Book Meme

Tagged by tuckergurl. I got this from Angela ages ago, but some memes are harder to do than others and even though I love reading, this is one of those that I had to think very hard about. Oh, my poor brain!

1. One book that changed your life?
Dont' you just hate it how you can think of answers to questions like this when no one is actually asking for your opinion, but when they do, you can't even recall the last thing you read?

Okay, contenders for this might be Martha Quest by Doris Lessing and So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba. Well, I'm not sure that I can say that they changed my life, but they both had a big impact on me. Also, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume.
Well, I'll probably think of something to add to the list later.

2. One Book That You've Read More Than Once.
I haven't re-read a book in the last 10 years or so (no time), so this will have to be one of the books I read as a girl. Where do I start? All of the Mallory Towers and St. Clares' series by Enid Blyton. Infact, anything by Enid Blyton. Or Judy Blume or Paula Danziger. I loved the African Writers' Series and read and re-read many of the books, especially Welcome Home, Chijioke.

3. One Book That You'd Want On A Desert Island.
This would have to be something light-hearted and funny so that I could re-read it as many times as I wanted. Maybe one of the books in the William series by Richmal Crompton.

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.
See # 3. Ake by Wole Soyinka was also really funny.

5. One Book That Made You Cry.
Again, where do I start from? Recently I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and that was very sad, but I don’t think it made me cry exactly.

Possibly A Fine Balance or So Long a Journey by Rohinton Mistry. His characters tend to get clobbered by an avalanche of misery like I have never seen before. Again, I can’t remember whether these actually made me cry or not.

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.
I remember really loving In the Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai and thinking that the writing was just so beautiful.

I really love dry, sarcastic wit a la Margaret Atwood (probably her essays more so than her books) and wish I could write that way. I would also love to write something like one of the William books (by Richmal Crompton).

Edited to Add: A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipul.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.
It’s hard to say something like this about a writer’s work. Writing a book is hard work and sometimes books don’t turn out the way you had hoped they would. Also, writing is a skill that you are continually honing so what one might call a crappy book may really be helping the writer get to the next level of skill and experience.

Okay, I’m sure that by the time I post this, I would have thought of a really God-awful book.

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.
Boaz Brown by Michelle Stimpson. It is a Christian romance. I have never read one before and it is one of the last things I ordered from Black Expressions (an African-American targeted book club). I was very curious to know what a Christian romance novel would be like. It has been interesting so far.

Before I started Boaz Brown, I started Persuasion by Jane Austen. The story caught my interest and I have never read a Jane Austen book. I thought that it was about time.

9. One Book That You Have Been Meaning To Read.
Hmmm, how much time do we have? I bought Vanity Fair by William Thackeray in March and have been waiting for my next vac to read it.

I haven’t read a Charles Dickens book as an adult and started Hard Times about four years ago. I picked it up because it was the slimmest of his books that I found. I still haven’t finished it, but the bit I read was very funny. After that, I want to move on to Great Expectations, a present from my brother who felt that I would enjoy it.

10. Tag five others that you would like to do this meme.
I don’t like to tag people. I feel that it is like passing on the pain, but I have to say that I really enjoyed doing this. I tag Everchange/Two, Ayoola, Pilgrimage, Adefunke, Black Looks and anyone else who wants to do it.