I’ve been tagged with two memes recently, one I’ve done before so I’m not doing it again (life is just TOO short Matt!), and the one you are about to read.
Or not, I’m not forcing you, but let’s be honest, do you have anything better to do?? Ummm, well, obviously you do but it can’t be that important or you wouldn’t be wasting your time here, would you. Ergo, you are going to read this.
Except for you belligerent, uppity, types. You’ll just leap straight to the comments to say that you didn’t read it, won’t you. Well, that still means you are doing something when you have better things to do so the joke is on you. Somehow. In my head.
Um, where was I? Ohh yes, the meme thingy.
This one is a bit of a misnomer, although I’m not exactly sure what it’s called as her wot tagged me didn’t include it in her post, the lazy bint, so I’m calling it the ‘one book’ meme, which belies the fact that it will list several.
I’ll apologise now for my atrocious memory as, whilst I’ve read quite a few books (>10 but <10,000), I tend to forget about them once I'm finished. This makes completing a meme about books that you've read decidely tricky. Anyway, enough waffling from me.
1. One book that changed your life – the hardest question first.
To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite. It was part of our O Grade lessons and completely changed the way I view.. everything. While the book focusses on racial prejudice, it opened my mind to how evil and affecting any form of prejudice can be, and it’s shaped my thinking ever since.
2. One book that you’ve read more than once.
I don’t tend to re-read books. I have read the first few chapters of Don DeLillo’s Underworld several times, and I know I’ve picked up both 2001 and HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but can’t remember if I read them all the way through a second time. There are too many good books out there to be bothered with re-reading old ones.
Doesn’t explain why I don’t chuck ’em out though… hmmm
3. One book that you’d want on a desert island.
Something light and silly. After all, I’d be too busy frolicking in the pool, ordering cocktails from the bar etc etc.
4. One book that made you laugh.
I’m not a big one for laughing whilst reading. I mean enjoy funny books but I’m more a “wry smiler” than a chuckler. At least I was until I read my first Bill Bryson book. Notes on a Small Island made me laugh out loud and, as my wife will testify, fail to stifle several fits of the giggles. Annoying for her as trying to get to sleep whilst the bed shakes is a bit tricky.
5. One book that made you cry.
Again, not something that really happens. Until recently. And it was on the train so I had to stop reading.
Wish I could remember which book it was… Time Traveller’s Wife perhaps?
6. One book that you wish you had written.
The Da Vinci Code. That dude is RICH!
OK, seriously? Hard to say, it’d have to be something I can relate to, a personal journey or… I dunno.. Pele’s life story or something.
No wait, I know the answer. The one book that I wish I’d written is the one that I’ve not written yet. Ta da!
7. One book you wish had never been written.
That one I read the other week… The Righteous Man. There is no good reason for it too exist, and several reasons why it should be removed from the planet. Permanently.
8. One book that you are reading at the moment.
Just finished reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (very good book), and not really sure what to read next. I’ve always got a “Great Ideas” book on the go for the train journey home, and I’m just about to start On the Pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt.
9. One book that you’ve been meaning to read.
One? Bloody hundreds ya mean. Pick a classic, any classic, I’ve probably NOT read it and probably “have been meaning to” for some years now. I’ve a few sat on bookshelves at home, so the only excuse is laziness. Still, they make the bookshelf look good…
10. Five others that you’d like to do this.
OK, I’m gonna skip the usual people. So let’s say Cat, Z, Jane, Chris and anxious.
