Thursday, September 07, 2006

Book meme

Courtesy of Ben, my response to the book meme follows:

1. One book that changed your life: Too hard to pick just one, so I'll list a few of the ones that have caused me to amend my worldview in recent years: Catch-22, Cat's Cradle, Skinny Legs and All, and Ulysses (the latter just because it occupied so much of my final collegiate semester).

2. One book that you've read more than once: I read both Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter twice for school, first in seventh grade, then in tenth grade. I also read The Catcher in the Rye in seventh grade, then read it again for fun later because I was too young to get it the first time.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Is there a really thick book about the history of rock 'n roll, describing in detail the bands, their albums, their influences, and so on? I know Allmusic prints one, but even it's not quite comprehensive enough for what I'm talking about. I never get tired of reading about music and its place in history.

4. One book that made you laugh: Any of Tim Sandlin's GroVont trilogy, but I particularly remember cackling at the first, Skipped Parts.

5. One book that made you cry: There is only one, in fact: Flowers for Algernon. Though the one I'm reading right now, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, has come close a few times, and may succeed by the time I'm done.

6. One book that you wish had been written: Any of the numerous novels I've started and then been unable to finish due to laziness, procrastination, writer's block, or simply an imagination wounded if not destroyed by years of television. Particularly, Standards of Learning, which is still very much a work in progress.

7. One book you wish had never been written: Let's see, which book was the most torture in school? I'd have to go with The Ascent of Man, which we had to attempt to trudge through in eighth grade.

8. One book you're currently reading: As mentioned above, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. To be followed by Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I started reading it last year, but given that it starts with his dad dying of cancer, I decided I couldn't get through it right then. Someday though.

If your blog appears on the sidebar, I pass this meme to you.

Song lyric of the day:
"I don't deal dealing with me
Feel like trashing up a church could make me clean
I was wrong, I let go of everything"
- Five Dollar Friend, Dancehall

7 Comments:

Blogger mkg said...

what class did you have to read ulysses in?

September 08, 2006 3:01 PM  
Blogger Mike said...

Wollaeger's Modern British Fiction classes. I actually loved it, insofar as I understood it (which was rare).

September 08, 2006 6:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Recommend "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Dideon.

September 09, 2006 6:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Mike--this is Suzanne (yeah, not Susannah) from Ben & Christy's wedding. They told me about your comment on Ben's blog when I talked to Christy this week and I thought I'd leave you a message. Great to meet you. What do you mean having really deep conversations at 2am?...I honestly think my brain had been taken over by the alcohol by then so I can barely remember the extent. Email me sometime at rmsuzanne@gmail.com.

September 10, 2006 4:58 PM  
Blogger mkg said...

i took wollaeger's primitive modernism class. it was hella small (7 people). and steve nelson was in it.

September 11, 2006 11:04 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

I feel like I should know that name -- is he the guy who staged the unsuccessful Slant coup my senior year?

September 11, 2006 7:02 PM  
Blogger mkg said...

yes, that would be him. he would get into unmitigated arguments with adam in class, much to wollaeger's (i kid you not) delight. he (wollaeger) later compared these arguments to the naked wrestling scene in dh lawrence's "women in love."

ick.

September 13, 2006 9:36 AM  

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