the book virus thingie

I've been tagged by Nick Manley to play along with the latest book virus thingie for bloggers, so here it is.

* One book that changed your life:
Burning All Illusions: A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards. I read this book 7 or 8 years ago when my political mindset basically consisted of a strong civil libertarian streak with severe economic ignorance and apathy. This book changed all that and made me think more and read more about politics, albeit from a more or less statist left standpoint. The book served as my introduction to Noam Chomsky and also touched upon many Buddhist teachings that I was sort of interested in at the time.

Even though I'm now a radical free market advocate, there is much that is worthwhile about the book. I don't remember a whole lot of detail and I can't skim through it again since I don't own a copy, but if you're interested in reading a review of it, here's one from Dave Pollard.

* One book that you have read more than once:
Well, I'm currently reading Wendell Berry's Another Turn of the Crank for the second time.

* One book that you would want on a desert island:
The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It's long, it's fun, it's wild, it's chock full of stuff, and every reading is radically different from the last. Why not?

* One book that made you laugh:
I was going some of my boxed up books and organizing them recently when I saw my copy of Aristophanes's The Clouds. I remember finding the play to be quite funny when I read it back in the day. I also liked the fact that the particular translation that I have contains swear words.

* One book that made you cry:
Hmm... I'm sad to say that I can't think of one right now. I've read plenty of dark and/or sad things, but I don't actually recall shedding any tears while reading anything. I find that to be rather unfortunate.

* One book you wish had been written:
It's hard to think of book that could have or would have been written but weren't for some reason. I guess I'll just go along with the crowd by choosing Samuel Edward Konkin III's "Agorism".

If I can come up with an imaginary book, then how about a decentralist, individualist manifesto linking libertarianism with leftism by Karl Hess? That would have been cool. I've read Community Technology, but that's not really what I have in mind.

* One book you wish never had been written:
While choosing any Ann Coulter book at random is tempting, I think I'll go with Mein Kampf instead. It's close enough to going with Coulter, I suppose.

* One book you are currently reading:
I mentioned the Berry book already. The other book that I've started but not finished yet is Daniel Quinn's The Story of B.

* One book you have been meaning to read:
Butler Shaffer's Calculated Chaos. It's on my shelf and ready to go as soon as I finish one of the two books I'm currently working on. (I don't want to exceed 2 at a time) Also, I'd like to say "shame on me!" for not purchasing a copy of Kevin Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy yet. I've read some of it online, but I want to have an actual printed copy of it as well. Kevin should also recieve some more financial compensation for writing such an important work.

* Now tag 5 people:
Rad Geek (it's a virus, not a meme!)
Larry Gambone
Adem Kupi
Vache Folle
David Reynolds