A Book A Day - A Meme

Oooh, a book meme... Okay, so here's where I tell you my worst librarian secret. I don't read a lot of good, worthy grownup books. I read a lot of good, worthy kids' and teens' books, and a lot of crappy adult books, with some decent stuff tucked in between. It makes me terrible at readers' avisory for adults, because not only do I not read a lot of great stuff, but I don't remember or have good access to much of it, because it is not for work, like the kids' stuff is. I seem to file it in a different spot. So I hope I'm not a horrible disappointment to you all in my pathetic non-answers here!

1. One book that changed your life:

I tend to view books as information and entertainment, but not really things to live your life by, so I can't say I have really had something change the course of my life. However, I'll say that
Stop Pretending, by Sonja Sones did have a very strong impact on me. It made me realize, as I mentioned in this post, that there were others in my position, that other people understood the thoughts and felings I had, and had the internal fortitude to out them down on paper in powerful gushes. Wow.

2. One book that you've read more than once:

I don't tend to reread books, actually. There are too many others I want to read out there, it seems like a waster of valuable reading time. But can I say - a million picture books?!

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

I have to go with something that sounds trite or obvious, but I'm merely being practical. I would vote either a complete Shakespeare or a bible, for the sheer volume and scope of different stories. One of those could truly keep me busy for a long time in a way that few other books could. But then again, maybe the OED? Ohhhhh....

4. One book that made you laugh:

Teen series about Georgia Nicholson - the first book is called Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging - by Louise Rennison. These make me laugh so hard it hurts. I've had to give up reading them in public because I look like a freak. Seriously, these are so fantastically ludicrous.

5. One book that made you cry:

ONE? The obvious - Old Yeller and Anne of Green Gables. Also see question #1. Must crack open book journal if I'm going to try to dig deeper, but I seem to remember crying at parts of one of my favourite books - Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland. A picture book - The Story of Ruby Briddges.

6. One book that you wish had been written:

Parenting Pumpkinpie, by her fairy godmother. Okay, I jest. I guess there are a few books that have left me wondering what happened to the characters afterwards, or wanting to keep following them. Gone With the Wind, for example - not the new, fake sequel, but what would Margaret Mitchell have had happen next? All Families Are Psychotic, by Douglas Coupland. That sort of thing.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

I have a tough time with this one - we librarians tend towards being vociferously anti-censorship, so while some books creep me out (maybe American Psycho is a good example here?), I have a hard time with the idea that it should never have been written. I think hateful tracts like Ernst Zundel's come closer to knocking me off that particular high horse because they don't seem to serve a purpose other than being, well, hateful.

8. The book that you are currently reading:

Don't Get Too Comfortable, by David Rakoff. Bits and pieces by an ex-Canadian living in New York. Among other things, he examines a few of what he suggests are the "problems" that only the top 1% or so of the world have the luxury of considering as problems. Things like over-the-top obssessions with particular types of olive oil, for example, where what is a luxury in its basic form in other places has become worthy of minute stratification in quality and rarity, and the pinnacle of perfection is worthy of reverance others might reserve for a true holy miracle. It is a fun look at the absurdity of some of these things, though I think maybe not quite as clever and amusing as he thinks it is.

9. One book that you have been meaning to read:

Again, ONE?! Although I must admit to being split between a ton of mysteries and other fluff and a solid stack of more literary and classic tomes. Pretty much everything on my bookshelf is there because I mean/hope to get to it some day and haven't yet. Mostly after I read something, I am done with it. I have a lot of bookshelves.

Now, I tag and Mary P (whose memes I always steal - now I can give one back!) and HBM.