Literary Meme

One Book that Changed My Life

That is very difficult for me since I've lived twice as long as everyone else.
I guess I would say Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. It was a long
uneasy autobiographical book with a tremendous amount of Angst. It was an achievement to finish it. It wasn't until later talking to my college professor that I discovered the hypocracy and torture of this book. Thomas Wolfe was an anti-semite (perhaps another Mel Gibson) but had a long standing affair (20 years at least) with a married Jewish woman he first met as a shipboard romance.

One Book I've read More than Once.

There have been quite a few of those(mostly when I was younger;Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men for starters. In my middle years would be Jane Austen's Persuasion. It was a book that provided solace for me (almost like a 12-step inspirational book). The protagonist had suffered tremendously by allowing herself to be guided and swayed by the opinions of others. By standing by her principles and being the "wind beneath the wings" for those around her eventually had her virtue rewarded.

One Book I would want on a Desert Island.

That is really easy and no contest. The Complete Works of Jane Austen. The Complete Works of the Bronte Sisters not far behind. These books are like comfort food for me. They draw you into to another time but the characters are full blooded and real. They exhibit the frailties, foibles and strengths we all have or wish we had. It was a simpler time with interaction that wasn't computer generated and allowed for civility and constancy.

One Book that made me Laugh

I don't remember the essays at all anymore. I know I laughed hard and loud at the first. That would be Nora Ephron's book of essays called Crazy Salad. I had no trouble recalling the title. There was also a great book
about the Philadelphia Phillies and being a sports fan. That was True Believers by Joe Queenan. It is truly amazing how he chronicles the amount of time he has spent watching teams he loved (7 years) and teams he hated (4 years), time spent arguing sports (3 years) and time spent on eating, theater and laundry (1 year). His superstitions are also discussed -moving items, changing clothes , etc. You don't need to be a Philadelphia sports fan to identify but it helps.


One Book that made you Cry

Many many books about the Holocaust. What comes to mind is The Diary of Anne Frank, also I read 3 books about the Empress Josephine and sobbed like a baby at the end of the third The Last Grand Dance on Earth. This book really touched my heart so strongly. What an amazing woman she was and like my Jane Austen heroines so astute and self sacrificing. It would seem the women of the past shackled by society but with such grit and determination were able to achieve so much and be such an inspiration to future generations.

One Book you wish you had written

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoeyevsky the characters are amazingly drawn and there are so many levels to the book. At any time in your life you could pick it up and identify with any of the three brothers Ivan for his cold intelligence, Alyosha the sensitive Priest and the brother we start with the impulsive Dmitri who is the central figure. The illegitimate brother Smerdyakov is begot by the rape of an idiot servant girl and I doubt anyone could identify with him. I went through a long period of reading Tolstoy, Turgenev and all of Solzhenitsyn. I would recommend Russian literature to anyone who loves reading.

One Book I wish had never been written

Probably Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

One Book I am currently reading

three I can't seem to push myself with - The Kite Runner, the latest Harry Potter, and Angels & Demons.

One Book I have been Meaning to Read

The Secret Life of Bees