Book Meme

Andrew tagged me for this and has been nagging me about it ever since! ;-)
so here is my first draft, subject to change:

1 - One book that changed your life
Love and Living (Thomas Merton) - My first by Merton, always a life-changing experience, and this one couldn't have come to me at a more perfect time...
The Raggamuffin Gospel (Brennan Manning) and Real Christians *Don't* Dance (John Fischer), both of which (as I wrote in a previous blog) helped guide me out of the CCM wasteland.

2 - One book that you’ve read more than once
I generally don't give time to rereading books, not because I think it's a waste of time (I don't - in fact I think it's one of the best things you can do as a lover of literature) but because I have too many unread books on my shelf and on my shopping list and too short a life to get to them all even once. but some of my earliest encounters with literature (in gradeschool) involved a love so strong for what I had read that I couldn't not reread those early classics. but I can pretty much count my rereads on one hand:
The Adventures of Tom Saywer (Mark Twain)
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)


3 - One book you’d want on a desert island
I'll spare you the 2 most obvious cliche's of The Bible (which is probably my most honest choice) and A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding and just say something stupid like The Penthouse Yearbook... Forgive me for mentioning him in the same paragraph as that last statement, but something by Thomas Merton on the life of solitude would probably be fitting too, although I'd certainly need a bible as well.

4 - One book that made you laugh
that's easy - I still laugh when I think of the "polite bathroom talk" scene in Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger).
also High Fidelity (Nick Hornby), because I thought I was the only one who was that obsessive about his record collection (organizing them autobiographically. Classic. I should have copywrighted that idea 10 years before I read this book)

5 - One book that made you cry
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking
Henri Nouwen usually does it to me too (especially In Memorium)
I think I may have cried at the end of Prayer for Owen Meany too.

6 - One book that scared the hell out of you
Stephen King's The Stand was the first book (of many subsequent ones by him) that made me afraid of the dark again (as an adult). Misery actually made me scream...

7 - One book that you wish had been written
My Life and Thought: The Autobiography of Jesus Christ
Probably another cliche' answer, but I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that Jesus himself didn't write a damn thing while he was here, except for a scribble in the dust...

8 - One book that you wish had never been written
Finnegin's Wake (James Joyce) The first sentence is a continuation of the last sentence 700 pages later in the book and it's all gibberish that apparantly holds deep meaning. I don't have time for that kind of crap...

9 - Two books you’re currently reading
The Seven Storey Mountain (Thomas Merton)
Selected Non-Fictions (Jorge L. Borges)

10 - One book you’ve been meaning to read
see my 100+ Books To Read Before I Die post below...
Seven Storey Mountain is actually at the top of that list, and I just started it last night...

I'm supposed to tag someone now, but I don't hardly know anyone else in the blog world. I'll try David Dark / Sarah Masen and A.M. Correa, although i'm guessing they either have too much real-world work to do, or have probably done this one already... Maybe that Barefooted Bohemian Kimberly will want to play? and maybe Carrie (who was also tagged for this) will kill me for tagging every last person she knows as well...(or maybe she has a surprise guest or two...)