To my usual rule about quizzes and tags since a few people have emailed me similar questions of late:
1. One book that changed your life?
“Tragedy and Hope” by Carroll Quigley. It confirmed my suspicion that the lunatics were closer to the truth than the mainstream. Book Two of “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius would be a close second.
2. One book that you have read more than once?
“The Dark is Rising” by Susan Cooper.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
“Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust. That way I might actually finish it.
4. One book that made you cry?
“Dragondrums” by Anne McCaffrey. I wanted a fire lizard very badly by the end of the book and looking outside the window at the blue, dragon-free sky and knowing that I’d never have one was simply more than I could bear. More recently, “Thank You, Jeeves” by P.G. Wodehouse but that was because I was laughing so hard.
5. One book that made you laugh?
“Thank You, Jeeves”, naturally. And the Perfect Aryan Male and Big Chilly once kicked me out of the room where they were watching a movie while I was reading and being too thoroughly amused by the Original Cyberpunk’s “Headcrash”.
6. One book you wish had been written?
The third volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill. It would also have been nice to write “Rebel Moon Rising”, but that is most unlikely. The ending worked well for the game but was a disaster for the novel. Stupid, stupid! (Picture Chris Farley….)
7. One book you wish had never been written?
“The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx. Anything by Mercedes Lackey, Catherine Asaro or Laurell K. Hamilton. Ye cats, they’re bad!
8. One book you are reading currently?
Paul Johnson’s “Creators”. It’s as good as “Intellectuals” if rather less snarksome. It’s arguably better than Daniel Boorstein’s book on the same subject as well. I’m also reading Giordano Bruno Guerri’s “Fascisti”.
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
I haven’t been able to bring myself to start Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle yet. I have all three volumes in hardcover and on my Treo as well, but the sweetness of the anticipation is simply too enjoyable to give up yet. I’ve also never gotten around to reading Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” but I intend to later this autumn. I find Ye Olde English to be more than a little distracting but that’s no excuse.