A Boring Entry About Books
Right now, let’s just have a little fun:
One book that changed your life: I have two (I can never stick to rules about The Best, The Only, etc.): William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and Orwell’s 1984.
I read The Princess Bride in 7th grade. My paperback copy was my mother’s. The cover was lurid – a stylized naked woman with lots of flowing hair and creatures all around her. Passages – the narrator breaking into the narration – were in red ink. I don’t know if that’s done now in newer versions, probably not since the movie came out. The book, needless to say, is loads better than the movie, though it’s a good movie. I remember finding it (speaking of boredom, I spent many hours simply wandering through the house poking into stuffed closets and piles of things – my mother never threw anything away) in my mother’s studio and I opened it up, despite the cover, and began to read. I’d never read anything like it before. I’d thought adult books were boring (there it is again, that word!) and here was something like a fairytale. And it was hilarious. I couldn’t put it down and remember reading it on the school bus trying to hide the cover from the other kids for fear they’d think I was reading porno.
With 1984, it was assigned reading. Maybe 8th grade or 9th? I had the flu and was home for a week. I began to read and, I couldn’t tell whether I was hallucinating from the fever and medications or if this book was….freaking me the hell out. I’d never read any futuristic, sci fi-type novels before this one. It was thrilling and scary and again, I couldn’t put it down. I’m still not really a big “The Future Could Be Scary and The Future Is Now! Be Paranoid!” fan. I prefer mysteries and literary fictions where the characters live in the now and are believable. Stephen King excepted (though frankly, I think I’ve outgrown him. Or his writing is suffering. Or something).
One book I’ve read more than once: There are so many. I’m pretty sure I’ve read all of Dorothy Sayers’mysteries at least twice. I love me some Lord Peter Wimsey.
One book I want to take on a desert island: All the Nancy Drew books, a reference book like this one, and perhaps The Bible.
Does that last choice surprise you? I’ve never read much of it and if I were all alone for an indefinite period, it would be nice to see what all the fuss is about. At least on an historical level. I’d take notes, you can be sure, and poke holes in all the arguments for God. But, at least I could then (assuming I was rescued) have some intelligent conversations with believers. Because, frankly, I don’t get it. I probably never will but I’d be interested in knowing all the stories within. Never hurts to learn something new.
One book that makes me laugh: Everything ever written by Donald Westlake and Handling Sin by Michael Malone.
This last is probably the funniest and most painful book I’ve ever read. It was given to me by a wonderful old couple – friends of my mother’s – she’s a pinhole photography artist and he was a Westlake-like character who wrote hardboiled fiction (he’s sadly dead now) – when I was recovering from having a benign tumor removed (the size of a grapefruit, I’m told) from an ovary. The book nearly killed me and pulled out all my stitches. I highly recommend it.
One book I wish I’d written: Geez, I gotta limit myself to one? Jane Eyre. I never tire of re-learning that people never change. They have always felt the same kinds of feelings about things: sadness, boredom (!!), loneliness, love, fish-out-of-water isolation, being misunderstood, being intrigued by mystery. Hmm, I think I may need to read THAT again soon.
One book I wish had never been written: I would say The Bible, because think of all the misery caused by Christianity over the last 2,000 years but that’s not exactly the book’s fault. So, I’ll just say every single self-help and diet craze book ever written. They’ve done more harm than good and made (mostly) women crazy.
One book that made me cry: I really can’t remember but I know I cried when I read Charlotte’s Web. Midlife Mama mentioned Gone With The Wind but you know? I’ve never read it – it just always seemed too Southern, too melodramatic to bear. I used to cry over books all the time when I was younger. I don’t so much anymore unless a child dies. But I try to avoid reading those anyway.
Book I’m currently reading: Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain. It’s a mystery and the main character’s a genealogist who links a missing girl with Lizzie Siddal and the Pre-Raphaelites. Despite that, it’s pretty good.
One book I’ve been meaning to read: Well, there are whole AUTHORS whose books I’ve been meaning to read, catch up and get all cultured: Dickens, Steinbeck and the Brontes come to mind.
What say you?
(Damn – I am html-ed out! I gotta go rest my fingers now and do something boring like filing for an hour or two. Oh, that’s right! I actually LIKE to file. My bad.)
