Ten Questions (Books)

[Cross-posted from my Red Room blog, which seems to have become a meme blog...]

A meme from Françoise Renoir...

1. One book that changed your life: As Françoise wrote about herself, no one book changed my life, but my grandmother introduced me to L. Frank Baum's original Oz series, first by reading them to me, and then gradually letting me read them to her. Not only did she teach me to read, she taught me to love stories, and all the elements that go into building them.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Oh, if I love a book, it's more than likely I'll read it more than once! At this point, Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series has become so familiar that rereading it has become more of a meditative practice (like tracing a labyrinth) than anything else. I have lots of other titles that are the same.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Gosh, I don't know. Probably Shakespeare's complete works or something so I could postpone boredom as long as possible.

4. One book that made you laugh: Zadie Smith's White Teeth made me laugh out loud, repeatedly. So did David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. And I can reread P.G. Wodehouse again and again and still chuckle.

5. One book that made you cry: Hmmm. Maybe a passage from Michael Cunningham, either Flesh and Blood or A Home at the End of the World, but I can't think of anything specific. I've read and loved all his stuff.

6. One book that you wish you had written: Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: I think the world could have done without Mein Kampf.

8. One book you’re currently reading: JPod by Douglas Coupland. I've always liked him, but this one's going a little slowly for me. I'm not sure if I'm in the right frame of mind for merciless irony right now, no matter how clever.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: I've been wanting to finish The House of Mirth for awhile now, but it's pretty depressing in a way that I identify with. Also, Max lent me his copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake a long time ago, and I keep forgetting to start it.

10. One book you recommend to almost everyone: That's a hard one. Again, no one to whom I've lent Tales of the City has expressed anything but love for it, and I think Maupin's user-friendly picture of what chosen family can be is important for people to see. But the series also presents an end-of-the-rainbow idea of San Francisco that has led people to move here and then be disappointed.

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