All In Eight Weeks

I'm not fond of reading in German. I can but when I'm reading for pleasure I want it to actually be a pleasure and not an exercise in figuring out what that particular turn of phrase means. That's the worst part of learning a foreign language to me - learning all the idioms.

But after reading A Woman in Berlin in English I wanted to read it in original language so I bummed the book from B's physiotherapist and read it. I was so absorbed with the book in English that I felt the need to read it as the author originally wrote it. The English translation is, to me, very good but somehow reading it in German gave me a bit more immediacy.

The author of A Woman in Berlin is anonymous except to just a couple people responsible for the publishing of her diary. This diary, starting just as the Russian troops move into Berlin at the end of World War II ends just two months later and yet it feels as if much more time has passed. In the diary, written to clear her mind of the daily events that would threaten to drive anyone mad, she writes of hiding from the allied bombs, rape - sometimes gang rape - at the hands of Russian soldiers, lack of food, water, electricity, money and the uncertainty of her future.

It would be easy to, especially after the debacles of A Million Little Pieces and more recently the revelation that the Holocaust love story of the Rosenblats was made up, to suspect that this diary may be contrived. One may believe that it's too well written to be dashed off with pencil stubs by candlelight in notebooks she found in her borrowed apartment until one reads that the author was a professional journalist. Another compelling reason to believe in the authenticity of the diary is that it reads like an actual diary - one written as the events are happening. There is little reflection and no real chance to put events into perspective because she has not had the opportunity to sit and put things into perspective. She writes of rape but doesn't dwell on the horror of it, though surely that was to come later. She talks of her hunger but spends more time working on ways to get food than lamenting about her lack of it. Survival for another day is paramount in that time and place and the future doesn't extend to much more than the next week.

It was first published in the 1950s and not in German until a few years later and then was not well received. Germany wasn't ready to yet talk about what happened during the war - their guilt and shame. Hundreds of thousands of rapes took place and speaking the truth of what happened wasn't done for decades - the shame and horror was too great. This diary speaks the truth of what the author experienced before there was as much shame attached to the events.

What the diary also does is allows us to now look at events of the war that have been pushed aside and even forgotten. That those on the good side weren't always good and those on the bad side weren't always bad and that atrocities occurred on both sides. Perhaps we can now speak about them instead of ignoring and forgetting that they occurred.

I've had the opportunity since living in Germany to speak to some men but mostly to women who lived through those times. I had a neighbor who was forced from her home in what was then Germany but what now is Poland to refugee west. On that march west she and her sister and her mother were subjected to rape and beatings from Russian troops on a daily basis - her sister and her mother died from it. Another neighbor of mine, now in her 90s, has spoken to me of how Magdeburg was after it was bombed and how they were happy to find dandelions to eat.

They're not pleasant stories. They're interesting but certainly not entertaining. And in this world were there are conflicts in the middle east and Africa and central Asia we can imagine some of those people are enduring some of the same hardships that the author of A Woman in Berlin endured. But if there's one inspirational thought to keep it's that the author did endure - she lived she was in her 90s. Somehow people can be subjected to the worst there is to offer and still survive.

Not Creepy. Quirky.

One of the first books not written for children I ever became fascinated with was a book my family had about US presidents. It was published by National Geographic (my father was big into National Geographic) and the book had lots of pictures. Portraits and drawings and cartoons of all the men who had been presidents up until that time - which meant the book only went up to Lyndon Johnson. Before I had even started kindergarten I was quite familiar with what our past leaders looked like - and their wives as well. Over the years, especially once I'd learned to read well enough to read a book like that, I would pull that book off the shelf and pour over it. And once I learned to read I was a bit disappointed to find out that Eleanor Roosevelt had not been a president but had only been married to one - the extra attention paid to her in the book fooled me.

I credit that book with starting me on my fascination with US presidents and the US presidency in general. I've read all sorts of biographies of presidents and early in life I learned to name all the presidents in order. Even now when I have trouble falling asleep I name all the presidents in order. I can tell when I'm starting to get sleepy because I'll forget who the thirteenth and fourteenth presidents were (Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce - likely I forget them because they were forgettable as presidents. Fillmore was never even elected president and Pierce just plain sucked at the job). My passion for the presidency expanded to a fascination with presidential trivia and then to presidential assassinations. The combination of the two - presidential assassination trivia - is practically intoxicating to me. No detail is too obscure or weird for me.

My friends have learned to accept my somewhat macabre interest. My husband has learned to actually embrace it. The US presidency isn't something he learned much about during his education so anything I have to say about it is new and interesting to him and if I'm talking about the assassination of a president, he's even more interested. It's politics and true crime all wrapped together. And as proof that my husband indeed knows me, as one of my Christmas gifts he bought for me Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.

Sarah Vowell is proof that I am not unique in my fascination and interest in the assassination of presidents. In her book she takes various road trips, sometimes dragging her somewhat reluctant friends along, to visit various museums, landmarks, cemeteries, parks, and in the case of the place where John Wilkes Booth was killed, a roadside shrine as she writes about the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. In short she did what I've done myself - in the case of Lincoln, that is. I have taken advantage of the years I lived in the Washington, DC area and have visited lots of the landmarks involved in the assassination - Ford's Theater, the Petersen house where Lincoln died, the Surratt tavern in Maryland, the Surratt boarding house in DC, and about 20 years ago a took a tour where you travel the escape route of John Wilkes Booth. She pokes around, asks questions and in general makes road trips involving the murder of heads of state sound fun. And to me it would be fun! That's my kind of road trip! Going to see an exhibit showing a bit of John Wilkes Booth's thorax is something you wouldn't have to even dream of talking me into doing. Just say "John Wilkes Booth's thorax" and I would be grabbing my purse. Sarah Vowell's writing about these offbeat trips is interesting, relevent and rather funny. It's part history lesson, part pilgrimage and I am all envious that I wasn't with her when she made these little jaunts to see the (sometimes literal) bits and pieces that make up US history. It was comforting in a way to know that there is someone else out there who shares my quirky interest and for whom no detail is too minute.

And just in case Sarah Vowell Googles her name and finds this post, let me say this to her: I'm with you. John Wilkes Booth was undeniably handsome and would it be wrong to me to say that Lewis Powell was kinda hot? I mean for a guy who slashed up a secretary of state and all.

Not That I'm Obsessed

I first read it 1975 but I don't really remember my initial reaction to it except to say that I liked it. Then in 1978 I read it again and loved it. I wasn't like the main character but I understood him. His sarcasm, his wit and even his feelings of disconnect resonated with me. I was a bit unfocused myself at that age, easily frustrated and easily bored in school.

The next year I read it again. And the following year as well. After that it became a tradition for me. When the Christmas season would roll around - that time of year chosen because it's the time of year in the book - I would pick that novel up once more and read it.

This year will mark the thirtieth year in a row that I've read The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. The book I have now is not the same copy I originally read, but it's about twenty years old and is well worn. The cover is cracked and has a water ring on it from a glass having been set on it and the pages are yellow and threaten to fall out at any time.





Yeah, I know I should fix the photos and make it fit all tidy but laziness will win out.

Now it takes me not more than a day to read. Holden's sarcasm and goofy observations still make me laugh. The things that drive him crazy tend to be things that drive me crazy. And I can still remember what it was like to be his age and feel like everything around me was pointless bullshit and the world was crawling with phonies.

I think the reason why I first loved it and why I still loved it is because I first discovered it as a teenager. I believe it's probably rare for an adult to read it for the first time and find Holden to be anything else but irritating. But I still see him as I did when I was a teenager and maybe the reason I re-read his tale every year is to remember how I was back then. To remember how I was and in what ways I've changed. And in what ways I haven't. I know that some of my ways of speaking come from Holden.

My sixteen year old nephew, Sam, called me a few weeks ago to tell me that this quarter one of the books he had to read was The Catcher in the Rye. Sam's known for years that one of his Auntie Baba's quirks (I am never called Aunt Kim or Aunt Dixie - always Auntie Baba) is to read that book each year and he was anxious to tell me that he'd finally read it himself. I was gratified to know that he liked the same parts I like and laughed at the same spots that I do but I wasn't surprised. My sister always says that he takes after me so much that it's like having me around all the time.

Friday Shuffle - Creeped Out Edition

I can't say I'm a big fan of horror movies. If they're the ghosty kind or have a lot of twists to the plot then I like them but slasher type movies only serve to bore me. I'm more annoyed by the gore than I am frightened of it. Maybe it has something to do with the blood and guts being more in your face than in your mind and that's why I like horror books so much more.

A well written book of any sort allows your mind to take up occupancy in the story. Instead of someone interpreting for you how things look or connect, as is done in movies, your get to put it all together yourself. The scenes, the characters, the locations - they sprout from the author's mind but you transplant them to your own head for them to take root. I think that's why I can remember scary books with much more clarity than I can a scary movie, even when it's the same story. Believe me, Stephen King's The Shining, has stuck with me much longer and much more deeply than the film ever did. It doesn't even matter that I've read the book maybe twice but have seen the film at least six times and I first read the book about thirty years ago.

Yesterday Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill was delivered to me. Friends had recommended it to me as being a very scary book and as I had been hankering to read something spooky, I ordered it. I began reading it immediately and so far I'm enjoying it thoroughly. The author, who happens to be Stephen King's son, has the knack for getting me sucked into these characters immediately and he tells a story and describes a scene very well. I'm not far enough into the book yet for anything super scary to have happened but it's coming. I know it's coming and all at once I can't wait for it and I'm dreading it.

I love reading creepy tales - horror books and ghost stories and true crime stuff - and yet I dread how they tend to creep into my sleep and invade my dreams. I will lay in bed in the dark and listen to every sound and wonder if there's something out there wanting to do me harm. In the daylight it all seems ridiculous but once I go to bed and the moonlight steals into my window it all changes. Not very long ago I'd read something a bit scary before bedtime. I'd fallen asleep just fine but before it had begun to get light outside I awoke and saw someone dressed all in white in my bedroom. I then realized that the someone in white was the electric fan as viewed in the moonlight without my glasses being on but not before I had screamed like a banshee and nearly gave my husband a stroke.

I know the truly creepy, the very scary, and the absolutely horrific are coming in this book and I can't wait and I know I'm going to be so sorry afterwards. I already credit The Shining for preventing me from walking through the labyrinth of my basement without breaking into a sweat. I'm afraid I'm going to be in for something worse with Heart-Shaped Box.

The very non-threatening Bixente the iPod will now shuffle for us.

1. Meeting Place - The Last Shadow Puppets
2. Run Run - Those Dancing Days
3. Leaving On A Jet Plane - Peter, Paul & Mary
4. In Berlin - Sugarplum Fairy
5. Where We Are - Asher Lane
6. You Wanted More - Tonic
7. Massachusetts - The Bee Gees
8. Evil Ways - Santana
9. Barbara Allen - Everly Brothers
10. Never Going Back Again - Fleetwood Mac

Have a great weekend. I'll leave a nightlight on.

John Wilkes Booth Murdered My Sleep

I finished these socks a couple days ago.



Technical details for those who dig technical details:
Pattern: Tidal Wave
Yarn: Regia 4-ply Color
Colorway: 5030

Finishing these socks would normally mean that within ten minutes of grafting the toe closed on the second sock I'd be casting on for my next pair. And I did. Some pretty pink socks done in a cotton/poly blend yarn that's going to be crazy soft when I'm finished. I knit the cuff and about half of the first pattern repeat before I made an error that required me to unknit a half round - which, of course, I promptly bollocksed up in a way that required me to rip the whole thing apart. I started it again, knit two rounds of the cuff and put it down. That was last Sunday and I haven't knit a lick of it since. I've been so frenetic with my knitting lately that I need to take a break from it so I picked up and began to read again a book I'd started and put down after three chapters. Now I'm all into the story and I can't leave the book alone long enough to go back to knitting.

I'm reading the book on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln I got about a month ago and it's fascinating. Well - maybe not to you but to an American history geek like me, it's fabulous. It's very well researched and it's dispelled some myths that I'd always read were true but suspected weren't true and lo and behold! they aren't true. Since there are very few books about Lincoln's assassination itself - most writings are book chapters or pamphlets or articles - details are explained in much greater detail than in anything else I've read on the subject. One is able to really see the players involved as actual fleshed-out humans instead of merely two-dimensional characters and I've found that the whole story before and after the actual act of assassination is more complex than I knew. This book is like watching a suspenseful movie with all sorts of nefarious players and I'm utterly sucked into it. I'm also a big fan of true crime books - they scare me in a way that regular horror books or movies don't - so this book not only feeds my history geekiness but feeds my true crime need-for-a-scary-thrill cravings.

I have, however, made a little mistake. My sleep has been messed up for days were I've been awakened too early and then I take a too-long nap later to to try to make up for it. That insures that I don't get sleepy until later than I want but then I'm again awakened too early which makes me need a nap and the cycle starts again. In an effort to try to get sleepy and because I'm finding it hard to put this book down - I'm reading it quite slowly, flipping to the back to check out the author's notes in the back when it's indicated - I've been reading it before bed. And as is normal for me when I read true crime books at night, it's been creeping me out. One may not think that a story as well-known as Lincoln's assassination would creep anyone out but it is. And the photo on the book of John Wilkes Booth and his soulless, beady eyes - well...eye, since half of his face is shaded out - is creeping me out even more. I read until I am so sleepy that I'm nearly dropping the book, put the book down, switch off the bedroom lamp and then lose my sleepiness because I'm feeling all freaky about John Wilkes Booth's ghost possibly being in my bedroom. Never mind that I don't much believe in ghosts, live in Germany and am pretty certain that John Wilkes Booth was never even in Germany, let alone left his ghostly spirit here. When it's 3am and you're tired, already sleep deprived and have been reading just the sort of book that pushes your freak-out buttons, anything seems possible.

Mindless Filler

Memes. Blog content that's guaranteed to leave you hungry a half hour later but I so love the book related ones. Plus it's either this quick bit of painless fluff or you get to hear about how I went to the post office today to send a registered letter to our digital TV service to get put on a discounted subscription. If you're handicapped they give you the full service for something like 15€ a month cheaper. Sucks to be a quadriplegic except when you're getting those fabulous discounts! "Herr G! I'm sorry but you'll never walk again!" "That's okay! I can get into the zoo for half price now!"

Tagged by the darling Southern Muslimah.

Rules! There are always rules! No free-form stylin' round these parts!

# I. You have to look up page 123 in the nearest book around you.
# II. Look for the fifth sentence.
# III. Then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
# IV. And then tag five people, just like you were tagged! (said with such enthusiasm!)

I have to ask, what's with the roman numerals? You know they had to have been passed on from blog to blog to blog with all the copying and pasting that was done. Are we supposed to be made to feel that we're doing something a little more serious if we use roman numerals?

The book nearest me is the book I've been reading for what seems like weeks now: The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. Very enjoyable book but I've been spending a lot of time knitting and limiting myself to about fifteen or twenty minutes of reading per day. I need to get finished with this pair of socks and really dive into this book because so far I'm less than halfway through it and I know I haven't gotten to the really good part yet.

Here goes. I'm flipping through the book. Flipping. Flipping. I'm sure this would go much more smoothly if I weren't flipping and typing at the same time. Ah! Here it is. Page 123.

Ooo. Wow. This is one of those pivotal parts of the book - where a decision is made that may impact the rest of the story. Good page!

Okay the page starts with a portion of a sentence. That doesn't count in the five I'm supposed to count down, does it? No, I'm not going to count it. Command decision made!

A conversation is going on:

"Are you not even going to go in and examine them?"
The lamp cast an orange hue on Doc's face, throwing shadows beneath his brow and nose and chin and frown. "I shouldn't."

Who needs to be examined and for what should they be examined? And is not examining them going to have an effect later on? Interest is piqued!

Done! No tagging though. I got so fired up with my command decision that I've decided to go buck wild crazy and not tag. However you're welcome to gank it for yourself if you wish.

And since we're on the topic of books and since I got all history buff on you yesterday I ordered this evening Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Edward Steers. I had an Amazon gift certificate from my sister and so I gave in to the temptation. My love of history geekiness knows no bounds!

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.

Turn the Page

When I was in college I had a boyfriend who loved the song Turn the Page by Bob Seger. He'd sing along and even do the "Turn the paaaaaaa-juuuhh!" along with Bob.

Anyway, here's a book meme. You know me loves the book memes. Makes me look all literate and emphasizes the irony of me saying things like "me loves". Sorta. And I'll do it because I loves me some Hilda and Katya. Me loves a lot of stuff, eh? Too bad proper grammar isn't always one of those things.

What are you reading now?
I'm currently re-reading Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote. I'd recently watched Capote and from seeing Truman Capote and Nelle Harper Lee together I got the urge for this re-reading. Harper Lee is his Idabel and Truman Capote is her Dill. And since I like a bit of fluff to read I've just started Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton. It combines three of my favorite things - fluff mystery novel, books in a series and knitting! With free blueberry pie recipe and two knitting patterns included! How could I say no to that?

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?
I've got a lot on my plate between now and the time I leave town in October so my reading time will be limited. I just don't have time for any proper reading so I probably won't read much more than the book that comes after Needled to Death, A Deadly Yarn. This one has a recipe for chili rellenos!

What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
Forced? Like for school? That's the only time I can think of where I'd be forced to read anything. My top pick would be The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Get up, pee, get in boat, row, row, row, fish, fish, fish, row, row, row, fish gets eaten, row home, pee, go to bed. If we're talking about crap I read willingly, if misguidedly, my choice would be The Bridges of Madison County. Such pretentious, pretentious crap. This piece of shit makes any drivel that Nicholas Sparks ever even thought about writing look like Shakespeare.

What's one book you always recommend to just about anyone?
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Irreverent, to be sure but I love the humanity of Jesus in this book.

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
No, but Amazon.de does.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don't like it at all?
Stone from the River by Ursula Hegi can be a hard sell to others. "Okay, it's a book that takes place in Nazi Germany in a little village along the Rhine and the main character is a dwarf woman who loves to trade gossip..." I love it though. One of my favorites.

Do you read books while you eat?
Not meals but I think a bowl of popcorn and an icy cold Coke go quite well with fluffy mystery series novels and semi-autobiographical first novels by flamboyant Southern-born gay authors both.

While you bathe?
Oh hell, me being in a bathtub alone is dangerous enough without me mixing in reading.

While you watch movies or TV?
Occasionally. Depends on how boring the TV program is and how fluffy the novel I'm reading is.

While you listen to music?
I can do anything to music. Anyone can do anything to music. If a surgeon can remove someone's big ass brain tumor while listening to Miles Davis wail then I can read Needled to Death while listening to The Fratellis.

While you're on the computer?
I can't even fathom why I'd ever want to. There's multi-tasking and then there's being completely ridiculous.

When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?
No, but I believe I'm of the age where during my childhood kids didn't get teased about stuff like enjoying reading. Now if you had a weirdly shaped head or goofy glasses or dressed like your granny that was a different matter.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Staying up until nearly 4:00 AM to finish it reminded me of when I would drive from Virginia to Mississippi. It's a very long trip to make in one day but if you stop at the halfway point you'd be stopped around 1:oo PM so why stop? If you stop when you're really, really tired then you're stopping about 60 miles from your destination so you just keep on going because you can't wait to finish.

No tagging - steal if you love books. Or if you're desperate for something to write about.

Favorite Pages

I'm powerless to not do a book themed meme when I see one so when I spotted this one over on Katya's blog, I had to nick it. Feel free to gank it for yourself should you be so inclined.

A book that made you cry: I don't often cry when reading books but the last book that made me cry is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. I still can't get over Dumbledore being dead.

A book that scared you: The Shining and It both by Stephen King creeped me out no end. To me they're his scariest books. And I remember reading Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi - it got passed around my group of friends - and that really scared me. I remember us talking about the idea that Charles Manson would be up for parole in 1978 and us all saying that we were afraid they'd parole him then - 1978 was only a couple years away at that point.

A book that made you laugh: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole made me laugh out loud many times with its outrageous characters and situations. I'm not sure I've ever read a book more outrageous.

A book that disgusted you: I remember reading my sister's copy of Xaviera Goes Wild! by Xaviera Hollander when I was about 12 years old and nearly throwing up at the German Shepherd masturbation scene.

A book you loved in elementary school: Harriet the Spy and it's sequel The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh. Do you know anyone who read those books and loved them and didn't want to spy on everyone like Harriet?

A book you loved in junior high: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. It's still one of my favorite books of all time and I re-read it yearly.

A book you loved in high school: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of my other all-time favorites. A good lesson regarding integrity at a time when a sense of integrity is a good thing to learn.

A book you hated in high school: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. That book alternately annoyed and bored the shit out of me.

A book you loved in college: I first read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote when I was in college and I credit it and Helter Skelter for kicking off my fascination with true crime stories.

A book that challenged your identity: I'm not sure about whether this qualifies as challenging my identity but A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving did change how I view fate, destiny and how I determine my direction in life.

A series that you love: I can't stop with one series because I am a fiend for books in series. If I love a book and it's characters I love seeing them in a series. It's like seeing old friends again. I started my series love when I was 8 years old with the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Other series I love are the Mitford series by Jan Karon - they're a bit corny but I love their simple, gentle nature, the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovtich, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and naturally the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. There are more I could list but I'll get to them later.

Your favorite horror book: The afore mentioned The Shining by Stephen King.

Your favorite science fiction book: I'm not a fan of sci-fi but I loved Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.

Your favorite fantasy book: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Your favorite mystery book: It's a series, actually - the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery series by Sue Grafton. I'm waiting right now for S is for Silence to be delivered.

Your favorite graphic novel: Ghost World by Daniel Clowes.

Your favorite biography: I don't often read biographies which is a switch because I read every biography in my elementary school's library when I was a kid. I can't say I have a favorite but one that I've read and enjoyed was Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn.

Your favorite "coming-of-age" book: She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I'm not sure if it strictly qualifies but I think you see a woman grow up and change find herself over the course of many years.

Your favorite classic:: That's so hard to pick. I could go on and on about classic books that I love. I'll just pick the first classic book I can remember reading - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I still love that story - romance, mystery, tragedy, mean characters, pure-hearted characters. Honestly, someone needs to make a classic literature meme.

Your favorite romance book: As a rule I don't read romance but I would qualify another series I love - the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon as being enough of a romance to qualify.

Favorite kids book: If we're talking about books for very small children I'd pick as my favorites the Curious George books by H.A. Rey.

Favorite cookbook: The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook

Your favorite book not on this list: Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore are two all-time favorites of mine.