triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Not Me

Megan McCardle, AKA Jane Galt, AKA a staff writer for The Economist whose style and opinions we might recognize, has compared herself to a list of supposedly world-view linked behavior characteristics, and concluded that she must in fact be a liberal. I refuse to be manipulated that way. I've been voting Republican since Reagan, and I voted Libertarian before that. When I disagree with the Republican position now, it is more likely to be as a conservative than as a libertarian.

Liberals are messier than conservatives. Their rooms have more clutter, more color. Conservatives’ rooms are better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books and their books are on a greater variety of topics.

This is an obvious attempt to paint conservatives as narrow minded tight-asses. My computer room/hobby room/office is obviously the room by which to judge me. The walls and ceiling are mustard yellow, and it is lit right now by two computer monitors and the daylight flourescents over my model-building bench; even when I turn on the ceiling light it isn't spectacularly bright. The room is so cluttered with computers, stacks of books, and cartons of stuff I don't have enough shuffle space to straighten it out. As for number and range of books, I'll have to address that in the extended entry to keep from pushing every other post off the front page.

Fist of all, here is a listing of books which I currently have checked out of the library, cut and pasted from the Countycat online record. Note that in addition to the book by Clinton Hull, I have in the past checked out The Shortline Railroads of Arkansas, by Clifton Hull.

A second Mencken chrestomathy / H.L. Mencken ; selected, revised, and annotated by the author
The corporate blogging book : absolutely everything you need to know to get it right / Debbie Weil
Fiery appetizers : seventy spicy hot hors d'oeuvres : a Chile pepper magazine cookbook / by Dave DeW
In fury born / David Weber.
Folding hard top and tent top trailers; plans for 10' camping trailer which opens up to give 124 square feet of living area. Prepared by Clinton R. Hull.
The curry book : a celebration of memorable flavors and irresistible recipes / Nancie McDermott
Chevy TPI fuel injection swapper's guide / by John Baechtel.
A+ certification for dummies / by Ron Gilster.
The politics of industrial change : railway policy in North America / R. Kent Weaver.
The art & craft of making jewelry : a complete guide to essential techniques / Joanna Gollberg.
Spice : flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean / Ana Sortun with Nicole Chaison
More anguished English / Richard Lederer
Saints behaving badly : the cutthroats, crooks, trollops, con men, and devil-worshippers who became saints / Thomas J. Craughwell.

Now some of the books around my room, either near the top of a stack or on one of the several sets of bookshelves. These are not all books I have read recently; just evidence that I love books and have a wide range of interests.

The American Standard Of Perfection, by The American Poultry Association, 1940 edition - a must for visiting the State Fair

Mortal Error, by Bonar Menninger - A ballistics experts take on the Kennedy Assasination, weirder than any of the conspiracy theories I've encountered.

The Pawprints of History, Dogs And The Course of Human Events, by Stanley Coren

Assorted engineering texts, including the Steel Construction Manual, Formulas for Stress and Strain, and Design of Machine Menbers

Predecting Dangerousness by Stephen J Pfohl, which I thought would be an engineering text but turned out to be psychology. Still interesting.

The Joy of Lex, How to Have Fun With 860,341,500 Words by Gyles Brandreth. Some of these will wind up posted as word for the day.

Investing At The Racetrack, by William F Scott. We only just broke even during our one spell of handicapping, but it's alway fun to tempt oneself.

Various paperback fiction, including Most Secret, by Neville Shute, Digital Knight, by Ryk Spoor, Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson, and books from W.E.B.Griffen's Marine Corps series, and Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars

Various hardcover fiction, including Target Lock, by James Cobb, Have Space Suit, Will Travel, by Robert Heinlein, A Civil Campaign, by Lois Bujold, and Pride's Castle, by Frank Yerby.

Hysteria 1964, the Fear Campaign Against Barry Goldwater, by Lionel Lokos

The Velvet Prison, Artists Under State Socialism, by Miklós Haraszti

And this is just the tip of the icecube, speaking more to breadth than depth. In the second floor living room is a stack of milk crates, 4 deep, 5 wide and 5 tall. Half of these are magazines, mostly, but not entirely, car magazines, gun magazines, model railroad magazines and computer magazines. The other half are paperback books, including but not limited to, science fiction, thrillers, true crime, Regency romance, and popular history. Also in that room is a pile, not yet unpacked, of hardcover books, range hinted at above, about the size of a sofa. Downstairs, on bookshelves in three rooms, are some of my wee wifey's collection of cookbooks and craft books. Any liberals who have more books on a greater variety of topics is liable to be pressed for space.

Posted by triticale at January 13, 2007 07:26 PM | TrackBack