I Don't Just Knit

Oh no. When I'm not trying to make stuff out of two (or more) sticks and some string, I'm reading. Look! Here's a meme to prove it!

Nabbed from the lovely and thought-provoking Jemina.

1. One book that changed your life.
Giving a book credit with changing my life is pretty far reaching but I will say there are books that made me look at aspects of my life in a different way. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving is one of those books. I've struggled at different times in my life with the idea that we are destined for specific events in life but after reading this book I've reconsidered whether we're actually predestined for events or if we choose a path on our own and when a significant event happens, if we look back on the path that's already created and have it merely appear that we've taken the only course possible because it was destined for us.

2. One book that you've read more than once.
Back in high school I started reading The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger once a year, always sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I still do it. I've been doing it close to thirty years now so The Catcher In The Rye would be the book I've re-read most often. I do it partly out of tradition. I do it partly because it doesn't take long to do it; it's amazing how fast you can race through a book after you've read it literally to pieces. I do it because Holden Caulfield still makes me laugh. He's a screwed up character, to be sure, but there's a sort of caustic wit about him that makes me laugh. Not a snorting, braying laugh but those little chuckles that get going and won't easily stop. And Holden's cynicism makes me a little sad as well. He's someone that's had the innocence of youth stripped away and he needs it back.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island
Well, I'd really want an encyclopedia at my disposal instead of a novel but I reckon that's not what the question is going for. Do they even print actual encyclopedia books anymore? I don't know if I'd go for something that would make me think or something that would be merely entertaining or if just sheer volume alone would steer my choice. Perhaps I'd choose the Bible. It's definitely got the sheer volume thing going for it plus I think it would be an opportunity to read it and contemplate what it says and what it should mean to me without outside distractions barging in.

Or maybe I'd want a book called How To Survive Should You Be Stranded On A Desert Island.

4. One book that made you laugh.
Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore is one that made me laugh in every way from wry chuckles to bursting out loud laughing as I read the book in the waiting room of a doctor's office. This novel reminded me of Christ's humanity - something I think Christians and pretty much everyone else tends to forget - and humor is a big part of being a human. I like to think that Jesus was witty.

5. One book that made you cry.
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. Oh yeah. I cried when Dumbledore died.

6. One book that you wish had been written.
Maybe it's been written and I haven't read it or maybe I read it and didn't interpret it correctly but I wish I'd read a book back when I was a girl and reread it in my teens and twenties that would have taught me how precious and worthy I am. And that I need to love and accept myself completely before I can expect others to love and accept me completely.

And I'd be pretty interested in a book tracing my family's history. I hope I am descended from people worthy of a well-written book.

7. One book that you wish hadn't been written.
The pretentious horseshit that is The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller. Asshole characters set in a ridiculous storyline with some of the most unbelievable dialog I've ever had the misfortune to suffer through. When I'm on my deathbed, I want back the hours I spent reading that festering piece of crap.

8. One book you're currently reading
And here is where I will confess my weakness for mystery series books. Currently one of the books I'm reading is Murder Can Cool Off Your Affair by Selma Eichler. Six or seven years ago I started reading Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series and it launched me into the world of mystery series. Darling Mollie loves them as well and goes through them at an alarming rate so she sends me her previously read books. I like the brain candy aspect of them. It's light reading, you revisit characters that you've grown to like and with most mystery series, a new one comes out each year. Not all reading has to be high fiber cereal and raw vegetables - good for you but not always easy to get down. Once in a while it's just fine to eat some nachos and mystery series books are the nachos of the literary world.

9. One book you've been meaning to read.
There are lots. I've got a shelf full of books waiting to be read. There are half finished books that I put down due to one distraction or another and I have yet to pick up again. There are classics that I want to read and have escaped me so far.

And I really, really need to finish The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon because I've been trying for more than four years to read it and I haven't gotten past the halfway point yet even though I've started from the beginning three times. I'd give up completely but I have A Breath Of Snow And Ashes waiting for me and the color-within-the-lines part of me won't let me skip it and move ahead. Must go in order. Must go in order. Must go in order.

If it came in an audio book then I could finish it and knit at the same time.