> @ Murasaki: the Machinist reference is my most used on a daily basis but it

Hehe, you remember that from another thread. :) Truth is, it's nearly completely unnecessary for me, since my current trade is electronics, but I'm just used to having the info on hand from way back when. About the only time I look something up is when I occasionally need to know what size drill goes with what tap.

That book was truly great.

If the story about the author's early demise are true, it was a truly tragic loss....

---

A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

Twice is not enough- This book tickles

Hi, noodles..

""~'What book tickles me'..............""

I have to say it's the book I'm cracking the spine of at any given moment....

I try to read as much as I can, .....I feel remiss if I fall short of two or three new books a week.

Whatever the clinical description is for excess reading habits is going to have to be, ....the albatross around my neck.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.
------------------------------------------

My favorite book? Favorite author? ..................

The question is too tough........ I can't narrow it down....

Even thinking about it makes me as dis-affected as Eeyore on a rainy day...
-------------------------------------------------------------

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

---

@ Murasaki: the Machinist reference is my most used on a daily basis but it doesn't really tickle my fancy.( it just resides in my toolox)
for my all time favs though I would have to say:
1: Acoustics. by Leo L Barenek is my most read over and over.
2: Richard Marchinkos Rogue Warrior and the fictional series as well.(now that was funny to me anyway)
3: Violence in the Cosmos. Astronomy 161 and astro physics 162 with a dead link that I can't share for now. IT comes back online every once in a while. But there are other copies out there on the net.
4: The Universe in a nutshell. steven hawkins
I still prefer REAL books( hard cover if i can get it) . one of my teachers and my roomate say that they prefer ebook/webbook. what are your preferences.

> In my library, which has been reduced several times, as I have limited space
> and bookshelfs, I have some books, I never would sell or give away, as I still
> read in them from time to time.
>
> My top 3 is (right now):
>
> Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet
> Richard Bach: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
> Richard Bach: Illusions

I read Jonathon Livingstone Seagull a number of years ago and enjoyed it.

Besides my text/reference books, the books I absolutely must keep are:
1. Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss - an excellent book on punctuation, with some very funny examples.
2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks - a very human account of the impact of major brain disorders on patients' lives.
3. Vamps & Tramps by Camille Paglia - if only for the (short) chapter entitled "The Nursery-School Campus: The Corrupting of the Humanities in the US".

I recommend Migraine by Oliver Sacks to friends of mine who also suffer from this disabling condition. And I will murder slowly whoever borrowed my Travels in Hyper-reality book (Umberto Eco). [edit] because they never gave it back!!! [end edit]

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, a compilations of sayings from Robert Heinlein's favorite fictional character. Produced by D.F. Vassalo.

Excerpts:

* What are the facts? Again and again and again --- what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell", avoid opinion, Care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history" --- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always in to an unknown future; facts are your only chance. Get the facts!

* The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up it that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest and least productive industry in all history.

* The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.

* Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.

* The only sin lies in hurting others unnecessarily. All other sins are just invented nonsense.

* Never try to outstubborn a cat.

* Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

* Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short on pocket money, but long on hugs.

* Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.

* To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

* A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

* Rub her feet.

In my library, which has been reduced several times, as I have limited space and bookshelfs, I have some books, I never would sell or give away, as I still read in them from time to time.

My top 3 is (right now):

Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet
Richard Bach: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach: Illusions

The Prophet is a small gem, and every time I read in it, it makes me feel as a better person.

An excerpt from it, about giving:

Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving.
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall someday be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, 'I would give, but only to the deserving.'
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life -while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be over mindful of your debt is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.


EDIT: The last part is emphasized by me

---

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me