Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I saw this list a few days ago over at Danielle's A Work in Progress and thought I'd take a shot. I do love lists...


1. ONE BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE Remarque's classic All Quiet on the Western Front was the book that got me reading. It got me interested in lives outside my own. I was in seventh grade and had to do my first big book report. This book opened up the rest of the world for me and I haven't stopped since.

2. ONE BOOK THAT YOU'VE READ MORE THAN ONCE Moby Dick is the book I've read the most, only about three times. I think it's the greatest novel in the English language.

3. ONE BOOK THAT YOU'D WANT ON A DESERT ISLAND I would have to say Don Quixote. I couldn't imagine getting tired of it, no matter how long I stayed on the island.

4. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU LAUGH John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces has to be the smartest, funniest, serious book I've ever read. A perfect read.

5. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY I can't say I've cried while reading or after I've finished a book. But I could have cried for Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's The Idiot or Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

6. ONE BOOK THAT YOU WISH HAD BEEN WRITTEN Danielle mentioned Harper Lee's second novel and I agree with that. I would have liked to see Whitman try his hand at a novel. An epic of America, the Civil War, Brooklyn. That I would have read.

7. ONE BOOK THAT YOU WISH HAD NEVER BEEN WRITTEN Mein Kampf

8. ONE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING E.M. Forster's first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread. My first Forster and I can't say I'm highly impressed.

9. ONE BOOK YOU'VE BEEN MEANING TO READ Shelby Foote's first volume of the Civil War. I'm halfway through, but haven't finished it yet. I'll get there. Book I've been meaning to read, but have never opened? List is endless...

Thanks for the idea Danielle!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh, someone else who wants Don Quixote on that desert island.

Mike B. said...

If Don Quixote was on one of those tiny books that can fit on the tip of your finger, I'd take it with me everywhere.

Anonymous said...

[Why aren't there any more of those beautiful photos that you used to post at the beginning?]

Rebecca H. said...

I must read Don Quixote, musn't I? It's a major one I've been missing.

Mike B. said...

May, maybe I will post some more of my photos from time to time. I've been concentrating on reading and writing so much that I stopped posting photos.

Dorothy, I didn't read Don Quixote until college and I've only read it once. But even before that I always thought I had read it because the story was so familiar. It's a large book, but it's invaluable.

Anonymous said...

I am going to have to read Don Quixote, too. Actually I have the new translation just sitting there waiting for me! I need to also read All Quiet on the Western Front, too!

Mike B. said...

I would say that The Idiot is one of my favorite novels and Myshskin one of the best characters. I couldn't recommend a book more.