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So, I kept thinking about doing that "what five books would you recommend people read to better understand you" thing that was going around... and it occurred to me that it might be interesting to also tack on which five musical albums would be contributory to such an endeavor as well.
Five Books
1. I'm going to cheat here and cram five books into one slot: Douglas Adams, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. (Yes, that's five books, not three; anyone reading this is likely familiar with that fact already, though.) Very formative to my current sense of humour, although it could be argued that if that sense hadn't been latent in me, I would never have been very amused by the Hitchhiker's books to begin with.
2. Another cheat; not only is this a series and not a single book, it's actually a comic book: WaRP Graphics' ElfQuest. ElfQuest sparked the furthest-back threads of my awakening that I can now perceive in hindsight. Ideas from this series are still with me today, such as its perspective on "soulmates" (called "Recognition"), and the symbol used to indicate that characters were communicating telepathically ("sending") is still a powerful image for me today.
3. RJ Stewart, The Living World of Faery. In fact, any of Bob Stewart's works on the Faery and Underworld tradition might work as well. The flows he is mediating are a lot closer to Home and Real and Truth for me than most humans' approaches to dealing with the Faery realm are, so it's good reference material for understanding part of my headspace.
4. Charles de Lint, Jack of Kinrowan. A fictional counterpart to RJ Stewart: he has about the best handle on the faery-in-the-modern-world thang that I've ever seen. Also in this book is the concept of "drinking the moon's luck", which again is a powerful image that's stuck with me and worked itself into my real life (I even wrote a poem with that as the title).
5. Nigel Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper, or other associated books on more "traditional" forms of witchcraft (contrasted with modern Wicca). For understanding part of my current thought on religion and magic.
Five Albums
1. The Cure Galore (the second singles collection). The Cure is just so much a part of me it's hard to select only one album, and really I insist you should listen to them all, but having cheated enough on the books, I wanted to cheat less here.
2. Weird Al Yankovic Off the Deep End. Again, such an essential part of me that it's very hard to pick just one. Running With Scissors is another good choice. My favourite Weird Al disc is probably disc 3 of the Al in the Box collection, though.
3. The Moody Blues Legend of a Band (a greatest hits collection). A major piece of my history. We were all into this when we were theatre techs in high school.
4. They Might be Giants Flood. The other major piece of that part of my history. I think Flood is one of the very best albums made by anyone ever.
5. Richard Searles Earth Quest. This is instrumental, kind of folk/new-age sort of stuff. I've had this album for a very long time, however, and a good portion of it matches up with The Song I Hear Inside Myself.
Runners-up in this category: Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, R.E.M. Automatic for the People, the various Dr. Demento anniversary collections (20th Annieversary was another Album of Choice among the theatre techs), Peter Murphy Cascade, and The Beatles Yellow Submarine.
Five Movies
(yes, I'm skimping on the descriptions and reasons by this point.)
1. Edward Scissorhands
2. The Last Unicorn
3. The Neverending Story
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie (there's where I slip in a TV show by way of a movie, hehe. but no, really, MST3K is essential to understanding me.)
Five Books
1. I'm going to cheat here and cram five books into one slot: Douglas Adams, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. (Yes, that's five books, not three; anyone reading this is likely familiar with that fact already, though.) Very formative to my current sense of humour, although it could be argued that if that sense hadn't been latent in me, I would never have been very amused by the Hitchhiker's books to begin with.
2. Another cheat; not only is this a series and not a single book, it's actually a comic book: WaRP Graphics' ElfQuest. ElfQuest sparked the furthest-back threads of my awakening that I can now perceive in hindsight. Ideas from this series are still with me today, such as its perspective on "soulmates" (called "Recognition"), and the symbol used to indicate that characters were communicating telepathically ("sending") is still a powerful image for me today.
3. RJ Stewart, The Living World of Faery. In fact, any of Bob Stewart's works on the Faery and Underworld tradition might work as well. The flows he is mediating are a lot closer to Home and Real and Truth for me than most humans' approaches to dealing with the Faery realm are, so it's good reference material for understanding part of my headspace.
4. Charles de Lint, Jack of Kinrowan. A fictional counterpart to RJ Stewart: he has about the best handle on the faery-in-the-modern-world thang that I've ever seen. Also in this book is the concept of "drinking the moon's luck", which again is a powerful image that's stuck with me and worked itself into my real life (I even wrote a poem with that as the title).
5. Nigel Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper, or other associated books on more "traditional" forms of witchcraft (contrasted with modern Wicca). For understanding part of my current thought on religion and magic.
Five Albums
1. The Cure Galore (the second singles collection). The Cure is just so much a part of me it's hard to select only one album, and really I insist you should listen to them all, but having cheated enough on the books, I wanted to cheat less here.
2. Weird Al Yankovic Off the Deep End. Again, such an essential part of me that it's very hard to pick just one. Running With Scissors is another good choice. My favourite Weird Al disc is probably disc 3 of the Al in the Box collection, though.
3. The Moody Blues Legend of a Band (a greatest hits collection). A major piece of my history. We were all into this when we were theatre techs in high school.
4. They Might be Giants Flood. The other major piece of that part of my history. I think Flood is one of the very best albums made by anyone ever.
5. Richard Searles Earth Quest. This is instrumental, kind of folk/new-age sort of stuff. I've had this album for a very long time, however, and a good portion of it matches up with The Song I Hear Inside Myself.
Runners-up in this category: Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, R.E.M. Automatic for the People, the various Dr. Demento anniversary collections (20th Annieversary was another Album of Choice among the theatre techs), Peter Murphy Cascade, and The Beatles Yellow Submarine.
Five Movies
(yes, I'm skimping on the descriptions and reasons by this point.)
1. Edward Scissorhands
2. The Last Unicorn
3. The Neverending Story
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie (there's where I slip in a TV show by way of a movie, hehe. but no, really, MST3K is essential to understanding me.)
no subject
Date: Aug. 4th, 2003 11:22 pm (UTC)From:for me, i'd replace no. 4 in Books with either Moonheart or Someplace To Be Flying, in Music i'd cheat and put "everything by The Cure", and in Movies i'd replace no. 2 with Time Bandits.
but otherwise, yeh... =)
no subject
Date: Aug. 5th, 2003 01:27 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Aug. 5th, 2003 11:27 am (UTC)From:*blinks*
You wouldn't happen to be interested in a copy of A Handful of Coppers, would you?
no subject
Date: Aug. 5th, 2003 01:50 pm (UTC)From:You wouldn't happen to be interested in a copy of A Handful of Coppers, would you?
::blink::
::squee!!::
um, sure!! ::grin!!!::
i'm waaaaay behind on more recent CdL stuff -- i saw A Circle of Cats at the comic/game store we always go to in Nashville, and i need to pick that up ASAP, and i'm really wanting to get the latest Newford novel too, Spirits in the Wires. i love Newford; i could so live there... =)
no subject
Date: Aug. 5th, 2003 06:35 pm (UTC)From:::squee!!::
um, sure!! ::grin!!!::
Well, see, when I was writing that response last night, Coppers winked at me from the shelf, just the way Triskell Tales did long ago after I had read it, and was trying to think of a suitable birthday present for