booked

Thank you to Miss Latoya for getting a book discussion started. As y'all may recall, I do actually belong to a book club, but we hardly ever actually talk about books there. So it's nice to get a little literary conversation happening. And I will enjoy reading y'all's lists and getting your book picks from the library!

So here's my list. It's heavily-weighted towards current reading (as opposed to lifetime reading), but that's mainly because my memory is so dang bad. Wuthering Heights? Sure, I read that. It has a.... woman in it, right? She, uh, has a, uh, let's see, a tragedy of some kind. I know I liked it. Great book. I'm also not discussing knitting books, because I am now a convert to Barbara Walker and believe that all books and patterns are just barriers between you and knitting. It's almost turning into an occult religious thing - so keep an eye on me. You may need to do an intervention.

So, ahem, on to the book list meme thing:

1. Name five of your favorite books.

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon. I am still pining for the characters. I will have to read it again as soon as the details are fuzzy enough in my mind.
• Anything written by Barbara Kingsolver - she is just so much fun to read. And I love a good cry.
• Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, by Janisse Ray.
• You Shall Know Our Velocity, by Dave Eggers, or just about anything Eggers writes/edits.
• Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

2. What was the last book you bought (or brought home from the library)?

• The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Possibly the smartest (and most suspenseful) vampire story ever written! A great travelogue, too.

3. What was the last book you read?

• The last book I actually finished was Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson. She is a spectacular writer - a real master of language. I can't wait to read Gilead.
• The last book I couldn't finish because it was so... what the hell was it? I don't even know. Anyway, that one was Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. Apparently he's like the most popular writer in Japan. I don't think I get Japanese literature.

4. List 5 books that have been particularly meaningful to you.

• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.
• Our Stolen Future, by Theo Colborn, JP Myers and Dianne Dumanoski.
• Light on Yoga, by BKS Iyengar.
• This is cheesy, but The World According to Garp, by John Irving. It set me on an enormous life side-track that lasted nearly eight years and took me to faraway places and inadvertently to my "real" life and love. So, thanks to John Irving.
• Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson.

5. Name three books you've been dying to read but just haven't gotten around to it.

• Living to Tell the Tale, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (his autobiography). It's not that I haven't been reading it, I have been... for a year now. It's so damned rich! You can't keep reading it night after night, you have to take your time. So I'm really taking my time. I'd like to power through it one day, but... I just don't know if I can drop everything else in the world for Gabriel. But I will have to.
• In Search of Lost Time/Remembrances of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. This is actually a series of seven volumes. Seven long volumes.
• Throwed Away, by Linda Flowers.

6. Tag five people and have them fill this quiz out on their own.

Hm... several of y'all have already been tagged by Latoya, so I say if you're reading this, then you're tagged. But let me know if you're doing it! I want to read your lists! I am extra-special tagging Kristy, because we're in the same book club and I know she'd like to be doing more book-talking, as I would... so go for it, lady! I mean, if you want to...