Book Meme

Well, I've been tagged for a book-meme thingy by modernityblog, originally via Marcus at Harry's Place, so here ya go:

1. Name one book that changed your life: Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning

2. One book you've read more than once: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson

4. One book that made you laugh: Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

5. One book that made you cry: Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore

6. One book you wish you'd written: Anything by Elmore Leonard.

7. One book you wish had never been written: Since Marcus has already mentioned the obvious (Mein Kampf), I'm going with A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I liked it well enough myself, but anecdotally it seems to be the one standard book on the American high school syllabus most responsible for turning our nations' young people off reading forever.

8. One book you're currently reading: Since modernityblog mentioned everything currently in progress, I can too! The Blush by Elizabeth Taylor, Bollywood Uncensored by Derek Bose, Fundamentalism and American Culture by George Marsden, Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden, The Bible, Understanding Jihad by David Cook, and Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: Arabic Thought In the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 by Albert Hourani.

10. Tag 5 people: Oh, anyone who wants to do it. Leave it in comments or post a link to your own blog if you'd like to let me know that you did it, if you did.

11. (additional question), make up the titles of two imaginary books: Martha Stewart's Killing by Martha Stewart, and Charted Knitting Codes & Rituals by Barbara Walker.

Comments

[ModernityBlog]

ahh interesting, Arabic Thought In the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 by Albert Hourani.

Well I never, I have his history of the arabs, but never read it. I'll have to pick up that one (oh and I had to avoid putting in the 20 other history type books I dipped into), good idea about understanding the whole jihad stuff, very important.

Have you try librarything yet?

[Gertrude]

I fear librarything! We had 6,000 when we moved a few years ago, I have no idea how many more now. I think a cataloging project would swallow me whole. (Mr. Bell Jar makes noises every now and then about trying it anyway, though.)

I highly recommend Hourani's history of the Arabs, I found it a very readable overview of a pretty big double helping of history.

[Bruno Mota]

Getrude, pleeease keep the coments open, and please post more ;-). I've been watching this space since forever.

[Gertrude]

Well, maybe I'll leave the comments open for the next few entries and see how it goes.

When that will be, no man can say! I'd like to try to get caught up on book reviews pretty soon, though ...