One Book Meme
***Updated Below to include Shannon’s additions.
I thought I’d follow the lead of Teacher Lady and Chilihead on this meme. Join me if you feel like it.
1. One book that changed your life: Wuthering Heights. It preemptively taught me the misery of falling for an angry, temperamental man. Bad boys have had zero appeal ever since. And I do not understand women who find Heathcliff romantic. Did they read the same book I did?
2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. This is my favorite insomnia book, best read in the bathtub. Or with a beer. Or with a beer in the bathtub.
3. One book you would want on a desert island: Any collection of John Donne’s work, the more complete the better.
4. One book that made you laugh: Farley Mowat’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. A wonderful, quick little book. I gave copies to every member of my family and - which is shocking - they read it.
5. One book that made you cry: A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons. I sobbed because Ruby was childless. I sobbed because Jack was alone. I sobbed a lot.
6. One book that you wish had been written: Elizabeth Tudor’s Private Diary Full of Juicy Secrets.
7. One book that you wish had never been written: I could list some of the books that inspired evil in the world, but, human nature being what it is, the evil probably would have happened anyway with a different book for inspiration. So I’ll go with annoyingly bad writing. How about the entire Left Behind series?
8. The book that you are currently reading: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes. Shut up.
9. One book that you have been meaning to read: We Made A Garden by Margery Fish. It’s a classic of garden writing, published in 1956. It sat on my shelf for a month before I realized that, since we might be moving to the arid southwest, it was too heartbreaking to read about gardening anywhere it rains.
I would love to see how Bub and Pie and edj answer this.
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10. Books you don’t enjoy: Anything with the following descriptions in the blurb: “coming of age in the sixties,” “exploring the power of desire,” “darkly sensual” or “kafkaesque.”
11. Book you remember as a real page-turner: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.
12: Non-fiction books you have enjoyed: Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg, a beautiful tribute by the author to his grandfather, and Divorced, Beheaded, Survived by Karen Lindsey, a scintillating account of the lives of the wives of Henry VIII.
13: Children’s books your family has loved: My girls are toddlers, so the big ones around here are picture books. Books that they love and I love to read to them would be Cotton Mill Town by Kathleen Hershey (my favorite), The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky, any of the tales of Beatrix Potter, and the Gossie series by Oliver Dunrea.
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bubandpie
I was just thinking - hey, I wanna steal this meme! I’m on it!
Her Bad Mother
What a wonderful meme. If I weren’t backed up on posts, I’d tag myself!
Blog Antagonist
Oh Thank You. I thought I was the only non-Heathcliffe swooner. I totally didn’t get his appeal and I didn’t understand why so many people thought Wuthering Heights was such a fabulous book. I found it depressing.
I enjoyed reading your answers. I’m usually a meme snob, but I can totally get behind a literary meme.
Beck
Heathcliff was such a jerk. I absolutely do NOT get women who like bad guys. Not on any level. ANd I am so with you on wishing away the Left Behind books…
Teacher lady
Well done, Ms. Mitchell. And now, off to the local library to borrow Wuthering Heights. For shame, I have never read it!
ECR
If I did this meme, I would look like the most uneducated excuse for an English major on the face of the (English speaking) planet. All I know about John Donne is that it’s pronounced “Dun.” I mean, I think it is. Right?
And I never read Wuthering Heights.
I’m a bit embarrassed right now.
bubandpie
I put Heathcliff in the love-to-hate category. A magnetic villain at best, but not romantic hero material at all.
And the Left Behind series? An inspired choice for book-to-obliterate-from-the-face-of-the-planet. Too bad you took it first.
Chilihead2
My mother LOVES Wuthering Heights (I’m more about the Jane Eyre, myself). I don’t get it.
Thanks for playing!
Kim
Can’t begin to say how much I’m with you on the Left Behind trash.
allrileyedup
Love this meme. I don’t deny he is a total jerk, but I always felt sorry for Heathcliff. Catherine totally worked him over.
Mommy!!
Well, dangit, I forgot to add Donne to my list! I love his writings, although “Hymn to God My God, in my Sickness” makes me sad and “The Flea” sort of embarrasses me. I guess I could put Jonathan Swift in there, too. I loved his “Modest Proposal.” Too funny!
And I always felt sorry for Heathcliff, too, although I didn’t really like him, either. I wanted to slap Catherine on more than one occassion, though.
Mrs. T
I guess I need to read Wuthering Heights! I am guilty of ALWAYS falling for bad boys. Fortunately, I did not marry one. And for the love of god, what is with those Left Behind books? I’d like to leave them ALL behind!
edj
I totally agree with your take on Wuthering Heights. I had to re-read it this year because I had a student write on it, and I realized, all over again, that I really don’t like any of the characters in that book and don’t really understand why it’s a classic.
Thanks for thinking of me. This meme looks like fun.
Barb
Heathcliff was a little off his rocker and probably would have been an abuser had they hooked up.
In the Heart of the Sea made me hold my breath. Great book.
My daughter and her fiance are both knee deep in the Left Behind series. Enthralled. I can just see everyone out there trying to rub this comment off their screen. But they are. Personally, I’m not interested.
This was a great list. And I got the feeling you’d better like Tarzan or else!
Kathleen Marie
Haha on Heathcliff! These women probably saw on of the movies but never read the book. In the book he is so much more of a scoundral and the only movie that seems to portray him correctly is the version staring Raplph Fiennes. And I LOVED Tarzan. Excellent book and I loved Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. EXCELLENT writing and they are so far superior to the movies.
Anonymous
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