Reading Meme.

DIARY

I've been tagged by Sumara.

1. One book that changed my life:
Les Misèrables, by Victor Hugo. It moved me; it also informed me for the first time that a novel can strive to contain and encompass (and be encompassed by) everything in the world.

2. One book I've read more than once:
The Empty Space, by Peter Brook.
I've read it five times between 1995 and today. It's a theater book that's given me the best advice not only for theater, but writing, reading, politics, and life.

3. One book I'd want on a desert island:
The Bible. In addition to being the cornerstone of my faith, it's not something that one skims through in a day, and it can be read on multiple levels. That is, it could last me a good long time, which is important when one is stranded on a desert island.

4. One book that made me laugh:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen.

5. One book that made me cry:
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

6. One book I wish I had written:
None. 1. That's a really dicey project, fatewise. 2. I want to be known for writing what I write. Is this the spirit in which the question was intended? Probably not.

7. One book I wish had never been written:
I could just go for the obvious and say Mein Kempf, forstalling Hitler's unexpected popularity. Or I could go for the indulgent and say Mao II, because then I wouldn't have had to have read it. But as before, I feel weird about wishing this. Wishing a book wasn't written feels like wishing someone wasn't born, and I'm uneasy with that at best. Is this the spirit in which the question was intended? Probably not. >:P

8. One book I'm currently reading:
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. I've been reading it seemingly forever, maybe 2-3 pages per day on the subway. It's difficult and beautiful.

9. One book I've been meaning to read:
Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, dammit!

10. The Four People I'm Tagging:
#1. Elisabeth
#2. Gemma
#3. Mxzzy
#4. Sam

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