It's really hard for me to say no to a book survey. It might be a problem.
1. A book that made you cry: Brian Morton – Unbreakable You. I. Heart. Brian. Morton.
2. A book that scared you: Stephen King – The Shining. If you have only watched the movie…you don’t even KNOW. All I’m saying is: snow tunnel.
3. A book that made you laugh: Barbara Pym – Us Excellent Women.
4. A book that disgusted you: John Updike - Rabbit Run. One word: misogyny.
5. A book you loved in elementary school: Through school: The Giver and Where the Red Fern Grows. At home, Laura Ingalls Wilder and my favorite was Little House in the Big Woods (because of gratuitous and delicious food descriptions). Then, of course, True Grit: the first book my dad and I read together. Oh, and The Indian in the Cupboard – Lynne Reid Banks. Oh, AND Half Magic – Edward Eager. I could keep going…
6. A book you loved in middle school: Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Mists of Avalon. I could spend all day reading about powerful women. And then, of course, the magic (and love).
7. A book you loved in high school: Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice. I rolled into college thinking I was so cool because I totally knew I was an Elizabeth. Ha. And Great Expectations. I love an underdog (and an eccentric lady in a wedding dress).
8. A book you hated in high school: Henry David Thoreau - Walden, or Life in the Woods. Don’t get me started.
9. A book you loved in college: Banana Yoshimoto – Kitchen.
10. A book that challenged your identity or your faith: Charlotte Perkins Gilman – “The Yellow Wallpaper.” There was a time when I wouldn’t call myself a feminist (shocking…I know). This story was so terrible and awesome and typical. How could I not be changed forever? Oh, and since that is a short story, I will add Just Kids by Patti Smith because she reinvigorated my life.
11. A series that you love: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan. On the road my family read the entire series. You do the math of how many hours in the car that is.
12. Your favorite horror book: Mary Shelley – Frankenstein. Love. This. Book.
13. Your favorite science-fiction book: Frank Herbert – Dune. Face doesn’t re-read this book every year for nothing.
14. Your favorite fantasy book: J.V. Jones – The Baker’s Boy. Love.
15. Your favorite mystery book: Libby Fischer Hellman – all of them. I can’t get enough.
16. Your favorite biography: I have Zelda (Nancy Milford) sitting on my shelf and I am excited to - one day - read it.
17. Your favorite coming-of-age book: Jane Austen – Persuasion.
18. Your favorite book not on this list: There are just so many I haven’t thanked.
To Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook will always glow in my heart. To Ana Castillo: So Far From God is a masterpiece. To Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar…snap, I love an unreliable narrator. To Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders gave me the best paper title I’ve ever come up with…Moll Flanders: Vice or Advice? To John Steinbeck: East of Eden showed me the tragic beauty of words. To Peter Hoeg: who would have thought a book I bought at an airport – The Quiet Girl – would move me so. To Christopher Rice: I will purchase all of your books as each book addresses the point of my life I’m at now, and say hi to your mom. Oh, and to Shakespeare: kisses.
Let me not to the love of good books / Admit favoritism. Love is not love / Which alters when it new hardbacks finds, / Or bends with the book borrower to remove: / O no! it is an ever-fixed folded page / That looks on coffee stains and is never shaken; / It is the quote to every wandering heart, / Whose worth's unknown, although his word count be taken. / Love's not reading's fool, though rosy covers and pages / Within his bending bookmark's compass come: / Reading alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the afterword. / If this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man or woman ever read.
Shakespeare-ish
OH my!! Why didn't I think of this after the epic 15 album list! I'm going to have to think about this one, especially the books I liked when I was younger......your list is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteObviously I'll have to give Dune a go.
The Shining?? Okay the movie is bad enough....
This is the third time Persuasion has come up in ab out a week - it's time I bit the bullet and read it (it's the last Jane Austen book that I'll read so I've been saving it.)
How inspiring....don't you just love finding out what people like to read?!
Jabba - WHAT? You haven't read Persuasion?? You must go read it...NOW. Persuasion was almost the last Austen I read (Northanger Abbey was last, I went way out of order). And until then I was like oh Persuasion I'm sure it won't knock P&P out of my favorite spot...BUT IT DID. I might need to re-read it this year.
ReplyDeleteYes - Dune is a must. My brother gave it to me for Christmas every year until I finally read it. And it was well worth it.
You shouldn't read The Shining. You'll never sleep again : )