Swiped this meme from Hiromi. (You know, i didn’t realize meme was a dawkins-ism. It all makes much more sense to me now, AND it becomes obvious that somehow ‘meme’ has come to mean ‘stupid quiz’ around the blogosphere, rather than it’s original meaning. But that’s neither here nor there.)

1. One book that changed your life – hardest question first.

God that one’s hard to answer. What does changed my life mean? Books that made me see something a new way? Sure, but what if it’s a small thing? Drawing of the Dark forever changed the way I see beer; Last Call forever changed the way I see Vegas and poker. But these are not my life, they’re just how I see certain things in it.

So what did change my life? I can only go back to the books that made me start reading, because it’s reading itself that changed my life, more than any other thing. There are a number of them that I could pick, books that were read to me, or that I read early. But the book that made me, as a child, say, I need to read (need, not want) was the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, or possibly the second book in the Narnia chronicles, Prince Caspian (and yes, that’s the second – whomever decided to re-number those books on internal chronology should die for fucking that up for so many young readers.)

I don’t choose this book because of what it is; it could have been any book, any good book. I choose this because of when it was and who I became when I decided I needed to pick it up and read. Mom could not keep up with my voracious need for more, and so I gave up on being read to and took up the book myself. And the universe opened to me.

2. One Book That You’ve Read More Than Once.

One? Let’s forget the obvious (the above chronicles, lord of the rings, etc). Let’s even forget Tim Powers, whose books I always read at least twice. Let’s go with Harry Potter, because there’s just not enough Harry Potter.

3. One Book That You’d Want On A Desert Island.

I’m boring, but this might wind up being Lord of the Rings again. That books has never been able to bore me, and with it’s appendices, you’ve got your own language right there.

But i might choose some book on writing. I’ll have time to kill, i might as well hone my own chops.

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.

Any Chris Moore would do; but let’s go with his funniest, Lamb.

5. One Book That Made You Cry.

Mystic Pig by Richard Katrovas. One of the best novels EVER. Though I could also say GG Kay‘s Lord of Emperors.

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.

I might say, again, Mystic Pig. It’s the kind of thing I feel I should be able to write. I might also say one of Dan Fante‘s books, Mooch or Chump Change. Fante’s absolutely brilliant, all his father was and more.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.

Leaving out politics and religion, because they’re too damned easy and targets, yet it would be hard to choose one from such low hanging fruit as the bible and the qur’an; let’s stick with bad pop-culture staples. I have to choose a fantasy epic because I’m a huge fantasy fan and I think the brick of extruded fantasy product is harmful to the entire market (who wants to publish a short novel from an unknown author when you can publish volume 69 of the Saga of Boredinium). Thus, let’s say Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

I’m not happy with that pick, but then I’m not the just choose one kind of guy.

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.

I’m on the last ten or twenty pages of The God Delusion, of which I’ll say more soon. Next on the stack is Bujold‘s The Sharing Knife.

9. One Book That You Have Been Meaning To Read.

Not one:

Moby Dick
Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Last of the Mohicans
Treasure Island
Lolita
Border Trilogy by Cormac Maccarthy

I could go on, that’s just a few of the books in my stuff i should read (vs stuff I will read) stack.

10. Tag five others that you would like to do this meme.

No tags. I don’t do tags. Steal at will.