Eric Scheske at the
Daily Eudemon has tagged us with a meme challenge. We don't usually do memes, but Eric is a swell so we're game. Here are his rules:
- Name your three biggest non-reference books (excluding the Bible and text books).
- Name your three biggest reference books.
- Tag three others.
By "biggest," we're not looking for number of words. We're looking for weight. Heft. Something you'd drop on invaders while defending a castle.
In our bookcases, these are the largest non-reference books:
- William Shakespeare: The Complete Works (The Oxford Shakespeare) (Hardcover)
by William Shakespeare, Stanley Wells (Editor), Gary Taylor (Editor), John Jowet (Editor), William Montgomery (Editor) - The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II
by Fernand Braudel, single volume abridgement. (Mrs. Thumos's Ph.D. thesis ties for third, as does Mortimer Adler's Great Ideas).
Note that Lord of the Rings is the heaviest if you include the cardboard slipcase. Our Big References:
- CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
- History of Italian Renaissance Art
by Frederick Hartt, et al.
- Collegeville Bible Commentary, Hardcover
We tag:
- Paul Boutin
- Matthew Lickona at Godsbody, and
- okliberal at The Independent Liberal
Doing this exercise has convinced us that, despite all of our security concerns in the last four years, we are woefully unprepared to defend ourselves by massive tomes. The heaviest of our texts, the CRC Handbook, is just under 6.5 pounds. Even dropped from a second story window, that would do little more than slow down a would-be assailant. And most of the weighty books we have only come to us serendipitously, as gifts. We're taking this opportunity to urge that others join us in TDI, the Textual Defense Initiative. Think of it: Coffee table books in every home, constructed not only out of mere paper, board, and leather, but from slate, marble, titanium, with precision internal guidance systems -- the possibilities are endless . . . . thanks Eric.
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