Books

1. Name one book that changed your life.

That changed my life?  Um, how about A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony.  It was the first in a gift set I received one Christmas from my dad, and as much as I had been into reading before that, this book and the ones that followed cemented my passion for literature.  I think most of these sorts of life-altering things happen at a young age, and that was definitely it for me.

2. Name one book you have read more than once.

I Want To Go Home, by Gordon Korman.  It's a young adult book about a disgustingly competent, surly, and smug teen who goes unwillingly to summer camp and the growing up he does there.  I think I must have read that about 15 times growing up.

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

The Complete Works of Shakespeare.  And a hammock.  And plenty of rum and coke.

4. Two books that made you laugh.

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Douglas Adams was a brilliantly funny man.

The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde.  Aside from having the coolest name of any author I've read, it's a fine, fun read.  In fact, here's some of the jacket copy:

Thursday Next is a literary detective without equal, fear, or boyfriend. Thursday is on the trail of the villainous Acheron Hades who has been kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre has herself been plucked from the novel of the same name, and Thursday must find a way into the book to repair the damage. She also has to find time to halt the Crimean conflict, persuade a man to marry her, rescue her aunt from a Wordsworth poem and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. Together with a cast of characters that includes her time-travelling father, a pet dodo and Edward Rochester himself, Thursday embarks on an adventure that will take your breath away.

5. One book that made you cry.

The Lions of Al-Rassan, by Guy Gavriel Kay.  Had me near blubbering at times.  All but his last two books have done that to me.

6. One book you wish you’d written.

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.  Holy effin' crap.  Read that.

7. One book you wish had never been written.

Dianetics, by LRH.

It's not so much that I wish it had never been written (falling, as I do, into Voltaire's camp on that matter), but that the unthinking spawn that has been realised from its inculcation have done far more harm than good.

8. Two books I am currently reading.

Two books?  Who the hell reads two books at the same time?  WTF?  That's utterly ludicrous.  Very nearly heretical, I'd say.  One thing at a time, people!! 

Rather, I'm currently reading (and very nearly finished) The Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett - my second time through, and a daunting task because there are five more books in the series, each nearly as good as this first.  Next on my list, before I start book two of the aforementioned series (you see how that works?!), is a brief graphic novel loaned to me by a friend, based on the Firefly universe.  The foreward of that graphic novel is written by Nathan Fillion (the star of the short-lived - yet exceedingly awesome - Firefly TV series and similarly themed movie Serenity), which is cool because he's a native of Edmonton and I've been to some of the places he talks about.

9. Five people I tag.

Whomever wants to do it.  But Moksha for sure since he's been a lazy tit about posting lately.

Props to Marc for tagging me several weeks back, and I'm just getting around to it now.

Comments

[Alec Lynch]

Guy Kay, eh? Yeah, I've heard a couple good things about him, I think.

The latest Jasper Fforde (you just like the name because there's more silent letters than pronounced?) is high on my to read list.

Hitchhiker's Guide: Brilliant

Game of Kings: Also Brilliant

Firefly graphic novel: Lacking much of the humour of the show, but connected to Firefly nonetheless and so...brilliant.

Hmm. It seems my comments to your blog as well as Paul's (during his 100 movie posts) are limited to exclamations of "Oh yeah!"

[Paula]

There we are, once again, in book telepathy. I reread Game of Kings while in Scotland and have just started on Queen's Play. Want to race again? ;D

Ooh, Eyre Affair. Impeccable taste. I really, really want to pick up the newest Thursday Next installment but the cover art is SO off-putting I haven't yet. And does it ever matter, if Polish GGK cover art is any indication!

[Émilie B]

Hum, *I* read two books at the same time. :} In fact, I think I'm up to three now : one was a little too boring and dragging, so it was put aside when fresh literature came in. I started on another one, which is ok, but some nights I'd rather just jump to the third one, which is a fun read.

Fun meme. :)

[Amy]

I have seen you with more than two books on the go. You took a break from Moby to read something else I know for sure and I think you were working your way through a Dale Carnegie for that course you took in the fall at about the same time... Just so you know. I remember, I have a mind like a steel trap.

[Mark]

My wife has a mind like a steel trap, too. Most of the time that's a good thing.

I'm sure these are great choices, but besides lots of the Shakespeare, I haven't read a single one. Except the Firefly graphic novel, but I read it in the original individual comic books. Isn't that what the graphic novel is -- just those comic books slapped together into one book? They fill in some gaps.

I read a Piers Anthony novel or two back when a friend was nuts about him. I don't think I finished Hasan, probably because I started driving when I was about half way through the book. Piers? Or girls? It was a no-brainer for me (no smart-ass comments on that).

[Mark]

Oh, and I did this meme, too. It's my post for 2/14.

[Jayson Merryfield]

I don't know that reading for a course quite counts in the two-or-more-books-at-once measurement scale. If anything, reading a book along with a textbook is almost required: it reminds you that not everything is mundane and lifeless and full of jargon and figures and calculations.

Or maybe those are just the auditing books I've been reading.

I think I'll take up your gauntlet when i get home tonight.... nice list though. I second your thoughts on Moby Dick - reading it is almost tantamount to literary spelunking, delving deeper and deeper never quite sure where it all is going to end but enjoying the breathless claustrophobia of it.

[Moksha "Lazy Tit" Gren]

I can't say I've read many of these books, but I look forward to reading your Guy Kay as soon as I can.

I tend to have at least two books going at once. Usually one non-fiction and one fiction. Two fictions at once would be tought for me to hold in my head, but non-fiction stacks well.

I'll accept your tagging and see what I can get out this weekend. I've been working far too much lately and my blog is suffering. But, when you're still up working at 3:30 am...it's tough to write stuff. I really thought my unemployment would be more restful :(

[Zak]

Funny, my first book like that was also "A Spell for Chameleon," and it set me off on a lifetime of reading fantasy and SF. My favorite Kay books are the Fionavar trilogy, and The Darkest Road always gets me blubbering. That has to be his single most beautiful book, although I think Tigana comes close.