Book thang

Swiped this meme from Hiromi. (You know, i didn’t realize meme was a dawkins-ism. It all makes much more sense to me now, AND it becomes obvious that somehow ‘meme’ has come to mean ‘stupid quiz’ around the blogosphere, rather than it’s original meaning. But that’s neither here nor there.) 1. One book that changed […]

Swiped this meme from Hiromi. (You know, i didn’t realize meme was a dawkins-ism. It all makes much more sense to me now, AND it becomes obvious that somehow ‘meme’ has come to mean ‘stupid quiz’ around the blogosphere, rather than it’s original meaning. But that’s neither here nor there.)

1. One book that changed your life – hardest question first.

God that one’s hard to answer. What does changed my life mean? Books that made me see something a new way? Sure, but what if it’s a small thing? Drawing of the Dark forever changed the way I see beer; Last Call forever changed the way I see Vegas and poker. But these are not my life, they’re just how I see certain things in it.

So what did change my life? I can only go back to the books that made me start reading, because it’s reading itself that changed my life, more than any other thing. There are a number of them that I could pick, books that were read to me, or that I read early. But the book that made me, as a child, say, I need to read (need, not want) was the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, or possibly the second book in the Narnia chronicles, Prince Caspian (and yes, that’s the second – whomever decided to re-number those books on internal chronology should die for fucking that up for so many young readers.)

I don’t choose this book because of what it is; it could have been any book, any good book. I choose this because of when it was and who I became when I decided I needed to pick it up and read. Mom could not keep up with my voracious need for more, and so I gave up on being read to and took up the book myself. And the universe opened to me.

2. One Book That You’ve Read More Than Once.

One? Let’s forget the obvious (the above chronicles, lord of the rings, etc). Let’s even forget Tim Powers, whose books I always read at least twice. Let’s go with Harry Potter, because there’s just not enough Harry Potter.

3. One Book That You’d Want On A Desert Island.

I’m boring, but this might wind up being Lord of the Rings again. That books has never been able to bore me, and with it’s appendices, you’ve got your own language right there.

But i might choose some book on writing. I’ll have time to kill, i might as well hone my own chops.

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.

Any Chris Moore would do; but let’s go with his funniest, Lamb.

5. One Book That Made You Cry.

Mystic Pig by Richard Katrovas. One of the best novels EVER. Though I could also say GG Kay‘s Lord of Emperors.

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.

I might say, again, Mystic Pig. It’s the kind of thing I feel I should be able to write. I might also say one of Dan Fante‘s books, Mooch or Chump Change. Fante’s absolutely brilliant, all his father was and more.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.

Leaving out politics and religion, because they’re too damned easy and targets, yet it would be hard to choose one from such low hanging fruit as the bible and the qur’an; let’s stick with bad pop-culture staples. I have to choose a fantasy epic because I’m a huge fantasy fan and I think the brick of extruded fantasy product is harmful to the entire market (who wants to publish a short novel from an unknown author when you can publish volume 69 of the Saga of Boredinium). Thus, let’s say Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

I’m not happy with that pick, but then I’m not the just choose one kind of guy.

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.

I’m on the last ten or twenty pages of The God Delusion, of which I’ll say more soon. Next on the stack is Bujold‘s The Sharing Knife.

9. One Book That You Have Been Meaning To Read.

Not one:

Moby Dick
Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Last of the Mohicans
Treasure Island
Lolita
Border Trilogy by Cormac Maccarthy

I could go on, that’s just a few of the books in my stuff i should read (vs stuff I will read) stack.

10. Tag five others that you would like to do this meme.

No tags. I don’t do tags. Steal at will.

16 thoughts on “Book thang”

  1. I hereby vote for Lolita to be scooted up on your list of books to read. Though you probably couldn’t go wrong with any of those.

  2. Yeah Sean, you know how it is. Books you know you whould read but which ain’t grabbed ya yet. heart of darkness is on that list, as is to kill a mockingbird. I can’t even recall what else is in that stack. it’s the literature stack. I’m figuring a few ‘o those will get packed up for for vacation, so I can, you know, not read ’em there either.

  3. I loved the Wheel of Time at the beginning, Now, I’m at the point I want al Thor to go nuts and kill everybody and their dangling earings and red silk dresses.

    I’m still collecting the first editions, though.

  4. Please, yes, kill ’em all off quickly and let’s get the damned thing over so we can see how it ends in the cliff notes version.

  5. I’ve had Moby Dick on my shelf for YEARS. I’ve gotten maybe to page 20. It’s great stuff, actually, but you have to hack through the prose with a machete. I don’t read a lot of 19th century fiction for that reason.

  6. Yeah, I’ll steal it. This is cool. All about books. Very, very nice. I learned something about you as well. Maybe even something about some books I haven’t read. Thanks to both you and Hiromi!

  7. I’m so glad to hear you say that about the re-numbering of the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s like licking broken glass to me when I see them packaged the “new” way. It’s just wrong! So wrong! How can you know about Charn before you know anything else about Aslan????

    Ok, settle down now.

    I think I’ll steal this too.

  8. Dead on AAG. Magician’s Nephew has no resonance whatsoever when you don’t already know what the wardrobe is, and the sense of wonder when they stumble through the wardrobe in tLtWatW means little when you already know where it goes.

    There are very, very few series that should be read in internal-chronology order; Narnia certainly ain’t one of ’em. People make cases for reading the Vorksosigan tales that way, and some suggest reading Vlad Taltos books that way – shrug. But Narnia, absolutely not, it truly damages the experience.

  9. I’ll have to steal this meme as well – probably in the next couple of days.

    But I will say that one book I’ve been meaning to read and is waiting patiently for me is Don Quixote. I bought the damned book seven years ago, tried to read it, then put it down after about fifteen pages. I haven’t picked it up since. Think 19th century prose is difficult? 16th century prose translated into English from Spanish laughs at 19th century prose in the locker room and calls it a wuss while giving it a swirly.

    But I had trouble with Moby Dick as well, which is why I never finished it. 19th century prose laughed at me in the locker room – I think my hair is still wet.

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