Book Meme

Kate has tagged me for the book meme that has been doing the rounds and since I love a good meme, I couldn’t resist.

1. One book you have read more than once

I went through a phase of re-reading books a lot when I had chronic fatigue, but they were mostly sci-fi/fantasy books and I have lost interest in them now. I also loved re-reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr and Letters from the Inside by John Marsden when I was younger.

These days, I will have to go with the predictable Pride and Prejudice. It just makes me feel so warm inside and has so many layers of interest to keep me entertained.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

Survival manual is getting a little predictable, but for good reason. Something thick and worthwhile would also be good: maybe Robert Fisk’s Great War for Civilization, or Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

3. One book that made you laugh

Bill Bryson never fails to make me laugh. I am a particular fan of Notes from a Big Country, because I could relate to his experience of moving (back) to the US and be utterly bemused by so much of what is considered normal over there.

4. One book that made you cry

I cry quite easily when I am reading books, but no book has ever made me cry quite as much as The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich. I think that I cried from about two-thirds of the way in all the way until the end – great heaving sobs.

5. One book you wish you had written

Pride and Prejudice.

6. One book you wish had never been written

In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish N. Bhagwati. It made me so angry and reinforces so many ideas that I believe to be detrimental to the lives of people across the Global South.

In high school I would have said Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I love books, but I hated every second that I spent reading that one. (I quite like his other books though).

7. One book you are currently reading

I have a pile up next to my bed at the moment – it is a disgrace. It includes Paper by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, The Carpet Wars by Christopher Kremmer (which I got half way through in February and inexplicably stopped reading), Failed States by Noam Chomsky, Negotiating with the Dead by Margaret Atwood, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.

8. One book you have been meaning to read

All of the books next to my bed (although I have read part of most of them) and Robert Fisk’s Great War for Civilization (which is occupying part of the pile next to P.’s side).

9. One book that changed your life

I’m going to be greedy and name three:
(1) The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper (my mother’s partner read them to me when I was 6 or 7 and got me utterly hooked on reading);
(2) Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (got me thinking about nuclear war and peace at a young age and gave meaning to all the peace marches and anti-nuclear protests that I participated in);
(3) Food for Life by Neal Barnard M.D. (helped me to convince my Dad to let me go vegan when I was 15).

10. Now tag five people:
1. Kristy
2. Paul
3. Armaniac
4. Damian
5. Laura