Monday, August 14, 2006

Memity Book Meme

At The Back of the Hill threw this one over here, and since I've never seen a meme I didn't like:

1. One book that changed your life?

_Harriet the Spy_, by Louise Fitzhugh. I read it almost as soon as I learned to read, and a lot of it escaped me at the time...I knew no one with a nanny, for example, and the exclusive private school just seemed surreal, but Harriet's creativity, and ordinariness, and fascination with people were all things I could instantly relate to. Still can.

2. One book you have read more than once?

This is a very broad category, because I am an addictive rereader. If I like a book I will read it at least a couple of times, and there are books I pick up routinely and read sections of, sometimes out of sequence, for months and years on end. I treat books a bit the way most people treat CDs.

Ummm...R.A. MacAvoy's _Book of Kells_. And Judith Merkle Riley's _A Vision of Light_. And Barry Hughart's _Bridge of Birds_. All set in the Middle Ages, so I guess there's a theme going on here.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

_The Once and Future King_ by T.H. White, and not only because it is nearly 650 pages.

4. One book that made you laugh?

Any of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mystery novels.

5. One book that made you cry?

Will Eisner's _The Contract With God_. The part with the dog, naturally.

6. One book you wish had been written?

Ummm...a novel version of the film _Mina Tannenbaum_.

7. One book you wish had never been written?

Andrew Greeley's latest Nuala Anne book, _Irish Crystal_. Because it was so bad it made me cringe, but I KNOW I will buy the next one in hardcover anyway.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Just finished Terry McMillan's latest, _The Interruption of Everything_, and am moseying my way through Richard Clarke's _Against All Enemies_. (I read fiction much faster than nonfiction.) And for work I am reading _Johnny Tremain_.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

_Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of the Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books_. Aaron Lansky.

10. Now tag five people!

I still can't do links, but--

Westbank Mama
Chayyei Sarah
Jameel, if he ever has time
and, uh, whoever else wants to...

1 comment:

The back of the hill said...

Bridge of birds - read that several times.

Once and future king - that is where I first found the word 'fewmets'.

Harriet the spy - great book. Worth re-reading at any age.

Outwitting history - amusing. Inspiring. Not really very informative. But a good read.