Via Lovely Salome.
#1 – One book that changed your life: The Complete Collected Poems by Maya Angelou. Am I supposed to write something witty here? First, the person who bought me this book, I love more than life itself. I can’t read a line of poetry without thinking of him and what he means to me. But beyond that, this work utterly shines. I have seldom encountered such pure and earthy grace. It was from her writings that I extrapolated my personal philosophy: “I am not perfect, but I am me, and that’s enough.”
#2 – One book that you’ve read more than once: The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. I just never get tired of that book.
#3 – One book you’d want on a desert island: SAS Survival Guide: How to Survive Anywhere, on Land or at Sea by John Wiseman. This seems like a no-brainer. If I’m on the desert island, I’ll need to know how not to die there.
#4 – One book that made you laugh: $how Her the Money by Stephanie Feagan. All three of her books cracked me up, really. Pink is awesome. I wish she would take off like Janet Evanovich because Stef does it better.
#5 – One book that made you cry: The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. Fucking book should come with a no-HEA warning label. Still kicks ass, though.
#6 – One book that you wish you had written: The Rule of Four by by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Brilliant, spare, elegant. Deftly written, but almost elegiac in some ways. A lot of people are hard on this book and they call it Da Vinci Code derivative and boring, but others seem to get it. For instance, a reviewer on Amazon writes:
I consider this book to be one of those rare jewels we come upon so rarely when scouring bookshelves. This becomes palpable from its first pages for not only is the story original and intriguing but it is also beautifully written; the language is cultured and each word seems to fit into each phrase as a neatly cut gear. The last but perhaps most important point is the research that dwells behind this magnum opus as the subject of the book (a book itself, the Hypnerotomachia Poliophili, only recently translated) really exists but is so little understood.
#7 – One book that you wish had never been written: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. The woman should still be on the dole; the only good to come of her hyper-hyped piles of pestilence is the well-written slash fic.
#8 – One book you’re currently reading: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I want to like this. I love his other stuff. But I start reading and my eyes glaze over. This has happened like ten times. Could it be…this is book is… (no, don’t say it)… boring? I said it. I’ll keep trying.
#9 – One book you’ve been meaning to read: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark. I have this huge honking black book sitting on my shelf and I’m intimidated by it. They tacked the word “literary” onto it and now I’m afraid it will be dry and have scary big words and be (worst of all) boring as hell. So it keep staring and I keep giving it skeevy looks out of the corner of my eye. This has been going on for at least two years. We’ll see who breaks first.
#10 – Tag Five People: Lorelie, December, Lainey, Michele, Jacqueline! Meme this.
