Mark Terry isn’t starting a meme, but it feels like one anyway… 🙂
[Via: This Writing Life]Shelf Awareness, a newsletter I get, generally has a section on Fridays where they interview “Book Brahmins” (and no, I find the reference a bit vague) and ask the same questions. Today, for instance, they interview Douglas Preston (whose book is in the mail, any day now…). Since no one seems to be requesting I become the next Book Brahmin, I thought I’d appoint myself and answer them anyway.
Ok, so here are the questions with my answers. (italics indicate my own level of self-importance today)
On your nightstand now:
Hotel de Dream by Edmund White but I have no idea why (although it seems interesting).
Favorite books when you were a child:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I preferred this book (and still do) to LOTR because it is a walkabout with little purpose other than pure fun.
Your top five authors:
Henry Miller, Julian Barnes, P.G. Wodehouse, W. Somerset Maugham, Paul Theroux. How is that for a screwed up list?
(Funny, Mark listed Ross Thomas. I just finished reading Briarpatch. Good plot though Thomas let his characters get sort of fuzzy in the last quarter of the book.)
Book you’ve faked reading:
The Bible (seriously)
Book you are an evangelist for:
The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes (if you are struggling with your writing, get it today)
Book you’ve bought for the cover:
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq (UK edition) and I still have it.
Book that changed your life:
It’s cheap to say this, but every book does in some way or another. I’m far to malleable about these things. However, my initial reaction was Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. I carried a dog-eared copy around with me for a long time. However, I also had a very powerful reaction to Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel and The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart. Basically, those sort of seeking life out and finding it quite different from what you expected.
Favorite line from a book:
“I hate computers for any number of reasons, but I despise them most for what they’ve done to my friend the typewriter.” – David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day
This is one you can pin up on your wall and it always gets a laugh.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I’m not going to justify it. I just loved that book.
