read this and weep. Is this kind of rubbish what passes for honesty in the partisan-for-Israel faction? A disgrace.

7. One book you are currently reading

The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzheitsyn. An extradinarily brave and detailed demolition of the moral case for Soviet Communism. Russian writers seem to have a special gift for grand, sweeping narratives. Solzhenitsyn combines this talent with his extensive research and interviews with hundreds of gulag survivors. THis is non-fiction at its best. I have 6 volumes to go, and am relishing it.

 8. One book you have been meaning to read

Tolstoy by Henri Troyat. I just havent found the time, damnit. Also, im incredably lazy. Must. Read. More.

-posted by Adam