The Desperation Has Started

It's been extremely quiet around here so that means I'm resorting to a meme. But it's a book meme so it only gets half as many points on the blogging Cheez-O-Meter. Think of it as the light beer of memes.

Swiped from Hilda. She swiped it from Katya. They're both very groovy ladies.

1. Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Everyone that I know who has read it loved it. And it's been made into a movie, right? Still I'm so afraid that I'm not going to like it and so I'm afraid to buy it. Like I don't want to blow my book money on something unless I'm really sure I'm going to like it. I feel so whiny about being scared off by this book. Even this answer sounds whiny!

2. If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
I'd pick Josh, Biff and Maggie from Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It would be a casual dinner party for Josh's birthday so that means we'd be eating lots of Chinese food.

3. (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Actually I'd be ready to die if I got through that nearly 1000 pages of boredom.

4. Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
Ha! Don Quixote! I have been somewhere near it though. I was supposed to read it for my AP English class when I was a senior in high school and I didn't read past the first hundred or so pages. I just couldn't bear reading another word of it. For the rest it was Cliffs Notes all the way, baby!

5. As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I'd sworn that I'd read it but it turned out that I was mixing it up with the half dozen times I've read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That and I've seen that really dopey Tom Sawyer movie with Johnnie Whittaker and Jodie Foster about eleventy-million times.

6.You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP).
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's a classic and a fabulous story with accessible characters and a writing style that will appeal to those who are non-readers.

7. A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
German. I think the good fairy would take pity on the fact that now when I read a book in German I need to keep a German-English dictionary at my side. Plus it would be great to read German classics in original language. I don't have what it takes to tackle Mann or Goethe or Schiller or Hesse in original language.

8. A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Mischievous fairy is thirty years too late. I've been re-reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger every year since 1978.

9. I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
Book swapping. The internet sure lets folks connect and get their previously read books passed around.

10. That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks?
Big windows, lots of natural light, wooden floors with rugs, big comfy chairs and sofas to curl up on, good lamps for reading - not to stark but not to muzzy soft either. Window seats would be lovely. I'd have lots of built in shelves but a way to get to the books without climbing a ladder. No raggedy books and nothing dog eared or with broken spines. I love books in series so I'd like each series to be complete. And I'd love to have signed first editions of all my favorite novels.