Richard “Book Brahmin” Dawson
In homage to Shelf Awareness’s awesome Book Brahmin feature, and so Gretchen’s reading tastes aren’t all you get to hear about,” I’ve crawled out from underneath my paper mountain to complete an auto-anthropological survey of recent bibliographic habits.
Hang on to your bookmarks ’cause here we go!
On your nightstand now
I’m on page 50 of You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier. I read Lanier’s “The serfdom of crowds” in February’s Harper’s and found his frank approach to the philosophy of “personhood” in this day of Web 2.0 refreshing, so I grabbed Gretchen and we pedaled over to Powell’s on Hawthorne to pick up a copy. So far the book isn’t disappointing. The author even promises optimism toward the end, so I’m looking forward to that.
A 1953 first-edition of The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow; it was a birthday gift from Gretchen because I couldn’t stop raving about Mr. Sammler’s Planet. As far as Augie goes, I love the Bellow, but the richness, density, and purpose of his prose actually requires that I pay attention a little during the read, which doesn’t really make for page progress after a long day at the rat races, so I’m admittedly a little behind on finishing.
Engineer’s Mini-Notebook series by Forrest M. Mims III’s. The prolific Mims has written for Nature, Scientific American, Modern Electronics, and many others. He created this series for RadioShack. Every book in the set is meticulously hand-lettered and hand-illustrated to re-create the look of Forrest’s own laboratory notebooks: rare gems among the rubble at the book sale I nabbed them at.
Favorite book when you were a child
My father read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to my twin brother and I more than a few times growing up. Yeah, the movies are fun to watch and have a lot of eye candy, but everyone knows they’re nothing like the mellifluous words of J.R.R. Tolkien and the magical universe he created.
Actually, my dad gifted my brother and I each one of those swanky leather-bound editions of The Hobbit for graduating high school, and for graduating college he got us both the matching Trilogy series with the ornate slipcover—dead ringers for the ones he used to read from.
Your top six authors
Borges, Plutarch, Cervantes, Euclid, Samuel Clemens, and Matthew Silva.
There are more, so that makes this an unfair question, but my hands are obviously tied by the pre-established parameter of the question.
Book you’ve faked reading
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. This is the favorite book of a dear friend, who enthusiastically loaned me his copy to read immediately. Instead of finishing the book, I actually passed out from boredom midway through chapter one. I held on to this little secret for a while. Well, now you know, Jason.
Book you’re an evangelist for
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino; it will stretch your brain in ways you are most likely not prepared for.
Book you’ve bought for the cover
Wow, good question! Actually, I base all my purchases off the cover. Don’t you?
Book that changed your life
Hmm, another good question, but I must say honestly that every book I read changes my life. A recent honorable mention goes to part 1 of Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. I thought very differently about my daily life after hearing of what Frankl had to go through.
Favorite line from a book
“Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about and see the watery part of the world.”
He certainly saw a watery part of the world. Call him Ishmael.
Book you most want to read again for the first time
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I have never laughed out loud that many times.
What are you currently working on?
I just finished a big Flash presentation that’s been on the cooker for about 3 months.
I am currently helping Dr. Denis Bedat write and edit a book on physics and its relationship to the body and mind. We’re basically expanding what he started in his doctoral dissertation.
I’m also proofreading a scientific paper on PRALF, the gene that regulates pollen tube elongation in certain species of plants.
That’s it for now!
~Henry
