Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!
This week, we’re stealing from Jess Riley Writes. She puts a unique spin on the “desert island” concept by allowing us three choices in three categories.
The Desert Island Meme
You’re stranded alone on a desert island …
1) Which three BOOKS could you read over and over again?
One would be the Bible. This is less a theological requirement than the fact that it is very long. In fact, I’d probably opt for the Douay-Rheims Bible, since it contains seven Deutero-Canonical books that are missing from most non-Catholic Bibles, such as 1st and 2nd Maccabees.
When I was a kid, I tried to read the whole Bible more than once, but I was unsuccessful. So I’d start over; I read Genesis a LOT. I have read the Bible all the way through systematically at least thrice, c 1977, c 1985, and c 1997. Participating with the Bible Guys at church this century, I may have managed a fourth. I wrote about the vagaries of the Bible in 2013.
The World Almanac. It is not great literature, of course, but it has a lot of stuff. Before I married my current bride, there was a gathering, and we were supposed to answer questions about each other. I didn’t know that 100 Years of Solitude was her favorite book, but she instantly picked the World Almanac as mine. I wrote about it in 2016, but honestly, I haven’t gotten one since 2018, ending a 40+ year streak.
Top Pop Singles by Joel Whitburn. Yes, it shows the chart action, but it also has background info about the artists.
Cinema
2) Which three MOVIES could you watch over and over again?
3) Which three SONGS could you listen to over and over again?
How much may I stretch the definition of “song”? Off the top, I thought of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (New World), and the Mozart Requiem.
If I have to pick actual songs? Oh, it is too difficult! Okay. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel, which someone described here; Biko – the last song on Peter Gabriel’s excellent third album; and Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) – Billy Joel. They are all sad songs.
Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.
