Houston Democrats

I assume this means that we are to answer the same questions. So here goes ....

1. How many books do you own?

Enough to overflow many tall shelves and enough to inspire my husband to say one of us has to go ... either me or the piles of books obstructing the pathways through the house. Of course, he's been making this same threat for 30 years!

2. Last book read.

I am finishing two right now: Franklin Roosevelt: Rendezvous With Destiny by Frank Freidel (superb bio of FDR, with many insights for our times) and Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa (classic by nonpartisan precursor to Lakoff).

3. Last book purchased.

Purchased with my Mother's Day Barnes and Noble gift card: The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever by Cass Sunstein. (Yep, I have an FDR fetish - I guess it's because of the achingly poignant comparison with the Chimp.)

4. Name five books that mean a lot to you

All the President's Men by Woodward and Bernstein

Truman by David McCullough

A First Class Temperament (FDR bio) by Geoffrey C. Ward

Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life Of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Stephen Oates

Robert Kennedy and His Times by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

5. Five people to tag.

Well, I don't know if they will let themselves be "tagged," but here are some fellow DFH-ers and my political junkie son (wonder where he got that?)....

Leah

Phillip

John G

John I

Nick

Marguerite wrote "Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa (classic by nonpartisan precursor to Lakoff)." How times change, I might have called Hayakawa a lot of things but never NonPartisan. When I was much younger and I thought I had a future in elective politics, he and his wife endorsed me. It was the finish of my career.

Leif, I am sure that you are right; I guess I meant that the book Language in Thought and Action is more linguistically oriented and less overtly partisan than Lakoff's latest books, especially Don't Think of an Elephant. Most recently Lakoff analyzes the Republicans' use of language to win elections and lays the foundation for progressives to do the same, while Hayakawa analyzes the workings of language more generally, though he does give some political examples.

I am totally intrigued that Hayakawa was one of your political supporters. Would you mind telling us more?

Also, any chance we can persuade you to re-enter electoral politics? We certainly need some good candidates, such as right here in TX House District 138!

I'm curious about "meme'd," about what it means exactly--or even un-exactly.
Well, here's my stuff:
1.How many books do you own?
God knows. I have 2 walls, bedroom and study, of floor-to-ceiling bookcases crammed with books, and they're all over nearly every surface in the house. I guess teaching English made a collector out of me.(At least "collector" sounds better than packrat.)Until recently, I've been constitutionally unable to throw away a book. I have kept some that were gnawed by my dog Cady (a feminist golden retriever named for Elizabeth Cady Stanton) about 15 years ago when she was a puppy. She's dead now, so I've kept the books. I don't claim to be logical.

2. Last book read:a.The End of Faith (subtitled "Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason")by Sam Harris. I haven't finished it. I read it slowly because one of my reactions to it is that it scares the bejesus out of me.
b. An Explanation for Chaos, a collection of short stories by Julie Schumaker
c. Two detective stories, The DaVinci Code, and one by Nevada Barr. I love detective stories.
3. Last book purchased:One by Alexander McCall Smith about a lady detective in South Africa. I got it for a friend who has cancer. We're making funny stuff a part of her treatment.
4. Name 5 books that mean a lot to you:
a. John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benet. The Civil War in poetry. A beautiful book with lines like "Only a fool would go looking for the wind that blew across his heartstrings yesterday." I read it at a time when I loved images like that. I love the book still.
b. Like PDiddie, The Liars' Club by Mary Carr.
I grew up and taught school for a while in Port Arthur. While I was reading this book, one of the few truly authentic memoirs I've read, I sometimes had the feeling that her voice could've been my voice saying those same words.
c. A Separate Peace and The Catcher in the Rye. If you teach high school kids, you need to read and understand these two, even today. They are about the kids who are not ordinary, not "normal"--my cup of tea-- but wonderful,the kids who need the good teachers that Texas schools are losing.
d. Walden by Henry David Thoreau. My guess is that every maverick who ever read Walden loved it.
Thoreau understood us kooks and was one of us:"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him march to the music that he hears..."
e. 3 plays (a cheat, I know, but they might together make one book): Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand; Jean Anouilh's Antigone; A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt (maybe?). If you think you've got your morals and ethics all worked out and under control, try reading these. Better still, read them with someone who'll talk with you about them and won't mind if you end up shouting at each other. I have friends that I still argue these plays with 30 years later.

5. Five people to tag:
a. Susan Gates
b. Leif Hatlen
c. Greg
d. Jon
e. Jaybird
This was hard to do. I didn't realize how many books I love until I had to make a short list.