Come one … Come all … and tell us of:
The books you specifically buy to loan or give away …
Mine?[ul]Most Copies: Joy of Cooking / LotR & Hobbit
Hardest to Find: The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind[/ul]
You and I both know this is highly limited. Only the top ten categories or authors, please.
I tend not to buy books specifically to loan, but the ones I have found that I wish I had multiple copies of include:
The Killer Angels
Snow Crash
An obscure sci-fi called Liege Killer by Hinz (also obvious ones like Ender’s Game and the Demolished Man to non-sci-fi readers…)
The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies
What happens is I read the book, love it, buy a first edition (don’t have a 1st of Killer Angels - $3,000 or more - eesh.) Then loan out my paperback, then never see it again…
These are ones I end up recommending a lot…
We always have spare copies of ‘Adopting the Racing Greyhound’.
Just in case.
Terry Pratchett’s “Wyrd Sisters” and “Guards, Guards.” I give these to students all the time, with instructions to pass them on to others.
I always have to have multiple copies of P. J. O’Rourke’s “Parliament of Whores” around as well.
Oo! Good topic!
The only one I keep “in stock” is The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. This book has significantly improved the quality of my life. We keep multiple copies to give away in the hopes it will help others. It’s not a self-help book. Rather it’s about personal safety and how to distinguish between “fear” and “anxiety.” Good stuff.
My husband is partial to giving away The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce and The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey.
We were fortunate enough to see Norton Juster speak, and we bought many copies of The Phantom Tollbooth and had them signed. We had lots of fun giving those away.
But there are a ton of other books I will get just to give away. Basically, if I think my friends and relatives are really missing out on something good by not having read a particular book or author, I’ll buy any really cheap copy I can find. Among these:
Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene DuBois
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Gate to Womens’ Country by Sherri S. Tepper
I’ll also pick up most any super cheap Roald Dahl, Bill Bryson, or Carl Hiassen I can find, and some of my favorite Stephen Kings as well. Friends and relatives often ask me to recommend them something fun to read, so it’s nice to have some stuff available that I can just give them. If I ever get around to getting the library organized, I’m going to dedicate a shelf to books just for giving away.
i buy janet evanovich books when i get a waldens coupon. that way i have some to send off or lend.
green bean is making me think i’m gonna have to share the coupons with others as well; carl hiassen, snort, that will keep people guessing.
Um, Zenster you do know that Jaynes’ theories have been ridiculed by the psychological AND archaeological community, and his followers considered crackpots? Why would you buy that book (published by a pedestrian, non-scholarly published and not peer reviewed) to give to friend? You might as well be handing out copies of Erich Von Daniken.
UnuMondo
Mostly copies of works by Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba The Greek in particular. Robert Ruark is another author who I try to stock up on for “distribution”, especially his book The Old Man And The Boy.
I will snap up any extra copies of Terry Pratchett books I can find, although I rarely find any around here and my efforts to introduce him to others haven’t gone too well.
I’ve often heard this. I’ve also read the book four times and am continually astounded by its level of insight into the human mind. I’m also well aware of how often really brilliant thinkers and innovators are ridiculed by their less generous colleagues.
Feel free to suggest some other books about the origins of consciousness that also explain hypnotism and schizophrenia in a somewhat coherent fashion (unlike so many other theories). One thing is for sure, it is impossible that man has always been conscious. Few other theories I’ve seen even make any attempt to account for this.
William Manchester’s THE GLORY AND THE DREAM is the most coherent, readable, comprehensive history of recent history (1932-1974) I’ve come across. I often give copies away to young people for their birthdays and the like, and a more unapppreciative bunch of gift-getters I’ve never seen. You’d think I was giving away stockings loaded to the brim with coal. “What do I want with this thick-as-a-brick load of horsedung?” their faces seem to cry out.
‘Mediocrities’ No apostrophe. I just couldn’t stand it a moment longer.
I buy Dorothy Dunnett to lend and give away. I’d always buy Kate Seredy if I saw her too.
I don’t want to turn this into a Jaynes thread, but I must say I’m disappointed in someone who can amass several thousand posts on a post dedicated to fighting ignorance, and at the same time think that peer review is unnecessary in the sciences and that if someone’s theories are shown to be invalid then it is due to the lesser “generosity” of the community.
What makes you qualified to decide what insight Jaynes had into the human mind? The people who are qualified, the psychological community, have reached the conclusion that Jaynes had very little insight indeed. Archaeologists and classicists, the experts on those parts of the ancient world which Jaynes was basing so much of his theory on, have shown much of The Origin of Consciousness… to be either oversimplification or misunderstanding.
UnuMondo
Deep breaths there ,UnoMondo.
I’m only saying that I found the book to be quite enjoyable. I have nowhere stated that it is a flawless masterpiece of psychological anthropology. Having had papers of my own published subsequent to peer review, I am more than well aware of how vital that process is. I happen to like the model that Jaynes presents and have seen situations where it seems to explain what I’ve witnessed rather well.
Your own ranting is a little out of place in a literature thread, but so be it. I’ll close with the fact that many current theories were ridiculed in their own time. Feel free to start a pit thread.