June 08, 2005

Literary Treasures- a Meme

The lobby of the Crescent Hotel Eureka Springs Arkansas. the perfect place to curl up with a book...

Cowtown Pattie, author of Texas Trifles has invited me to a short literary meme. Books are certainly one of my and Woody's great joys and occupations, love, weakness,and pleasures...They are a major componant in my decoration sceme as well. I will have a bookcase in every room of our new house, and likely I will still have books all over the place. I estimate that a full third of the weight of my containers going to and from Hawaii was my library. All of the books that shipped were read at one time. Should I read a book that I like, I keep it, as re reading is anothing thing that I love to do. Like Pattie, some of my books are so dog-eared they fall naturally to my favorite passages.

1. Total Number of Books You Have Owned: I have 2500 volumes appox,in my library, so to say 10,000 is not exageration. I have inherited three complete libraries from people that read extensively as well has technical, theological, musical and culinary collections. I donated the bulk of these to approprete venues who could use them. People give me books as gifts and I am quick to pick up a stray book. We left 10 books at the last rental and we have read three that were here in this one. I have received 5 books in the mail in the last three weeks

2. Last Book I Bought (but still waiting to be shipped): Next on my Zooba reading list "Quit Digging Your Grave with Your Knife and Fork" by my new governor Mike Huckabee....by the way I love Zooba Book Club


3. Last Book I Read: As I usually read several simultaneously, I will list some of the titles I finished in the last few weeks prior to leaving Hawaii:


American Jezebel, the uncommon life of Anne Hutcheson by Eve La Plante Anne Hutcheson is one of my great heros. She stood against the male religious establishment, and extolled the vurtues of grace.

"First We Quit Our Jobs: How One Work Driven Couple found anew life on the road..." By Marilyn Abrams...These two people inspired Woody and I to pull up stakes and move to Hawaii, now challenge us to continue in the quest to reinvent ourselves.


perhaps this should be under Hawaii, but my friend Monica when she was here in Novenber, bought me a copy of Herb Kane's self published book "Voyages". Kahuna Kane, who died last year was one of Hawaii's premiere artists and teachers of Hawaiian culture. His vision to teach the young lead to the building to his specifications, The Hokulea, a full sized trans oceanic voyaging canoe, which has logged over 500,000 nautical miles over the Pacific teaching young people the skills of polynesian navagation


Currently reading

"Zorro" by Isabel Allende
fabulous read.

"A Table in the Presence" by Lt Carey Cash"
a very different look at the invasion of Bagdad its inspiring...

4. Five Books That Mean a Lot To Me:

I couldnt count just five. I dont have the sort of memeory of first novels that made me cry. But There are books that have had an impact on my life for various reasons


First and formost, it goes with out saying that the Bible has had the single greatest impact on my life. I learned massive amounts of King James Version scripture as a child and I am convinced that the candence and form of this translation affects my writing even my very speach...Later after 10 years of wandering, salvation and a new life as a Believer came along and I was to wear out a New American standard Bible reading it through some 25 times in the 7 years I was in the ministry. I had the battered book rebound by a renouned artist Jesus Sanchez in Hilo, a bibliologist that travels the world teaching others how to restore books.


There are 5 biographical books that took me to the next level inwardly in my spritual walk

The Journals of Jim Elliot/Passion and Purity written and or edited by Elisabeth Elliot Gren.

Both of these people are hero's of mine...these are parallel works that cover a span of time in the early 1950's. Thses two people gave their lives to God and they have been used in great ways. Jim Elliot was martyred in Equador in 1953 in a crime that shocked the world as he and four others were murdered by tribesmen they were trying to reach for the first time. Elisabeth there at the time with their daughter went back to the tribe two years later to continue the work they started... a quote of Jim's stands out "He is no fool to give that which he cannot keep, to save that which he cannot lose."


The Hiding Place, by Corie Ten Boom

Many Jewish people do not know that there were hundreds of Believers that made heroic efforts to save Jews and others persicuted by the Nazis. This woman, after losing nearly all of her family for this cause, went on to become a world wide evangelist, declaring what she learned in the concentration camps..." There is no pit so deep that His love is not deeper still.."


A Closter Walk/Amazing Grace, a vocabulary of faith, by Kathleen Norris

Kathleen, has inspired me with her spiritual journey. From a conservative Christain upbringing, to a period of wandering to a crisis and a comming to the knowledge that a power grater than herself was moving in her life, she embraced her husbands Roman Catholic faith, studying monastic culture, she became a Oblate of St. Benedict...She lives in the Midwest, but returns to our Hawaii where she spent her teenage years, the way she handles that has helped me in these days of upheaval...


Ok ok so more than five... I cant leave this area without adding a few more...Woody, looking over my sholder said..."you are leaving out all of the Early Fathers, hymnals, and devotional works..." this is impossible

The Rule of St. Benedict, by Benedict of Monte Cassino

The book that may have saved the world, Benedict's rule guided monastic culture for nearly 1600 years and provided the lifeboat for classical learning through the Dark Ages.

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a'Kempis

How to be a true Christian? Read this...

add these to your Bible and you are set for life



There are a few books that have had an unusual impact on my life for different reasons... I will list by topic

WWII and the Holocaust

Exodus - Leon Uris: I became aware of the Holocaust at about age 12, due to meeting other students whose parents were Survivors. My Father encouraged me to check this book out of the library. Already a frequent visitor to the adult section, I checked it out and we discussed the war together, and with the Nissenbaum family who had a number of survivors present in the city. Opened my eyes to mans cruelty and issues of predudice. Made me forever a supporter of Israel. I also am a big fan of Herman Wouk and have read his entire opus.


Hawaii and our adventures in foreign lands/culture....


Hawaii James Mitchner
the one that started it all

"Pastwatch, the Redemption of Christopher Columbus" Orson Scott Card Do you ever think about what would have happened had there been some little change in history? I love chasing those sorts of ideas and this is a important one historically... read on...

Perpetuated in Righteousness- by Daniel Kikawa in November of 2004, I posted exerps of this book and showed photos of hawaiian artifacts depicitng the brutal culture of human sacrifice and how the embracing of Christianity changed the course of Hawaii in a positive manner forever.


Lest you think I am all work and no play. I want to thank Anne McCaffrey, and her thirty year effort to produce the 17 volumes of the Dragonriders of Pern. The characters of the series are like old friends and I know Pearn like I know earth. As Ms. Mc Caffrey has grown older so have her characters in the story line and so have I. Her son, my age has begun to write the series so there will be new stories for a new generation...I love to reread them in order, following the evolution of this lady's writing. Her first short novel, the foundation of the series, was written on her kitchen table while her kids were in school. It won Science Fiction's highest honor in 1968...and its not stopped since... gives me hope for my own efforts...



5. seven (not five, okay? people have a life and cant always do it...) people to lob the meme to:

John at Journal of a Writing Man

Steve at King's Kid

Muse at Shiloh Musings

Eric at The Fire Ant Gazette

Kitten at Kitten With a Whip

Torgo at From Heck it Came

Loren at Almanac of the Mundane

and Gama at Gama's Poetry