Jennifer tagged me for this a couple of weeks ago, and I missed it. But then I found it, so here you go.
1. One book that changed your life:
How do people answer questions like this? I have no idea…I don’t think any book has ever changed my life so obviously that I could say “that book, right there, made me who I am” or anything like that. They just work more gradually than that, and not really as individual books. Maybe if someone could explain how this question is supposed to be approached, I could make a better attempt at it…
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I would put all the Narnia books on, but I have read this one the most. Largely because I’ll start to read the series, then get stuck in Prince Caspian because I don’t care for it much. Sometimes I just skip Caspian, but I keep thinking that if I read it enough, one of these times I’ll like it.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
The complete set of Norton Anthologies. Heh. I’m not really getting the gist of this “one book” thing, am I? How about…The Riverside Shakespeare? It’s one volume! And should keep me busy for a while.
4. One book that made you laugh:
I’m tempted to say Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, just because I mocked it so hard all the way through, but I don’t think that’s what the question intends. Anything by P.G. Wodehouse gets the good kind of laughs.
5. One book that made you cry:
Catch-22 made me cry, and laugh as well. But the laughs were expected. The tears weren’t, so those scenes that made me cry are the ones burned into my memory.
6. One book that you wish had been written:
Playacting in Shakespeare. Would’ve been very helpful when writing a paper on the topic for Shakespeare class a few years ago. The paper still turned out okay, once I acknowledged that I couldn’t find ANY sources, and the professor let me base it on close reading rather than research, but still. Somebody has to have written this book, somewhere.
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Ooh, tough tough tough. Sounds dangerously close to book-burning, and I’m not about that. But I think Mein Kampf is probably a good bet. The world could’ve easily done without Nazism, WWII, the Holocaust, and the remaining vestiges of Neo-Nazism. So, yeah, I’ll go with that.
8. One book you’re currently reading:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I’ve heard a couple of people say they’re having difficulty getting through Crime and Punishment, but I zoomed through C&P compared to Karamazov. It’s good, but it’s…dense.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Just one? Um. A.S. Byatt’s Possession. Mark has been after me to read it for a few months now, and I keep putting it off, even though I’m dying to read it. Delayed gratification and all that rot, you know. Really, though, I could’ve chosen any of some 150 books I own and haven’t read (y’all know I cannot pass up book fairs and used bookstores).
I think just about everyone in this blog’s circle has done it, so I won’t tag specific people…if you want to do it, please do! I’ll go pick on some Livejournal people for it, though…haven’t seen it make the rounds there yet.
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