My Life is an Open Book

Let's talk about something other than boys for a sec, 'kay? Don't worry, I'll get back to that topic in a moment, but first a nice literary interlude. Kristin, over at Candy Sandwich posed (posited?) some excellent questions about books and our relationships with them. Here's my take.


1. Book that changed your life: Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell. For those unaware, it's taken from the blog of a woman who, unsatisfied with her life, decides to set about on a project to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's a wonderful testament to our abilities to dig ourselves out of negative situations, thereby transforming our lives. Since it's publication she has gone from office temp to being a well respected food critic. Also, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Wolff. It solidified my love of language and words.

2. Book you've read more than once: I've read many books more than once, but the one that comes to mind first is the metamorphosis simply because for some reason, professors at my college were obsessed with it. The number of Marxist interpretations I have submitted on that book is mind blowing. Same goes for Animal Farm.

3. Book you'd take to a desert island: Any Nick Hornsby. If I had an anthology of his writing I'd be pretty much set. Either that or some fabulous compilation of literary non-fiction pieces.

4. Book that made you laugh: Me Talk Pretty Some Day by the ubiquitous David Sedaris; Everything is Illuminated by JSF; Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley.

5. Book that made you cry: It's not a book that comes to mind first, but a poem. Snapshot of a Difficult World by Adrienne Rich. I first read it in Poetry 100 freshman year of college and it has continued to captivate me as I experience more of life and understand more of what it means.

6. Book you wish you had written: Although depressing, I wish I had written The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis, simply because it reminds me so much of my own college experience, and wish I had the creativity to have come up with it. Alas, he has at least a decade on me so I can't be too upset about that.

7. Book you wish had never been written: Speaking of Brett Easton Ellis...I absolutely despise Glamourama. It has done nothing for the genre of contemporary American fiction, and it's gratuitous violence and general god-awful terribleness has since overshadowed some of his early and better works.

8. Book you're currently reading: Goodbye Lemon by Adam Davies. I read his other novel The Frog King a few months ago and although the narrator infuriated me with his myopia, I was addicted to it.

9. Book you've been meaning to read: Well. My Amazon.com wish list is 3 pages long. This is the first page.

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

The Sound of No Hands Clapping: A Memoir by Toby Young

Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman, Karen Mack

The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and Encounters by Gay Talese, Barbara Lounsberry (Introduction)

The Futurist: A Novel by James P. Othmer

Blue Angel: A Novel by Francine Prose

Loser Goes First: My Thirty-Something Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation by Dan Kennedy

Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel by Neal Pollack

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Principles of Marketing (11th Edition) (Principles of Marketing) by Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong

The Best American Magazine Writing 2004 (Best American Magazine Writing) by American Society of Magazine Editor

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max

Remembrance of Things Past Volume 1-3 Box Set by Marcel Proust

Veronica: A Novel by Mary Gaitskill

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia


10. Now tagging the following bloggers to make this same list with their answers on their blogs. Not sure who's that much of a regular here so I'll take a guess and tag Irish Red, EJ, Lulu, and the Musical Guru. Anyone else who I didn't tag, but who feels like playing along, be my guest!