Saturday, August 19, 2006

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble.... A Book Meme

Annavenger says I gotta....

1. One book that changed your life: The Tin Drum. I've been thinking about this book again, perhaps because the author, Gunter Grass, has been in the news recently. I read this in high school, after my writing teacher suggested it. It opened up a new world of literature for me; bringing me to international writing and to writing that breaks the rules of reality.

2. One book that you've read more than once: A Soldier of the Great War. This is a wonderful book by Mark Helprin. I'’ve mentioned it here before. It follows a young Italian man through World War I. There are several books by Helprin that are worth owning and returning to.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Any one of the Foxfire Books. These are folk-craft how-to books. They apply more to being lost in the Appalachian Mountains, but seem worth a try.

4. One book that made you laugh: Right Ho, Jeeves. Or almost anything by PG Wodehouse.

5. One book that made you cry: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Maybe not when I first read it, as a young teen, but in retrospect.

6. One book that you wish had been written: Why I Stayed with Baseball and Gave Politics a Pass, by George W. Bush.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: I don't think there are any. I'’ve seen others answer this with Mein Kampf or the Qu'Ran. That just seems silly. Without Mein Kampf, how would we be able to study the madness that caused Hitler to do what he did? And to think that a holy book of any specific culture is at fault for a conflict we may have with that culture is jingoistically foolish.

8. One book you'’re currently reading: The Far Side of the World. I'’m still making my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series. Again.

9. One book you'’ve been meaning to read: Blue Shoes and Happiness, by Alexander McCall Smith. This was a Father's Day gift from Karen, but it keeps slipping to the bottom of my reading pile.

10. Tag five others. Well. Who to lay this on next? How about Del, Amanda, Paul, Howard and Fritz.
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1 comment:

The Last Ephor said...

I had a hard time w/the Abrey/Maturin series in that, the nautical lingo lost me completely. I had to read one paragraph like three times before I realized they were talking about fitting cannon into a ship.

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