Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Tagged! Book meme

Yaxlich, a very cool guy over there in the land of mentally mixed-up royalty (Wills is cute, though), tagged me with a meme. It's about books, and I do so love books!







1. One book that changed your life - the hardest question first.

Boy, this is hard. One book? Just one book? Well, I'll say that this book had me fall in love with reading and literature at an early age: 70 Favorite Stories for Young Readers. It features work by contributors such as Louisa May Alcott, O. Henry, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ray Bradbury, James Thurber, Walter de la Mare, and others whose significance in the literary world would dawn on me several years later.

2. One book that you've read more than once.
Another tough one. I've read so many books over and over. One of the most recent would be Gai-jin, by James Clavell. I enjoy historical fiction, and this one just grabbed me and swallowed me whole. It was like I was actually seeing and living life in mid-19th-century Japan, when honor and duty were the way of life there. I've also re-read Clavell's other historical books, notably Tai-Pan and Shogun.

3. One book that you'd want on a desert island.
Damn, I can't answer this! It's like asking me to choose only one food to eat for the rest of my life. Can I ask for broadband Internet connection instead so that I'd be able to download all the e-books I want to read? Oh, maybe Xaviera Hollander's Letters to the Happy Hooker (tee hee)

4. One book that made you laugh.
Seinlanguage, by Jerry Seinfeld. Also, Erma Bombeck's If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? And the classic English As She Is Spoke--this one is a must read.

5. One book that made you cry.
I cry even at commercials and funny movies. Okay. The Diary of Anne Frank. Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Erich Segal's Love Story. (yeah, yeah, I read sappy love stories. Shoot me.) The Little Mermaid in an anthology of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales (one reason I never deigned to watch the Disney movie version. The bastards desecrated my favorite fairy tale).

6. One book that you wish you had written.
I wish I could have contributed to Songs of Ourselves: Writings by Filipino Women in English, edited by Edna Zapanta-Manlapaz. A wondrous collection of literature by Filipinas in and out of the Philippines.

Otherwise...hmmm. None, really. There are many that I've savored, but I've yet to find one that will make me wish I'd written it. Maybe one day I'll write one and somebody will say "Gee, I wish I'd written that book!" Dream on, girlie.

7. One book you wish had never been written.
Hmmm. None, really. There are many that I've disliked, but I've yet to find one that will make me wish it had never been written. Maybe one day I'll write one and somebody will say "Gee, I wish that book had never been written!" Bite your tongue, girlie.

8. One book that you are reading at the moment.
I have three. Points of View: An Anthology of Short Stories, edited by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny; The 100 Best Poems of All Time, edited by Leslie Pockell, and the Reader's Digest Book of Facts. All of which I'm re-reading, by the way. I alternate them. One for before going to sleep, one for when I'm doing my thing in the bathroom, one for "just because."

9. One book that you've been meaning to read.
Jeff Bezos: Business Genius of Amazon.com, by Judy Garty. Never mind the tarmac-like forehead. He made a fortune out of selling books. He's awesome.

10. Five others that you’d like to do this.
I'm tagging other blatantly obvious bibliophiles. Mimi, Gale, H, Morgen, inamini, Irene, Ian, and Prometheus. Oh, that's eight. What the heck. I never did learn to deal with numbers. Of course, anyone who wants to do this, feel free. Leave a comment and I'll read your book list.

Thanks, Yaxlich! This was fun.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool to learn about your reading habits. Of the ones you listed, I've only read Seinlanguage, but it was great!!
Thanks for sharing.

Mimi Lenox said...

Lizza....We're playing tag?? Oh, what fun!
I've read several of the books you mentioned and want to read all those you so eloquently described. And don't joke around about your writing abilities, my dear. You are quite entertaining and intelligent.
I would read anything you penned. So....I'm tagging you to write a book! Reminds me, I really need to work on mine.
I so enjoyed this post!

H said...

hey lizza sweets... have already been tagged that tag-list. here's the link. but if you'd like I could do it again. just for you babeh! [oily rhyming-with-thespian grin]

here's the link...

http://writingourwayhome.blogspot.com/2006/08/for-hb-kira-i-hope-ive-used-it.html

Ian said...

Okay, I'm all done, having spent a thoughtful hour on this post when I shoulda been writing something that might eventually pay the bills or sleeping or something far more productive but less introspective.

Thanks for the tag, Lizza!

Ian

Yaxlich said...

Yaxlich is pleased that Lizza decided to play tag with him and he is now off to read all of her taggees answers.

Is taggee a real word?

Yaxlich

Yaxlich said...

Tagee

Yaxlich said...

Nope. That doesn't look right to Yaxlich either.

Anonymous said...

I want to play! Can I? :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Lizza! Great to learn that you are a bookworm!

just like me! ;)

Lizza said...

Thank you all!
Gale: Oh, yes. I'm a softie deep inside; my heart is really just one giant marshmallow. I hope losing your tag cherry wasn't too painful. :-D

Michael: Yes, Seinlanguage is a funny book. Loved Seinfeld the TV show too!

Mimi: I have no literary birthing pains of epic proportions as yet--at least not enough to constitute writing a book. But I will someday. I just need to impregnate my mind first. :-) Looking forward to reading yours!

H: Ohh, you've done it already. I'll go have a look-see. :-)

Ian: Haha! Introspection is good. Thanks for sharing.

Yaxlich: Well, tagee is a word now! Thanks again.

Ghostrose: Join in the fun! I'd love to find out what books made an impact on you.

Osman: That goes for you too. :-)

Mo and The Purries said...

Lizza, since Brad broke my tag-cherry, I should be an expert tagger by now, eh?
I'll get right on this, and let you know when I'm done. Thanks!

Mo and The Purries said...

Lizza: my meme tag list is up now!

Lizza said...

Thanks, Morgen! I think I'd enjoy reading some of the books you mentioned.

ela zawrat said...

Hi there, I like The Unbearable Lightness of Being too, I don't remember if it made me cry when I first read it - maybe... I grew up under the marital law in Poland and it looked a little bit like in this book...
Anyway, I have your blog bookmarked. I'm looking forward to learn more about you and the Philippines. See you later!
Ela

Lizza said...

Welcome, ela. It made me cry for many personal reasons, I guess. Or maybe because I'm just silly. Thank you very much for your kind words. I've bookmarked your blog too. It looks very interesting indeed. You're an artist! And a good one at that.

Prometheus said...

Yaaarghhh! Never, Lizzie, never do that to a bookworm like Prometheus. ONE book? By Olympus, you'd be lucky if he could stop at 16384. Liver-gnawing vultures? Yes, Prometheus can take them, but selecting ONE book will gnaw at his brain a tad too much. You have sincerest apologies of this Titan, for he cannot oblige this tag. Tag him with anything else, he promises to be tagged, stapled, stuck, whatever. Not THIS one.

Lizza said...

Hah! No problem, Prometheus. I wouldn't want to put you through the agony. But I'm holding you to your promise, you know. :-) I'll find an extra special tag just for you!