The Book Meme

[omorka]

Tagged by bassfingers:

1. One book that changed your life?

Madeline L'Engle's A Wind In The Door. I'd liked the first book in the series, but it was the second book that gave me the context for a number of things that existed in my life right then (somewhere around fifth or sixth grade).

2. One book you have read more than once?

If I own a book and have read it, chances are I've read it at least twice. My latest re-read has probably been Finding Darwin's God.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Well, if it's not arctic, then Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills. The instructions on construction with minimal tools are pretty good. (Just realized I don't currently have a copy, either.)

4. One book that made you laugh?

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - even knowing all the punchlines, I still end up with tears of mirth every time I read it.

5. One book that made you cry.

Again, not a rare occurrence. The most memorable is Drawing Down the Moon.

6. One book you wish had been written?

I'd really like having a book on polytheology that isn't a bone-dry academic dissertation on a culture and religion that is no longer practiced.

6a. One book by someone else you wish you had written.

That doesn't make much sense. I don't read to hear myself think.

7. One book you wish had never been written?

The pseudo-Pauline letters to Timothy.

8. One book you are currently reading?

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, by Sue Monk Kidd. But I have roughly half a dozen that I'm working on in bits of pieces.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

Gould's Wonderful Life - I own a copy, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Comments

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

Gould's Wonderful Life is a bit anachronistic by this time, but it's a great read. The Burgess Shale work that came after his book really changed everything. After I read it Dan gave me an incredible book that covers some the same material, but with better prose. I'll have to ask him what it was, because I forget at the moment.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I grok 6a. The book by someone else that I wish I'd written is Patricia Wrede's Calling On Dragons. I actually have a draft of a story with the same premise (written some 25 years ago) around here somewhere, but Wrede did it much better than I could ever have dreamed of.