Wednesday, August 02, 2006

bewitched, bothered and bewildered

Did I say blindsided? I think I meant "railroaded." What do you do when you don't know what to do with yourself?

A book meme, of course.

1. One book that changed your life:
That's a tough one...I'll go with the most recent life-changing read, Nina Bouraoui's Mes mauvaises pensees, which cracked open French literature for me. Stendhal, here I come!
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle. Read it so many times I've lost count.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
Sailing for Dummies. Also Critical Theory Since Plato, a monster hardback of several thousands of pages, all about the history of literary criticism. I can't get rid of the damn thing, I bought it for 80 bucks and nobody will take it for more than 5, so I might as well read it to keep me occupied.
4. One book that made you laugh:
It's thoughts like this that start people on the road to Finding Themselves. And one of the earliest things Magrat had learned was that anyone Finding Themselves would be unwise to tell Granny Weatherwax, who thought female emancipation was a woman's complaint that shouldn't be discussed in front of men. Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad.
5. One book that made you cry:
Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Assigned reading for class isn't supposed to make you cry (well, tears of frustration maybe), but this did. Adrienne Rich kicked me out of the closet before I even finished the essay.
6. One book that you wish had been written:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I could have used something like that in Spain...
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
I really wish I'd never heard that excerpt from American Psycho; I was shaken the rest of the day. And I will always loathe Bret Easton Ellis because of it. You sick fuck. It's the one place where I toss my principles about context and art and meaning and expression out the window.
8. One book you’re currently reading:
I'm slowly working my way through Ann Scott's Superstars, which, despite appearances, is a French lesbian novel. Sex, drugs, and techno music. There's a lot of slang and colloquialisms, which makes it tough going.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
I really will get around to War and Peace one of these days, I bought it 5 years ago.
10. Now tag five people:
I tag everyone.

1 Comments:

At 2:27 PM, Blogger Kim said...

With you 100% on that American Psycho shit -- breezed thru it when I worked in a bookstore boy did that get inside my head.

Art scmart -- that crap should have never seen print -- or film.

 

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