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What a great question! There are multiple areas of my life that I’d like to use to address this question. I have a hard time picking just one book.
Artistically
- Cartooning the Head and Figure
This book heavily influenced me in grade school to draw more. Which helped put me on the path of being an artist.
Trivia-wise
- The Kids World Almanac of Records and Facts: Volume 1
This book is beat-up and totally worn. I loved reading the facts about our world. It started my love for facts and trivia.
Relationships
- The Five Love Languages
Makes me appreciate how to communicate better and show more love.
Spiritually and overall approach to life:
- The Bible
Hands down. Ok, if we want to get more specific. The Psalms: English Standard Version It’s a small travel version I always keep in my bag for reading on the train. It’s my most marked-up book. Although really, Daniel rocked me in terms of getting excited for the end times.
Society
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
An amazing book that holds much truth about trends. A close one to this is Seth Godin’s Tribes. I can’t put it in the top spot, because I’m currently reading it, and hasn’t been time-tested like the Tipping Point for me, which I read eight years ago.
Love of comics:
- Casual Poet: the cartoon journals of Todd Webb
Reading his simple and joyful comics really makes me happy and inspire me to do more webcomics.
Artistically: The Art Book by Phaidon Inc Trivia-wise: The Guinness Book of World Records Relationships: The Multi-Orga**** Man Spiritually and overall approach to life: Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs, and Actions Can Shape a Sustainable World, by Daisaku Ikeda Society: The Lexus and The Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman Love of comics: The Complete Calvin & Hobbes
A few comments from the post on facebook: ——- Elne: hmmmm…. i have so many favorites, i’ll have to think about this… ——- Chko: Hehehe…I still have the book myself Matt (by Jack Hamm) 1967 version…it was then reprised by Perigee books in 1982. ——- Spudart: Elne, if this post gets burriedon Facebook, the permanent post is also on my blog: https://www.spudart.org/blogs/randomthoughts_comments/5200_0_3_0_C/ Chko, WOW! You have that same book! ha! My brother Erik and I used it so much as kids that it got seriously beat up. The binding fell apart. A few years ago I xeroxed the entire book, punched … See Moreholes in it and put it into a binder. Kinda cool that I know work for a company that syndicates comic strips. Having that on my shelf at work makes me feel more offiicial in the comics world.
Jack Hamm’s book came to prominence first at high school when I was dragged to the school library to be shown the book by a teacher that objected to my numerous caricatures of the staff. I was accused of copying (that plaig….word) but stammered by innocence (I just drew them, never saw the book) I failed at communication and got the strap anyway. So I vowed to learn communication skills and stick it right up them… Second instance was many years later in the Army when I was in charge of a Draughting Office and Virtual and Media Aids department. I had a library of some wierd stuff and lo and behold, Jack Hamms book was filed under counter espionage and intelligence, cross reference with silhouette interpretations for intellingence spotters….huh? Anyway, I did the exact same as you and it now resides in induvidual clear plastic envelopes in a red four ring binder, I have used several images as “clip-art” over the journey into print and graphics projects later on. Especially retro themes. Cheers.
My lover and I read 5 Love Languages early in our relationship and I think it really helped us realize how to show our love in a way the other person appreciates. We still use the expression “fill your love bucket!” We’re in year 11, btw. I’ve loaned this book to friends and have explained it to clients (I’m a social worker).
Nee, your comment is the 19,000th comment on spudart.org! Thank you! How cool that a comment as nice as yours ends up being the 19,000th! 🙂