BWA-HAHAHAHAHA!

Guess what? I found a new meme, courtesy of the BF! I knew you'd be thrilled. But it's a book-themed meme, so it should be relevant in some way to the topics here. Or not.

Book Meme

1) One book that changed your life.

I've thought long and hard about this answer. And I don't know that I can point to just one book. But for the sake of time, I'll just say something lame, which is a book called The Introvert Advantage. It's not a well-known book or even necessarily a good book, and it didn't exactly change my life, but I felt like it explained a lot of things about my personality and made me feel so much better about myself. I finally felt like it was OK, and not somehow socially deviant, to be a quiet, contemplative, and somewhat cautious person. And I realized that people who make fun of me? Are just extroverted retards who can't wrap their mind around the fact that someone who is quiet is not somehow wrong or bad or plotting the death of the world (though in my case that may be true); they are simply just made differently.

2) One book you've read more than once.

Well, if you know anything about me at all, you know that there are tons of books I've read more than once. These are the books I read on an annual/bi-annual basis: Jane Eyre (although it's sort of fallen out of the rotation, since I've read it so many times and gotten a little sick of it); The Accidental Tourist; Bridget Jones' Diary; To Kill a Mockingbird. I never claimed to be deep or anything.

3) One book you'd want with you on a desert island.

I've actually given this one some serious thought unrelated to the meme, and I think I'd have to go with the Bible. Not for religious reasons, obviously, but because a) the Bible is long and b) it has tons of different stories. You could open it anywhere and start reading, or go from start to finish - either way, hours of entertainment. On the other hand, it might be better just to go with one of the Norton anthologies of English literature.

4) One book that made you cry.

Hmm. I was never one of those horsey-girls growing up, so I can't give the pat Black Beauty answer. (Or whatever one it is that always makes twelve-year-old girls cry.) And in fact I have cried while reading many books, and probably recently too, but I just can't think of what they are right now. So I'll go with a book that I know made me cry when I first read it (yes, I was twelve): Anne of Green Gables. And I don't remember what it was exactly that made me cry, but I think it had something to do with Gilbert.

5) One book that made you laugh.

Any book by Anne Lamott, particularly Bird by Bird and Operating Instructions. That girl is funny.

6) One book that you wish had been written.

There's really no better answer than Ezra Klein's (from whose blog I got this meme in the first place).

"...I'd go with What I Think About Things, In Simple, Declarative Sentences and Dark Ink by Jesus."

And I'll add one of my own: How I Learned to Walk, Talk, and Obtain Self-Awareness by The First Man.


7) One book you wish had never been written.

I'm one of those lefty types who believes in a little thing called "intellectual freedom", and therefore it's hard for me not to think there is at least some merit to every idea out there, if only to show us how absurd and fucking crazy some rightwing nutjobs are. However, since I must give an answer, I'll say something all politically correct like Mein Kampf. The world would probably have turned out just fine had that book never been written.

8) One book you are reading currently.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. I bought it at the library's fall book sale. At least it's readable, unlike the last book I checked out, which shall remain nameless. (*cough* Poe's Shadow by Matthew Pearl *cough*)

9) One book you've been meaning to read.

The list could on forever. Basically I've been meaning to read every book that's been published, I just haven't found the time. But here's my answer: A Short History of Canada. If I'm going to be a citizen someday, it's something I should know about.

10) What book do you routinely recommend but haven't actually read?

Um. I don't know that I've ever recommended a book that I haven't read. Unless it's to say, "I hear such and such is a good book, but I haven't read it yet." I don't routinely recommend them, but I've been saying that a lot lately about Edward P. Jones' books (All Aunt Hagar's Children, The Known World), since he's a DC native and just published a new book that has been getting good reviews.

P.S. Still no news about the old job. Still toiling away at the horrible one.