Tomorrow I'll, er, start talking about Prince of Tennis again or something XD

[petronia]

Results of the experiment: ...I went off and watched a handful of Futurama eps with dipping_sauce, actually. It was a lot more interesting. >D I'm glad they tossed me before I got back, as that removes any obligation (or ability?) on my part to make further responses. What, me short attention span? Surely you jest.

Ah vell. As Charmian (didn't quite) put it, hate the sinner, love the sinner's books. I know quite a few people who're using the comm as a compendium of rec lists now. XD

I've been wondering, though - and I know I'm not the only one - about the peculiar dissatisfaction incurred by the act of drawing up these lists. It's like it's never quite representative, somehow, and yet one knows there are books that warped one for life affected one's paradigm to a great degree. Maybe that's the thing. Is your Top 20 Books That Changed Your Life the same as your Top 20 Books You Would Gladly Re-read Right Now, and is that the same as the Top 20 Books You Would Rec To Your Flist Without Hesitation? How about Top Twenty Books You Most Enjoyed Reading, versus Top Twenty Books You're Most Glad You Read? I know for me those are five very different lists.** So how long would the list have to be for the cut to be representative? Top 50? Top 100? I know, though, that any time I try to read a Top 100 List of anything my eyes start to cross at about #60 (there's that attention span again!), so there's also a point beyond which the list loses usefulness. If indeed they ever have any usefulness beyond bold-the-ones-you've-read type lj memeage. (Incidentally the ShonagonBlog link the other day finally made me realise the point of her lists: proto-memes! It was probably "list ten things you find elegant, then copy this question into the next pillow book" week at court.)

** This is, of course, your cue to ask me about my Top 20 Books Featuring (Or Written By) Hawt Redheads.

EDIT -- And now as a corrective, I'm going to purchase enough trashy ghei fantasy novels on Amazon Japan to last me through a winter of subway-riding. By the way, if you look at the Amazon rankings of Kuwabara Mizuna's works, it seems rather like many people buy just the novel equivalent of episode 7. >D

EDIT2 -- I hate the fact that Amazon Japan turns 5$CAN books into 12$CAN books with shipping charges. The fact that a roughly analogous book in English would be 12$CAN - or printed on cruddy paper just this side of newsprint, or even both, and let's not even talk about how much your typical poetry collection costs - doesn't change the fact that, well, shipping charges. =_=

Comments

[dipping_sauce]

(Remember that robot cop from the first episode? His name? Is URL.)

My list of books that most changed me, fr'instance, would have to include Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land for personal reasons (body issues, sexuality and the like), and the first volume of the Invisibles (because, dude, I can get super powers). But those were both one-shot things, like getting a switch flipped in your brain. They wouldn't have the same effect once I read them a second time (and I know that from experience with the Invisibles -- it's still a good read, but not as good as the first time) and I don't think I can bring myself to re-read SiaSL, really ^^;

The stuff that changed my reading habits (dunno about anyone else) was basic, like a stepping-stool, to help you reach a higher shelf, bookwise.

I think to properly reflect anyone's tastes a list would have to include not only books you like (and why, which is very important -- I'm sure I liked Neuromancer, say, for very different reasons than you) but also books that you disliked, and the why for those as well.

(IMHO, the *best* way is to go for a walk through a well-stocked library, pull a book off a shelf that you've both read, discuss, and repeat. And then start with the recs.)

And now I sleep.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Heh, I am too. It's quite useful; though yes, lists are never comprehensive, one feels, so why bother? All of those top twenty lists are blurring into each other. I have a skeptical view of the possibility of self knowledge, or the idea that people know themselves well enough to tell the difference though. I think every book that I read that didn't suck has changed me as a reader in some way. Even the bad ones probably did too.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

That's the thing--they are different lists, with a very small percentage of overlap, which is why I could never manage or be arsed to produce a single list of 20, either. (Leaving aside gawd's honest truth that I couldn't pretend at snoobery even if I wanted to behave like a snoob, since I have the literary taste of a six-year-old and prefer stories that include talking animals.) Last week I'd theorized 3 lists: "top 20 books I enjoyed," "top 20 books I respect a lot," and "top 20 books that altered my perspective in some important respect." But a perspective-changing book can be a terrible book--I hate to mention titles, but it was a Mercedes Lackey novel that more or less served as my introduction to not only Gay in Fiction, but Gay in General--pathetic but true!--and yet its badness doesn't negate the life-changingness of it, even if years later I've grown ashamed to admit having read it at all.

From your list, I think Neuromancer is the only one I've read in its entirety (never got through all of Genji) and despite that I remember absolutely nothing about it. Which goes to show...something, I'm sure.

So, about those redheads?

Also, has anyone told you lately that you should watch FMA?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's precisely it. (And like Erin above I have Life-Changing Books that are also Very Respectable, but that I never want to read again, precisely because of the manner in which they were life-changing. ^^;)

Wouldn't think Neuromancer'd be your kind of thing anyway. Redheaded List is up and will be added to. And no, no one lately but you, but it only takes one to keep the flame burning. XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

j0, redheads are hott, am waiting for the list XD