On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 13:49:12 GMT, Khartoum
<KhartoumNOSPAM@earthlink.net> wrote:


[]

The first two are young children books that I have not read yet.

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
by Neil Gaimen

The Wolves in the Walls
by Neil Gaimen

My youngest daughter [14] checked out "It" by Steven King from the
library.

[]

I want to compile a list of books to give to my friends' and relatives'
children, in order to influence them to think...and hopefully,
eventually, break away from the religious influences that are holding
them down.

C. S. Lewis would more than likely have been horrified, if he'd only
known that his Narnia series, The Space Trilogy, and The Screwtape
Letters were a large part of the influences that brought me to the
realization that there are no gods. Other things that made me think (as
much as I hate this phrase) "outside the box" include, The Mad Scientist
Club (almost time for the fourth to be released, finally!!!), The Three
Investigators, various science fiction/fantasy authors....Isaac Asimov,
Andre Norton, Theodore Sturgeon, Algis Budrys, Olaf Stapledon, and, as I
began with, various religious writers. When you mix writings that make
one think with writings by those who try not to let you think, I feel
that it makes the dogmatists' demands for dogma stand out in stark
contrast.

I never had any fears that my son would ever be susceptable to the call
of religion, and rightly so. While I do wish he'd have more ambition, I
recall rather well what it was like when I was his age. We've fed him
on a healthy diet of F&SF, interesting science, and many thoughts about
how to relate to other people, in order to build that necessary social
network. My wife and I believe that we have succeeded in many, if not
most, of our goals with him, and I am fairly certain that exposure to
the proper ideas, and direct evidence that the ideas work has been the
key to his being held as a steadfast friend by his circle (met briefly
in school, yet remaining close friends, even having been seperated
schoolwise for many years).

Please pardon my ramble, I'm rather drunk & stoned....

Anyway, the idea is to come up with a good list of books that will lead
the reader toward thinking for themselves, and to question ideas,
wherever they spring from. Also, I feel that they should lead toward
self-reliance, as much as possible (not to shun assistance from others,
or anything, though).

Hah. That brings up another thought. One of the things that I learned
early, was that whether playing a game, or living life, gaining success
after struggle is much more satisfying than having things handed to you,
or cheating to win. Having had a strong interest in games of most
sorts, all my life, and having had access to sophisticated computer
games since the '70s (3D multiplayer even!). Heh, just _see_ how much
fun you have playing Adventure (or any of the variations) is, when you
have someone telling you how to get past the tricky parts. Not that I
ever finished Adventure, Adventl, Zork, or any other text
adventure....*sigh*. Damn, now that I think of it, I can't think of
many games that I ever _did_ run to the end. Maybe it's time to get
back into serious gaming (I can run just about anything I care to on my
box).

You still here? You must be really bored, reading all of this...but
then, I know there are people who probably read just about every post on
a.a.......sad.

I want to compile a list of books to give to my friends' and relatives'
children, in order to influence them to think...and hopefully,
eventually, break away from the religious influences that are holding
them down.

I want to compile a list of books to give to my friends' and relatives'
children, in order to influence them to think...and hopefully,
eventually, break away from the religious influences that are holding
them down.

Anyway, the idea is to come up with a good list of books that will lead
the reader toward thinking for themselves, and to question ideas,
wherever they spring from. Also, I feel that they should lead toward
self-reliance, as much as possible (not to shun assistance from others,
or anything, though).

I want to compile a list of books to give to my friends' and relatives'
children, in order to influence them to think...and hopefully,
eventually, break away from the religious influences that are holding
them down.