JerryKnight.com

Apparently, I’ve been tagged. I’m not sure I even have 15 things to say about books.

1. Despite being a techno-whatever, I have an easier time reading lots of text from a book rather than the computer screen.
2. In English/literature classes, I had a hard time completely reading anything that was assigned. Skimming was my friend.
3. The only assigned book I read all the way through was Moby Dick, believe it or not.
4. Although I pretty much have perfect vision, after reading for long periods of time, I cannot easily focus more than a few feet in front of me. I try to prevent this by taking look-away breaks.
5. I don’t have a wide variety of favorite authors, but so far I enjoy Douglas Adams’ writing style. I also enjoy Neal Stephenson’s style, though it’s less humorous. I like authors that don’t ramble aimlessly or exposite blandly. Somewhere in the middle. (Guess that rules me out.)
6. I don’t like reading “fad” books, like Lord of the Rings when the movie came out, or now the Chronicles of Narnia.. That’ll have to wait. I have been curious about the Da Vinci Code (that’s “duh-vin-chee”, people!) hooplah.
7. The only books I rememeber reading growing up were the Spirit Flyer series by John Bibee and The Cooper Kids series by Frank Peretti. Any other books were either Garfield cartoons or some other books I have long since forgotten.
8. I, too, dislike actually reading out loud, but when I read silently, it’s almost audible in my head, and I’m usually inaudibly saying the words. I guess that’s just how it works.
9. I also like the way old (non-moldy) books smell. It’s almost as distinct a smell as rented video game manuals.
10. For techno-stuff, I don’t like owning or using reference manuals. Unless the book is about a chiseled-in-stone standard, it’s usually out of date by the time it’s sent to the printers. Good books should be a long-term possession, handed down through the generations, preserving little pieces of bygone eras.
11. College text books are evil.
12. Barnes & Noble is a great place. A great name, too, since I’m related to some Barneses and some Nobles.
13. The book that most stretched my way of thinking was Flatland by Edwin Abbott. Read it, but be careful it doesn’t hurt your brain.
14. Project Gutenberg is a great place to find public-domain works, but as I mentioned before, computer-screen book reading is hard for me.
15. I greatly doubt that books will ever become obsolete, no matter how close we get to the mythical paperless society. Nothing could adequately replace the printed word, although someone probably said that about hand-copied scrolls.

I’m pretty much a leaf on the blog-tree – nobody else to tag. So anyone reading this who hasn’t yet completed this meme (what a weird word), consider yourself tagged.

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