A Stitch in Haste

I'm not at all a big fan of "blog memes." But in response to several calls for "less world, more Kip," I'm starting a sporadic string of weekend posts that I'll call "Inside the Vault" (i.e., the vault of my life).

One meme that is circulating right now caught my eye, so I'll partake: "The Book Meme" --

One Book That Changed My Life:

All good libertarians are supposed to say Atlas Shrugged. But the truth is that it was one of the last Rand books I read; I absorbed her non-fiction first.

Then I thought I'd be really clever and answer Cosmos by Carl Sagan, but then saw that Rammage of Atlas Blogged beat me to it. Still, it's the best answer — Sagan made the macro- and micro-cosmic metaphysical orderings of the universe comprehensible. Which in turn made it pretty much impossible not to be an atheist. So yes, a "Big Bang" on my junior high school brain.

A book I have read more than once:

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Gene was the first fictional character I could almost totally relate to. But don't worry, you can climb a tree with me without fear.

One book I would want on a desert island:

How to Get Off a Desert Island for Dummies. Okay, this one's hard. Maybe The Boomer Bible by R.F. Laird. Because it has more pages than you can shake a pointy stick at, and it would remind me just how silly modern culture can sometimes be, hence I wouldn't miss it all that much.

One book that made me laugh:

Nothing's Sacred, by Lewis Black. Self-explanatory.

One book that made me cry:

Cry to Heaven, by Anne Rice. No pun intended. To be betrayed is one thing; to be betrayed by the one person in the world who isn't supposed to betray you is another thing entirely.

One book I wish I had written:

Anything by James Clavell, but especially Tai-Pan. Clavell is like Rand without the speeches — great plot and character development in some of the most exotic settings at the most "culture clash" periods of history, with clear-cut, but not super-human, protagonists and antagonists.

One book you wish had never been written:

This one's easy: The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. That piece of gobbledygook wasn't "fiction," it was fantasy. And yet it remains a rallying cry for recruiting foolish youngsters into the lethal fraud of socialism to this day.

One book I am currently reading:

Gotham, by Mike Wallace and Edwin G. Burrows. Of course, I've been "reading" it (I'm making air quotes with my fingers right now) for well over a year. Meanwhile, as you can see in the sidebar, I'm about to start Young Patriots by Charles Cerami, about the pre- and post-constitutional relationship between James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

One book I have been meaning to read:

The Power Broker, by Robert A. Caro. It's just plain embarrassing that I haven't read this yet. Before there was Kelo v. New London, there was Robert Moses. And apparently we have learned nothing from his reign of terror.

Someone to be tagged for this meme:

Anyone reading this: If you have a blog, then go for it. If not, then feel free to answer one or more questions in the comments.