Meme

Pinched, with permission, from Hiromi X — I can never resist a chanc to talk about books!

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

Does a short story count? (“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. I still remember reading this on my mammoth, nearly 2 hour bus-rides when I first started going to uni. Despite falling passionately in love with university, and the world of intelligent argument and free-thinking I found there (so different to the laced-up high school I went to/was intellectually ostracized from) I dropped out after 1 semester: and yes, undoubtedly the two hour bus-rides contributed in large part to this!!! (Well, it was 2 hours each way…I had to change buses twice there and twice back and despite the radiong time, was a complete drag). But I kept loving Kafka. When I finally made it back to uni, I eventually did my Honours dissertation on Kafka, and via Deleuze & Guattari! Take that my sucky high-school English teacher who always gave me B-’s…

(and my Kafka joy nearly overflowed when the fabulous, wonderful Murakami published Kafka by the Shore)

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

Yup, this list is endless for me to! I do love re-reading books, once enough time has passed. My most recent re-read was Keri Hulme The Bone People.

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

Well, I haven’t read War and Peace yet, and that is a big book! I love Anna Karenina and keep meaning to read more Tolstoy. Of course, I’m a practical person: anything about Surviving on Desert Islands would no doubt be handy ;-)

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.

Just one? The reductionist logic of list-making is hard: Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Even though I’ve recently copped some flak from superior-feeling folk who think its crap and me for liking it...

5. One Book That Made You Cry.

Storm Boy by Colin Thiele. And another short story for good measure (surely one of the best saddest stories ever: I love to cry at stories!) : "The Swan" by Roald Dahl (in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar)

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.

Prodigal Summer Barbara Kingsolver.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.

The Holy Bible. In fact, any book of beautiful, important stories that pretends to be truth and by so doing, creates hate and death. So The Koran, The Torah and etc and etc and so on and so on. (Let the shitfight begin…)

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.

I like this question! I’m not sure if its meant that way, but I’m always reading more than one book at a time… one of the books I am reading right now is Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.

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

Er, any one from the stacks by my bed, in my study, in my car…

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

Anyone who's reading this, but please let me know in comments so I can go have a look. Also, if you don't have a blog, feel free to answer in comments. {Good idea! I second this proposal!—although, I don’t think I have any readers so the buck probably stops here! No worries—it’s all good procrastination for me!!.}