Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A book meme

Thanks Sharon for tagging me.

Oh this is a tough one to fill in. Some of my answers are going to be a bit of a cop out I think. And some of them I won't be able to keep to just one option. LOL. Also, I could answer 'the Bible' to a lot of these questions, but I won't, as I'm thinking it's supposed to be about literature. Ok,

1. One book that changed your life?
I'm not sure any one book has changed my life, as such, but there are some that have influenced my life. Euripides 'Medea' introduced me to a whole new genre of reading that I didn't know I would enjoy, it's a Greek tragedy, a play. Then there are so many books about diet and food that have changed the way we eat. I couldn't begin to list them all.

2. One book you have read more than once?
As a child I read the Enid Blyton Enchanted Wood books, over, and over, and over. They took me into a complete fantasy world. I must have read them so many times. I remember feeling daft at school when I found out everyone had grown out of them years before me, but they were just so magical that I couldn't stop reading. I read one of them to Jude, and the memories all came flooding back. (Except Jude made me change one of the girls names to Daisy, as she couldn't stand the real name (not one that's used these days!) and it was very hard to remember to say Daisy every time.)

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Hmm, is there one called Cooking with Coconuts? How to make fire? How to build a log house from palm trees? I have no idea about this. I guess I'd want a book I hadn't read before, but if I haven't read it then I don't know if it's any good, do I? Failing that, I bought Sam a book called The American Boys Handy Book, and its a great read. It tells you how to do all sorts of things that could be handy, or just fun, on a desert island. How to build a bridge, fly a kite, make a fire, build a hut from sticks... yes that could be handy.

4. One book that made you cry?
Hmmm, this is a tough one. For fiction, The Green Mile, by Stephen King, made me cry (I read it before the film came out). True life, the three books in one by Dave Pelzer were heart breaking to read. The story of a child abused by his mother. The three books are called A child called it, the lost boy and a man named Dave.

5. One book that made you laugh?
I'm really struggling to answer this one. Although I'm sure I will think of heaps of answers once I've posted this. I'm not sure that I ever read funny books, except some kids books. Nope, my mind has gone blank for this one, I'm afraid.

6. One book you wish had been written?
How to time travel effectively. Or, how to add extra hours to your day. Both of those could be useful.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
I don't know really. I haven't read a book that I wish hadn't been written. There's been books that I've put down after a few pages because they were so awful. But I couldn't say I wish that they'd never been written.

8. One book you are currently reading?
I'm reading a lot more than one book at the moment. At the book fair I picked up a copy of How Children Fail, by John Holt. That's my bedtime reading at the moment (despite the title this book is more about how schools fail children). I'm also browsing through a copy of The Over Scheduled Child. For a bit of light reading, when I want to relax, I'm currently reading The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and Six More, by Roald Dahl - a series of short stories for adults. These are good to read at night, because each story is just the right length to read in one go, some are amusing, and some are factual, but all are written in Dahl's unique style.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Ahh, most of the books that the kids have in their study room, I look at them and think, I must read that sometime, it looks really good. Here are a few of them... the railway children, black beauty, little women, our island story, the story of the world volumes, robinson crusoe, treasure island... Basically, there are a lot of the kids classics that I've never read, and keep meaning to.

I'm tagging Breeze, Tammy, Anna, and I think everyone else has done it, more or less.

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