One Book Meme
Sunday, September 10th, 2006Fernando Gros has done his bit to pass on the ‘One Book Meme’ by suggesting I add my responses to his…
One book that changed my life
I’d have to say the Bible is the one book that’s transformed my worldview, given me connections to a community of millions of people, and kept my every day in perspective.
One book that you’d want on a desert island
The Worst Case Scenario Little Book for Survival, which includes advice on how to fend off an alligator, and how walk in quicksand country.
One book that made you laugh
Terry Pratchett’s The Last Continent, set in the land of EcksEcksEcksEcks, with Rincewind, a mystical kangaroo and many other quirky characters.
One book that made you cry
Shattered and Restored, the story of Elsa McInnes’ experience of grief when her husband, Garth McInnes, died of cancer. Garth was the minister in the Presbyterian Church in the area in which I grew up. I read the story not long after my own daughter died, and found the story helped express my own grief.
One book that you wish had been written
The story of J.D. Salmond, a Christian/Religious Education guru in the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand. I wrote the story in 1991 but for some reason never took the steps to get it published.
One book you wish had never been written
The Late Great Planet Earth, published by Hal Lindsay in 1970, was a distraction for me and many other people, setting up a Christian culture prone to paranoid conspiracy theories. This would have to be equal with Chick cartoon tracts.
One book you are currently reading
Stephen Lawhead’s Song of Albion trilogy, Paradise War, The Endless Knot, and Silver Hand. I first read these three books when they came out in the early 1990s. Lawhead’s books are set in the style of Stephen Donaldson’s Covenant series and C.S. Lewis’s Sci Fi series, developing an ‘other world’ version of a Celtic warrior society.
One book you’ve been meaning to read
Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures, by Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs. It’s sitting on my shelf for a couple of months. I’ve had a couple of peeks but haven’t seriously launched into it yet.
So who to pass the meme to?
Darren Wright at Planet Telex, Craig Mitchell at Mountain Masala, Stu Cameron in Robina, and Mart the Rev in Dunedin.
Tags: Blogging, Fiction, Reading, Stephen Donaldson, Stephen Lawhead, Terry Pratchett
MacDonald’s capacity to write fantasy influenced other writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Madeline L’Engle. He influenced me too, through my reading of his fantasties “At the back of the North Wind” and The Princess and the Goblin when I was about 11 or 12. Reading the world through MacDonald’s eyes opened my imagination and creative capacity to new levels.
I’ve just finished reading Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel, “Thud”. I’m a bit of a slow reader - a few pages each night before I fall asleep - so I’ve been beaten to the book by three other members of the family.
