A "meme" on books...

1) One book that changed your life?

"Changed your life" is big. Probably whatever primer my parents and school used to teach me to read. Period.

2) One book that you have read more than once?

That would be quite a list. "Pride and Prejudice" is a sure-bet for anytime I'm feeling sick or down, or jonesing for Mr. Darcy. I tend to re-read parts of books rather frequently, and also poetry. Poetry VERY frequently. I have a shelf plus full of my fave books which often get paged through.

3) One book that you would want on a desert island?

I like to make up a book for this question which is basically an anthology of all of my faves. But if I had to take a real book, I suppose I would be choosing between my Shakespeare collection (one volume, all his works) and my Norton Anthology of English Literature (which introduced me to quite a few poetic and literary faves.) I'd probably select the latter for variety. Although maybe it's time to buy an emergency medical book on the off-chance I get asked again, so that I can suggest a practical option, too. :)

4) One book that made you cry?

Primo Levi's "Survival from Auschwitz" just did it for me again last evening. Here's the excerpt, on the nature of moms and the night before the final transport of Jews from his camp of 650 to the death camps:

“And the night came, and it was such a night that one knew that human eyes would not witness it and survive. Everyone felt this: not one of the guards, neither Italian nor German, had the courage to come and see what men do when they know they have to die.

All took leave from life in the manner which most suited them. Some praying, some deliberately drunk, others lustfully intoxicated for the last time. But the mothers stayed up to prepare the food for the journey with tender care, and washed their children and packed the luggage; and at dawn the barbed wire was full of children’s washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?”

5) One book that made you laugh?

"Bridget Jones on the Edge of Reason" and books 5 & 6 of the Harry Potter series. :)

6) One book that you wish had been written?

A biography by my mom's upstairs neighbor in Wroclaw, Poland. He knew my grandfather well, and my family... He lived through a lot. Just one afternoon with my poor Polish and my mom and aunt's translation gave one incredible story. *sigh* I really want to go back and interview him for hours, the poor old man. He seemed incredible. And boy was he a hottie when he was a young man!

7) One book that you wish had never been written?

Need I say? "Old Man and the Sea," of course. What a waste.

8) One book that you are currently reading?

I'm re-reading Primo Levi's "Survival in Auschwitz." I just finished "Nervous Conditions" by Tsitsi Dangarembga, and am on the one hand hankering to read something about Lebanon, something else by Dangarembga, something African, and also a book by a French holocaust survivor I met recently. I've ordered the latter so I should be on it soon.

9) One book that you have been meaning to read?

James Joyce's "Ulysses." But there's loads, of course. Including the Koran.