Afarensis hit me with the Book Meme. It comes at a time when I was trying to find something quick to post while I try to finish a couple other blog posts I’m working on, so great timing!
1) One book that changed your life?
A Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan. I read it years ago and still find myself browsing through it from time to time. I find this has been my most recommended book over the years as I introduce others to critical thought and science.
2) One book you have read more than once?
Both Demon Haunted and Broca’s Brain (Sagan), but also Moby Dick.
3) One book you would want on a desert island?
FM 21-76, The U.S. Army Survival Manual.
4) One book that made you laugh?
Big Trouble, by Dave Barry.
5) One book that made you cry?
Tewa World Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society, by Alfonso Ortiz.
Okay, I’m being silly. This ethnography made me want to cry, it was so difficult to read, but I couldn’t actually think of a book that made me cry. I’m sure that there are many that have moved me emotionally. Melville, Dickens, Steinbeck… all authors capable of doing it. But I just can’t think of a specific instance with any where I may have teared up.
6) One book you wish had been written?
The Sea Peoples: Our Exploits, Our Motivations, Our Origins, a collection of essays by the Sea Peoples.
7) One book you wish had never had been written?
Genesis. I was tempted to say Godless, but even white trash has a right to free speech.
8) One book you are currently reading?
Who reads just one at a time?
Fiction:
Map of Bones, by James Rollins.
Non-Fiction
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman.
Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples 8000 BC-AD 1500 by Barry Cunliffe
9) One book you have been meaning to read?
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee
10) Now tag five people –
Okay… Coturnix at A Blog Around The Clock, Silkworm at Defending Science, Martin at Salto Sobrius, Kristine at Amused Muse, and Clark at Unintelligent Design.
Tag! You’re each it! And if they follow their Technorati and SiteMeter links they’ll know it.
By the way, the links to Moby Dick and the U.S. Army Survival Manual are to the full texts.
Hot Cup of Joe 
Yeah, I’d be interested in knowing who the Sea Peoples were too…
OK, will work on it tomorrow….