Sunday, November 06, 2011

Bookish Sundays!

As long time readers may remember, I fall back on book memes come Sundays when I'm NaBlowing. I really have no right to. I hardly read anything any more. I'm such a fraud. I don't even think I can name ten books I read this year. (I may have read ten books, but I have no recollection at this point.) At any rate, maybe this will force me to pick something up.


I've done one similar to this before, so I'm limiting my answers. Can't use the same ones again.


1. One book that changed your life? I usually say that Hemingway put me on the path of an English major. But we might blame Merle Hodge's Crick Crack Monkey for getting me in to grad school.
2. One book you have read more than once? I've read a lot of books more than once. I read Cat's Eye before I went to graduate school and hated it. I read it several times for my dissertation. I have a fondness for it now, but I'm not sure I think it is great.
3. One book you would want on a desert island? My standard answer is Riverside Shakespeare; my new answer is Oryx and Crake. That'd give you a new perspective. It would also make you compulsively write down the definition of every word you know.
4. One book that made you laugh? Don DeLillo's White Noise made me laugh out loud to the consternation of my sister. Richard Russo's Straight Man is another.
5. One book that made you cry?  I'm sure this isn't news, but I cry at television commercials; I cry when I read those bootstrap articles in women's magazines; I cry at everything. What book doesn't make me cry? The Art of Racing in the Rain had me sobbing in public.

6. One book you wish you'd written? Nicole Kraus's The History of Love is achingly beautiful.
7. One book you wish had never been written? How about presidential candidates have to stop writing their Horatio Alger stories? 
8. One book you are currently reading? I think I'm currently reading many of the same books I've been reading for the past two years: Gilead, Inside of a Dog, March.
9. One book you have been meaning to read? I just asked the dude at lunch, "What is that book on water I wanted to read?" (He didn't know.) 
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water. 

5 comments:

Courtney said...

I'm in the middle of "Inside of a Dog," too! What do you think so far?

Anna van Schurman said...

Courtney, I like it. I think it has some interesting perspectives on dogs, and I'm always reading parts aloud to the dude. I just don't have as much time for reading as I'd like.

Lelia said...

Your #6 is spot on

I read Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin + now want to re-read. It was awesome (IMO)

Now have Union Quilter - Jennifer Chiaverinni's book. She has a new one out this month, too, called Wedding Quilt - guess I need to catch up!

Anonymous said...

I love Oryx and Crake as well as White Noise also.

Mary in TN

Jodie said...

LOL can I steal this from you?! Like you, I am a bookish fraud. I go through reading phases...and I am sooo not in one right now. Read The Hunger Games...it'll get you back into reading! Fantastic!!