Monday, August 27, 2007

Book Meme

Myutopia had this at her place and I just HAD to steal it.


A book that made you cry:

Haing S. Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey with Roger Warner. This is the true story of the man who portrayed Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in the movie The Killing Fields. His story is 100 more horrifying than what he portrayed in another man's life and true testament to man's inhumanity to man.



A book that scared you:

The Vampire comic book I read before bedtime when I was 10. I didn't sleep all night I was so scared. More recently, The Writing on the Wall by James Goodman, though I didn't feel the effects until we had a power stopping thunderstorm that night and I was sitting all alone in the dark trying to ignore my very full bladder so I didn't have to leave the cocoon of pillows on the couch. No, I am not kidding, James. This is true. Go ahead and giggle. Hehehehe.



A book that made you laugh:

A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt. I read it on the beach during my escape to the beach this summer and more than once had my father and stepmother wondering what was so funny.



A book that disgusted you:

How to Eat Fried Worms. My 4th grade teacher thought it was the height of hilarity to read it to us right before lunch and make all sorts of disgusting sound effects to go with it. He was an asshole in many ways, that is just one small example.



A book you loved in elementary school:

I can't remember just one but I devoured any biographies I could find about Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They were my heroes, still are.



A book you loved in middle school or junior high school:

Exodus by Leon Uris. Yes, I read this when I was 12 and I was swept away by it.



A book you loved in high school:

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.



A book you hated in high school:

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. It was the ultimate in depressing books after a semester of depressing books from a teacher who thought the definition of great literature was something that induced a mass suicide during class.



A book you loved in college:

Peace Child by Don Richardson. It's about a missionary to Papua New Guinea and his thoughts about what he calls 'redemptive analogies' which are cultural parallels to the story of Christ.



A book that challenged your identity:

A Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter. It's about a frontier boy raised by Indians. It didn't necessarily challenge my identity but I remember reading it when I was 12 or 13 and feeling like maybe I wasn't crazy to have some of the questions about my own origins that I had at the time.


A series that you love:

Probably the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which I never read until Diana was about 5 and I started reading them to her and her sister.



Your favorite horror book:

Hhhmm....I don't generally read horror so I will go with a short story instead. Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. I have to say I like how he could creep me out without getting gory.



Your favorite science fiction book:

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein



Your favorite fantasy:

I don't read a lot of fantasy because I've always been a biography/memoir/nonfiction fan but I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for the sake of Isaac and I really did enjoy it.



Your favorite mystery:

I don't read a lot of this either but my dad gave me The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale and I quite liked it.




Your favorite biography:

I don't think there is any way I could even begin to pick a favorite here, way too many that I have just loved, so I will recommend the most recent one that knocked my socks off. In the Name of Honor: a Memoir by Mukhtar Mai was completely amazing. It is about an illiterate Pakistani peasant woman who was sentenced to be gang raped for the sake of family honor after her brother was falsely accused of impropriety toward a higher caste woman. It was assumed she would commit suicide after the gang rape, instead she fought for justice all the way to Pervez Musharaf and has started a school for girls. It's a very thin volume and a quick read but eye opening and profound.



Your favorite "coming of age" book:

Well, most folks wouldn't think of it as a coming of age book, but I'll say Le Petit Prince by Antoine St. Exupery. This book could easily fit in any number of the other categories (identity challenging, fantasy, classic...) here and it is truly one of my all time favorites. Since I can't really generate another thought for this category the award goes to LPP.



Your favorite classic:

Well, how are we defining 'classic?' If it's something enduring written in the last hundred years put me down for pretty much anything by John Steinbeck. If we are talking something really old let's say Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (but in more modern English please). If we are talking downright ancient that would be the Bible.



Your favorite romance book:

Quite honestly, I'd sooner read horror than some Harlequin romance. Gag. But Thirty Days Hath April by Bill Bley, which the author doesn't call a romance (because it's erotica instead) but a 'fuck book' (I swear, it's right there in the forward) is very good, interspersed with all sorts of literary allusions, and you might actually learn a thing or two from it.




Ok, now that I've given you a list of recommendations why don't you leave some of your favorites here for me or else do this at your place.



29 comments:

snowelf said...

I've never read Grapes of Wrath, but I loved The Pearl and Of Mice and Men. So I know I would love that one too.
My favorite book is: To Kill a Mockingbird.
Book I hated: The Scarlet Letter and
some horrible book I had to read about a bull rider in 11th grade. It was awful!!

Sudiegirl said...

I remember "How To Eat Fried Worms"...I kind of liked it.

Did you know the author of that book is the son of the artist Norman Rockwell?

how's that for trivia on a monday? hehehehehe

lime said...

snowelf, you remind me of a game i used to play with a very well read friend. we'd go back and forth listing famous works we'd never read. i haven't read either of the ones you listed.

sudie, i had no idea! that's the sort of wierd trivia that appeals to me. thanks!

James Goodman said...

lol, sorry about that, Lime. :D I really appreciate the shout out though.

I remember reading How to Eat Fried Worms... a couple of times, lol. I actually enjoyed this one. Ironically, my son just read this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He was so excited telling me about it and was shocked when he found out I read it when I was about his age. :D

Charles said...

Too many genres that that I don't dip into, you listed the Bible under your favorite classic, I'd probably list it under the book the scared me, even though it didn't and doesn't, the fanatics that don't read it and believe what they are told by those who were supposed to have read it makes it fit the category.

Charles said...

that scared me. I hate typos.

Flash said...

Well damn. Looks like I'll be spending a ton at Borders this week....

Logophile said...

OOOOO,
I think I am going to have to do this one and I loved reading your list.
(making notes for the next library trip)

Gledwood said...

Hi LIME! WE MEET AGAIN.. thru the comments of Dorky Dad...

howzit going...

i just wanted to say I'd like ta read that book by the Dith Pran actor...

i remember seeing that film at quite a young age at school

hardly a dry eye in the house

and what HAPPENED to that Pol Pot Bellied SWINE man??

i hope his death was a painful one...

did you know it is only TODAY that they are FINALLY hunting down the cheifs of the Khmer Rouge and bringing them to justice

isn't society crap

hokay

take it e.z.

from

gleds

S said...

Im currently reading Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, it's nearly 1000 pages, so needing a break from it, I have read in between the first part and where I am now...

Shop Girl by Steve Martin
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Talk Talk by TC Boyle

All very good, although Talk talk not my favorite Boyle, I have to say.

Sudiegirl said...

I forgot to give some books...

1) Running With Scissors and its sequel Dry (Augusten Burroughs)

2) Wasted by Marya Hornbacher

3) Memoirs of a Geisha

4) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

5) most of the Jonathan Kellerman mysteries

6) Most of Anne Rivers Siddons' books

Hypersonic said...

OK So I now have one of my posts sorted for this week.

SignGurl said...

I feel so "unread". Is that a word in the context I used it? Hmmmm...

My favorite book in middle school was 1984.

I hated Catcher In The Rye. It depressed me. Of Mice And Men inspired me in a strange way.

My favorite series as a child was Little House On The Prairie. I recently read a biography on Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder. It was interesting because of the most of the book was the correspondence between mother and daughter.

I mostly read true crime now or scary stuff. Ann Rule tells detailed stories well. I love Stephen King.

I'm about to read Incubus Dreams. It's a vampire hunter/erotica story. It's going to take me a bit to get through that (it's over 700 pages).

tsduff said...

Wow - okay honestly, how long did it take you to write/research this? Excellent post - it will take me eons to get it together to list everything.

Interesting that you are such a Steinbech fan. I liked very few of his books - and strongly disliked "The Red Pony".

More later - I hope.

Anonymous said...

My favorite of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird...

You have an excellent list, and emote well in writing.

Been visiting you and trying to post comments...'specially on the lovely lime a licious dress, hon...but blogger is hating me. I am so sad.

But I still love you and hope this comment takes so you know it!

Anonymous said...

YAY! It took!

G-Man said...

Michelle,
How in The HELL did you remember all of this?
I'm absolutely in awe woman..xoxoxox

Jacob said...

Hey! Hooty Hoo! It was so great to get a real text from you. I promise not to ab-use.

Books? I used to read them. Do they still make them?

Now back to the lime dress and then some Wagontire reading. Finally. Sheesh.

TLP said...

Some fine choices here.

I wonder if you would enjoy Never Let Me Go? It was a book that really moved me. Also The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

I loved Le Petit Prince.

lime said...

james, i might have liked the book if it had been presented differently. always glad to give you a shoutout.

charles, you make an excellent point

flash, psst....the library is much cheaper...

logo, take flash with you

gledwood, yes, camobodia's story is shocking in that way. i believe pol pot died a few years ago.

s, i've thought about shop girl and girl with the pearl earring, did you like them?

sudie, thanks for the suggestions! :)

hypersonic, i'll be anxious to see your post

tsduff, it didn't take me too long really. i just had to goggle some titles and author names to fill in a couple blanks.

cindra, so nice to see you! thanks for persevering and for the kind words. love you too and congrats on your recent news :) so exciting.

gman, once i got in the groove it flowed.

gawpo, i'd be very sad in a world without books.

tlp, not familiar with either of your suggestions. i'll have to check them out. and as for LPP....i knew there were more reasons why i liked you ;)

Shari said...

I asked myself each question as I read your meme and I realize I sadly lacking in favorites. I did love Beverly Cleary's books on Ribsy, Romona, and Henry. I liked Little House on the Prairie and To Kill a Mockingbird. Scary book? Amityville Horror and Stephen King books.

S said...

Lime, I just loved Shop Girl...I love the book and the film...both sweet little treasures...and you just want to both slap and kiss Steve Martin at the same time in the film....
Plus, there's something about Seattle .....

Ok then, Pearl Earring..the books ok....not fantastic....but still you must read, and the film...better in my opinion than the book, because Scarlet Johannson is just superb as Griet, the main character.
And of course, with that one, we have it all beginning with a real life painting that came out of a love affair with Griet and Vermeer......

(Remember that schmooze award thing...I wanted to tell you that the reason I often find blogs shortly after you do is that sometimes I just come to your comments, and visit your visitors...letting you do all the weeding out! LOL Arent I smart?)

Still need to know how to put that on my blog side bar...
S

Anonymous said...

Impressive list Michelle!

Anything by Michael Ondaatje - but Running in the Family is at the top of the list!

lime said...

signgurl, sorry i missed you up there. you listed some terrific books there and it sounds like you still read a good bit....i'd not call you 'unread.' ;)

shari, i loved beverly cleary too. her ralph s. mouse and mouse & the motorcycle books were my faves.

s, thanks for the mini reviews. yes, i can help you with the schmoozy thing...

seamus, he's an author i've not heard of. i will have to give him a llooksee.

Cosima said...

I will be checking out some of your recommendations, when little man goes to school and I have more time. At the moment, short stories are my favorite reads. I just finished a volume by Somerset Maugham. His description of human nature is true to this day.

Sudiegirl said...

I liked the Beverly Cleary books too. Laura Ingalls Wilder's books were a fave at our house, and we even visited her museum in Missouri when I was about 11 years old.

However, I refused to watch the TV show. I didn't like it.

Oddly enough, I don't like Mark Twain...I realize that could get my US citizenship revoked but he's just too aware of his cleverness.

Cooper said...

This is kewl. You have some great books in there and we will macth on one or two. Definitely using this...thanx.

tsduff said...

As a child, I had the 1st entire chapter of Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) memorized. Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell)was a constant favorite as well. I forgot about TLP's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" but it was so moving. How did you remember all that stuff? I've got to start a list. I read all the Oz books (L. Frank Baum) over and over again. Went through my Nancy Drew phase too. Also, Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Great post Lime!

lime said...

cosima, hope you enjoy:)

sudie, i do like mark twain's advice on teens though....

cooper, i enjoyed reading your take. :)

ts, i loved EB white's trumpet of the swan!