1. Name five of your favorite books:
Kay folks, putting’ my own spin on this. I need to split it up into fiction and non-fiction.
So: Fiction:
Harriet the Spy -by Louise Fitzhugh
Wrinkle in Time – by Madeleine L’Engle
Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Bronte
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Mating – by Norman Rush.
Non-fiction:
Capote by Gerald Clarke
The Great Terror – by Robert Conquest
All of Anne Lindbergh’s journals – I read them over and over and over …
John Adams by David McCullough
Miracle at Philadelphia by Elizabeth Drinker Bowen
2. What was the last book you bought?
Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret – I’ve just started re-reading it. Oh. My. God. It’s all coming back. I haven’t read it since I was 10. Wonderful book.
3. What was the last book you read:
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
4. Last five books that have been really meaningful to you (no particular order).
Well, I’m not going to do the “last five” – but just books I have found particularly meaningful.
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. I can’t describe why. Maybe I will someday. I just know that that book helped me.
Mating – again. I wrote this long post about Norman Rush … and my response to the fact that he was coming out with a “sequel” to Mating.
Real Life Drama by Wendy Smith – the story of the Group Theatre in the 1930s. It was reading that book that made me make the decision to move to New York.
Franny and Zooey – by JD Salinger. Words … cannot … even … express …
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. One of the most unforgettable reading experiences I have ever had. Barely pleasant. Wrenching. I read it at a time in my life when I was feeling particularly dead – a very very bad time – that book woke me up. It didn’t feel GOOD, but it made me know I was ALIVE.
5. Name three books you’ve been dying to read but just haven’t gotten around to it?
War and Peace – by Tolstoy (no, I’m not being a pretentious jagoff – it is on my list. Never got around to it yet.)
Les Miserables – by Victor Hugo (again – huge book – I’ve owned it for years … haven’t gotten around to it yet)
The Possessed by Dostoevsky – MUST. READ. THIS. BOOK.
Weird. I’m reading Play It As It Lays right now. What did you think of it?
Also, War and Peace is not pretentious, I keep insisting. I was always intimidated by it because it would be the big fat book the teacher would assign in “Peanuts.” But actually it’s wonderful. Very exciting and full of great characters. Wonderful love stories. (Although, as I do with every Russian novel, I kept a running list of characters so I could keep track of families and acquaintances. Helpful.)
Geek Love actually gave me nightmares. The violent kind that keep you up for the rest of the night. It was one of the sickest, most perverse and disturbing books I have ever read.
I love it.
I am proud, then, Emily, that I made you read that book.
:)
Jessica – well, I love Joan Didion – but I had never read any of her fiction. I thought Play It As It Lays was great – she’s such an incredible and ruthless writer.
Have you read The Year of Magical Thinking??
Oh and Jessica – that’s what I’ve heard about War and Peace, how great it is – I like Anna Karenina, and I love Russian novels. Dostoevsky is my main man … but I definitely need to read War and Peace.
I’m proud you did too, Sheila. But it’s like mostly for the story, bitch. You know, the home surgery and cutting off of the limbs, the massive electrical accidents, the cults of weirdos that found their lives more fulfilling without limbs.
But mostly it’s for Olympia and Miranda. My frigging GOD, this story ripped my heart out.
“Bolt us to the hood of your traveling machine and take us on the road again.”
Miranda was an orphan her whole life, or so she thought.
Oh, the mind-screw.
One of the greatest last sentences of a book ever. Got a big ol’ lump in my throat just THINKING ABOUT IT. (Oh God. I just used all caps … is that OKAY?????)
“Please tale care of Crystal Lil. Her medical records and prescriptions are in the white folder in the big envelope. The trash goes out on Thursday nights and her bills need to be paid on the fifth of each month. She is your grandmother.”
It kills me. KILLS ME.
Sheila — Oh, how I love “Les Miserables”! You MUST read it.
Emily –
I am dying.
It just tears your feckin’ heart out …
Hey – did you hear she is finally coming out with another novel?
She just blows me AWAY
Nope, haven’t read any Didion at all. And with all the buzz around The Year of Magical Thinking and with my own resource for books right now being the library, I figured it would be a while until I got a chance to read it. So I thought I’d go back to some older Didion and found this one recommended on someone’s site.
War and Peace is a lot more fun than Anna Karenina. Not so depressing. Though there are definitely tear-worthy moments. Reading it is like watching an old epic movie, love and death and more love and more death.
Jessica – if you like Didion, then I recommend her book of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. She wrote one about her decision to leave New York that makes me cry – it’s called Goodbye to All That. A marvelous essayist.
Oh my god, no! I hadn’t heard that! I’m so going to be like one of those crazy Harry Potter kids the day that book comes out! Google, here I come! What’s it called? When’s it coming? Holy crap. I’m so excited! Pepper needs new shorts!
Pepper needs new shorts . hahahahahahaha
I don’t know the name of it and I just looked on Amazon and there’s no word of it yet – but I read the announcement on Book Slut, I think. Sadly, they don’t seem to have a Search feature on their blog so I don’t know where to find it. But it’s definitely coming in 2006.
Sheila,
Googling “Bookslut Katherine Dunn” (which I never thought I’d do) brings up an entry at Suicide Girls where they mention that it’s called The Cut Man or something and is scheduled for 2008 release. Two years. Oh, the cruelty.
2008???
No!!!!