I found this little blog activity on my friend Kalyn's wedding photographer's blog. Random, huh? But I love thinking about books almost as much as I love reading them, so it looked like fun.
A book that didn't change my life: Moby Dick; I know it's supposed to be some masterpiece of American literature, but I just couldn't get into it. All the technical descriptions of ships and whaling...aahhh! I guess if I liked blood and guts parts of it would have been cool. I think a whale spontaneously combusted or something...obviously I wasn't paying that much attention.
A book I’ve read more than once: I try not to re-read books because I can't feel okay about reading a book again while I still own books I haven't read once. But occasionally for school I re-read. I read The Scarlet Letter twice. I read it for the first time in high school. I definitely got more out of it in college. I really want to re-read Possession by A.S. Byatt. I hated it the first time, but everyone says it's wonderful. I think I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.
A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island: Hmmm...this is a difficult one. I'd probably take the dictionary or an encyclopedia. (Can you take more than one volume?) At least, those would keep me busy for a while.
A book that made me laugh: A Series of Unfortunate Events; they're kids' books, but they are so clever. I read a few of them over Christmas break freshman year, and I kept reading the funny parts out loud to my mom. She wasn't as amused as I was.
A book that made me cry: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This is one of my favorite books ever. It has a weird premise, but if you get past the first few chapters, it is an amazing love story. And it avoids being cheesy by its sheer weirdness. The male protagonist has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel spontaneously, so he's always a different age when he sees the woman he knows he will eventually marry. I can't really even explain it, but it's awesome. Plus, he's a librarian, which means that he's nerdy hot :) I cried several times throughout the book. It talks very candidly about the experience of a miscarriage, which was difficult. But I also cried happy tears because of the strength of the characters' love for each other, in spite of the strange circumstances. I feel like it's kind of an intellectual response to Nicholas Sparks. It still makes you feel mushy inside, but you don't feel dumber after reading it.
A book that I wish I had written: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Although the story itself is wonderful, it is really her language I wish I could imitate. She writes from a child's perspective, without making the book childish. She also feeds you just enough hints about what is going to happen to make you keep reading. I finished the second half of the book in one sitting because I just could not stop. I knew I was being propelled towards catastrophe, but I couldn't slow myself down. When I finished, I felt like I had to lie down for a while and process everything. But I recovered quickly. It wasn't one of those books that makes you feel horrible for days; I don't like those that much.
A book that I wish had never been written: This is tough. I've never really read a book I didn't like or couldn't at least somehow appreciate the value of. Probably I wish Ann Coulter's books had never been written. I've never read them, but on talk shows she makes me so angry. She is so judgmental and divisive. I'm sure there are others like her, but she's the first one who pops into my mind.
A book I’ve been meaning to read: Oh, gosh. I could go on forever. Here's the ones that are on my shelf in Abilene that I haven't read yet: Memoirs of a Geisha, Daughter of Fortune, Everything is Illuminated, Gilead. There are about 5o more in Waco that I own but haven't read yet. I make myself limit my Amazon wish list to 20 at any one time. Otherwise it's too depressing. Hopefully, I'll knock a few out over Thanksgiving and Christmas. And now that I'm about to be a college graduate, I imagine I'll have a lot more pleasure reading time.
I’m currently reading: The Kite Runner, barely. I'm on page 5.
3 comments:
I didn't know you have Everything is Illuminated! That's totally on my Christmas book-wish-list...I swiped it's info from the English Department's library request list.
I haven't read Ann Coulter either, but she doesn't have a monopoly on meanness. Read some of Maureen Dowd's columns. You might want to read some of Coulter so you can converse with your future father-in-law.
Your book collecting must be genetic. You can never have too many.-Dad
I think I would have put Moby Dick under the heading "A book I wish had never been written". Of course, I'm still bitter toward my junior year English teacher who assigned that book. Who assigns Moby Dick as summer reading??
Post a Comment