rainy friday, time for a book meme

It’s Friday, it’s raining and we’ve got rain forecasted for the entire weekend – how disappointing. I’m also a little low on energy this morning so perhaps this is a good time for a bookish quiz! To make this easier, I am answering these questions keeping to the list of books I’ve read this year.

 

A book you have read more than once

 

I read a lot of books more than once, especially if I’m studying them for writing technique. Off the top of my head, I can say that this year I re-read Amsterdam (McEwan) to look at structure, Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro) to look at the narrative voice (very very cool), The Body Artist (Delillo) also for narrative voice (also, very interesting), and Time’s Arrow (Amis) to understand how on earth he worked backwards for the entire book.

 

A book you are currently reading

 

I’m enjoying Susan Cheever’s American Bloomsbury right now. This book has got me really excited to read Louisa May Alcott’s lesser known works as well as all of Emerson and Thoreau.  And the ways she writes is very conversational, which makes for quick but informative and entertaining read.

 

A book you would want on a desert island

 

Not sure anything I read this year would help. I’d like something with instructions on how to build shelter, local flora and fauna and lots of tips on first aid…I suppose a short story or two wouldn’t be bad. And plenty of blank pages I can use to write my own notes or burn them if I run out of kindling.

 

A book that made you laugh

 

This year Bleak House made me laugh out loud a few times, and I suppose I chuckled a bit with Amsterdam and definitely with Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata. And Schopenhauer’s essays, his tone makes these pretty amusing.

 

A book that made you angry

 

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I just couldn’t believe how self-centered and irresponsible Dr. Frankenstein was.

 

A book that made you cry

 

I teared up at the end of John Banville’s Eclipse, but I think that might be the only time this year a book actually made me cry.

 

A really intense book

 

The most intense book I read this year, in terms of both story and ideas, would have to be The Fountainhead or Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow.

 

 

A book you wish had never been written

 

Well I might not go so far as to say I wish it had never been written but the one book I did not enjoy at all this year was The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer. Close second goes to the Tractors in Ukraina book.

 

A book you would recommend to almost anyone

 

Blue River by Ethan Canin, The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing, Eclipse by John Banville and Rain by Kirsty Gunn. I think those four might be my favorites thus far from the year. Each of these fits my definition of a ‘beautiful’ book.

 

A book that changed your life

 

This is way too difficult to answer by throwing out a title. I’ll just say that each book I’ve read this year has asked me to engage in some sort of discussion, either with myself as a reader or as a writer, or with other people. Some of the more interesting discussions have come from:

 

• The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
• Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• Occasion for Loving and The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
• Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell