What Are Your 5 Favorite Books? - Job Interview Question

I've held my current job for 19 years, but if I'm ever in the position of interviewing for a job again, I would like to answer the question, "What are your top 5 favorite books?" as follows because it's a good balance of my eclectic interests:

1) Ecclesiastes - I love many books in the collection of Biblical scriptures, but Ecclesiastes really sticks out.  It really gets you thinking about how easy it is to get caught up in unimportant things and calls out the reader to consider what real purpose is and to prioritize the things of life.  Because most things, regardless of how grand they seem, are just going to fade away and vanish over time.  Harsh, and not for the weak at heart.

2) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - These two books contained in one cover first gave me a real interest in reading for fun and not just for career purposes.  The books seemed to break every rule I was ever taught about plot structures and main ideas, and I absolutely loved the freedom resulting from that.  Lots of fun and timeless humor.  Not to mention an insane amount of creativity.  Something you have to read more than once.  If I ever published a book myself, I'd want it to look like these two books.

3) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - This might be the only book I've ever read that fits into the self-help category, but it's written so well I never felt the need to read any other self-help books.  It taught me about the Eisenhower Box method of organization, and the circle of concern method of prioritization, both of which I still use to this day.  This book and its techniques still give me the confidence to continuously and patiently pursue whatever goals I have, provided they are eventually within my reach before I pass away due to old age or some other cause.

4) Discovering Relativity For Yourself (by Sam Lilley) - Although this book was intended to make it easier to understand both special and general relativity, it's still extremely complicated and hard to follow.  But despite all that, it is the best mix of thoroughness and simplicity I can find on a subject that snugly fits into the category of inaccessible better than most any topic on the planet.  Extremely well written considering the supreme challenge of writing it.

5) William McGonagall, Collected Poems - My favorite poet ever.  No question.  The topics he chose to put into verse (particularly his disaster poems) were often highly questionable, and his meter was non-existent, but there's still a certain charm to his efforts despite the poet's lack of conventional ability.  His work earned him admiration even though it shouldn't have.  Like many films presented on Mystery Science Theater 3000, McGonagall's poems reinforce the idea that a presented work doesn't always have to be good quality to make its audience happy that it was made.

A Divine Haiku

Don't be mad at God

You won't stay disappointed

He'll fix everything

Golden Rule Variation

The Golden Rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated.  

I always thought of Greg the Hammer Valentine as an interesting instance of the Golden Rule. He was quite rough in the ring compared to other wrestlers and wanted rough convincing matches where he hit hard and his opponents hit hard back. Some wrestlers tend to wrestle stiff like him and others are fairly gentle in the ring like Bobby Eaton was.

There Will be NO Evidence of Me

I've come to accept that probably not too long after I pass away, a few centuries max, there will be no evidence that I ever existed on this planet.  No historical records, nothing.  Everything will be wiped out.  The same will occur with millions of others.  That's just how it is.  We can only keep up with so many people and after a while the less noteworthy things will not be kept up with and eventually be totally forgotten.

Because there's no evidence of me any longer at that time, does that mean I never existed?  It sure feels like I did.  After all, I have a life I certainly enjoy today, whether or not it is considered noteworthy.

Reasonableness - More Value-Based Than Fact-Based

We have no scientific way to measure how reasonable something is, so even though it sounds strange, we must conclude that reasonableness is more rooted in value than in fact.  Sometimes I think reasonableness is a preference for facts, but even a preference for facts would be considered a value and not a fact itself.

Why do people prefer logic to emotion?  Probably because it's closer to truth.  But why do they like truth?  Probably for an emotional reason.

A Strange Creature Marco Polo Described

In reading The Adventures of Marco Polo, I got to a chapter where the title character spoke of a special kind of lion that helped the Grand Khan hunt, and the lion had white, black, and red stripes all over it.  Strange indeed.  But actually, it was an animal we learn about in grade school now.  A tiger.  Hard to believe at one point few people in the European world knew what one was and had to resort to these strange descriptions.  He had an interesting description for yaks as well, but not as interesting as this.

Bret Hart's Method

Sometimes I wish debate was like professional wrestling, particularly the way Bret The Hitman Hart did it.  Debaters always want to make themselves look good and their opponents look bad.  Especially political debates.  But whenever Bret Hart had a professional wrestling match, he seemed determined to make not only himself look good, but his opponent look good as well.  I think even in a fixed sport it takes a lot of confidence to do that.  He brought out the best in his opponent, whether it was Diesel, or Hakushi, or Jean-Pierre LaFitte, or Shawn Michaels.  I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that in a political debate.