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So Gwen is preying on my lingering 10-year-old’s fear of breaking the chain. And that’s just evil. But at least I don’t have to write it out ten times by hand, so I’m game…
Number of books I own:
I don’t suppose I’m actually meant to count them. All I can tell you is that there are over a thousand of the damn things about, and that this pleases me to no end. Oh, and, although I fall short in the classification department, I do know that de Sade is in the WC. Make of it what you will…
Last book I bought:
But haven’t yet read (yeah Amazon bookseller, I’m talking to you): The Funnies by J. Robert Lennon
Last book I read:
The last outstanding book I read was Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
A.A. Milne’s When we were very young: the first book I remember being read to me, along with Pooh; the first I memorised thanks to my very patient mother’s constant rereading upon my pleading (for which I got payback when my own kids begged for Green Eggs and Ham every **%@#ing night for a year – ‘Hey, Mom, you forgot the fox in the box’). Its rhythms are deeply imprinted on my brain.
Camus’s L’étranger: the first grown-up book that sent me for a loop. Read and re-read till the pages called, ‘Mercy! It can’t possibly be that good.’ It is.
Dennis Lee’s Civil Elegies. Blew me away at a time when I (very mistakenly) thought I’d seen it all. And filled me with faith and delight in my own landscapes.
Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan for introducing me to graphic novels – allowing me to keep reading comic books while perpetuating the illusion of being all growed up.
At the risk of… well, you know. Joyce’s Ulysses. The book we all wished we’d written.
And so to pass the baton onto others (ha ha, suckas!):
Susan
Margaret
Ruth
Mark (in an arm-twisting attempt to get him to take off that super hero mask for just a minute)
Jon (if only to confirm that he and Heather also read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War when honing their parenting skills)
Michael
and Dale.
And, of course, invite you all to play along.
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Comment
- If had known about your inability to resist breaking a chain, I’d have sent this tidbit on to you:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/bibliovixen/248239.html
— roggey Jun 16, 3:53pm # - Isn’t it an offence to attempt to pass a meme to seven people?
And you know the name of wood’s lot !
— Margaret Jun 16, 11:55pm # - Last day of school, I stagger out of bed at 6 am, which is an exercise in stoicism due to the fact that I went to bed a mere two-and-a-half hours previously, having photoshopped and FLICKR’d until the wee hours. Now I must face the day, so after feeding dogs I check in with my cyber-homies and am reading with a mushy brain until suddenly, at the bottom of your post, I spot a name. It is my name. No, can’t be. Lots of other people with that name. Every third North-American female born between 1940 and 1955 has that name. I click and it links to my blog.
And while it’s true I hate chain letters and petitions, I think it’s fun to hear about other people’s mind-altering reading adventures, plus I was flattered to be included in your hit list, so I’m game.
# of books owned? Fewer as the decades go on, what with moving thousands of miles and re-inventing myself so many times (wizmo version 8.2 last I counted). And let’s not forget my severe minimalist phase when I donated my entire and very substantial library of photography books to a university, and gave away so much people thought I was headed for a monastery. Now I mostly buy them for my classroom, to subvert young minds.
Last book bought:
The Elephants of Style : A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English by Bill Walsh, authour of Lapsing into a Comma.
Last book read:
Vanity Fair by Thackery, in an attempt to read some of the classics I missed when I turned my nose up at Western civilisation in favor of Eastern thought back in my teens. I loved it.
Five books that mean a lot?
Winnie the Pooh- Absolutely formative
Phantom Tollbooth-ditto
Pride and Prejudice-Practically know it by heart
All and Everything, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson-quirky and as the author says, not written in the literary bon ton language, but almost as comprehensive as the title claims, full of life and humor and wisdom woven into images and stories.
I Ching-Solid advice wrapped in poetic imagery.
— wizmo Jun 17, 1:55am # - Roggey, you vixen: don’t you dare.
Margaret: that’s the cleverest attempt to weasel-out I’ve ever seen. Kudos.
And, Susan, my dear, the rules state that you have to post your answers on your own site, and pass the meme along to others. Hence the pain of the chain.
“Lapsing into a comma.” Ha. Wish I’d thought of that.
— gail Jun 17, 9:10am # - 1. Number of books I own: Hmmm. Don’t know. I brought all the belletristics to my fiance’s place because I needed the space for technical and linguistic literature. So I am in a small space with many books.
2. Last book I bought: John Steinbeck, Cannery Row. Used, 1963. Translation: “The only official translation”, but no translator is credited.
3. Five books that mean a lot to me:
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: The Principles of Orchestration. A great book, and a great way to dive into the music of the author. Brainfood for at least 20-30 years.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2591): When I was a kid, I had a concussion and the doctor told me not to read anything. My bed was moved into the living room, where the only books I could find worth reading were Grimm’s Fairy tales. I read them, three days, three volumes.
Marcus Hammerschmitt, Polyplay: When I listen to music I never just listen. It’s more like watching the musicians perform with my eyes closed. I always think along the lines of, how would I arrange this part, how does this moment fit into the four to six minutes of the piece, etc. I just can’t turn it off, so I have long since decided to appreciate it. Polyplay was the first book I ever read with a similar viewpoint, which was quite an experience.
Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum: sforzando, pianissimo, andante, piu andante, crescendo, accelerando, finale furioso. Too bad the point of it all is such a spoiler to tell. Great interpretation of addiction to conspiracy theories.
Two or three books by Nicolaus Harnoncourt could make it into the list, maybe.
— .~. Jun 17, 12:52pm # - am flattered gail, and will do my best to post it on my own site and pass it on without mentioning the English Patient…..ooops.
— ruth Jun 17, 2:55pm # - Hmmm, and hmmm again… I join ruth in being flattered, and Susan/wizmo in her understandable resistance to chains. But heck: any excuse to dig into forgotten corners of my bookshelves is welcome, so I’m game, and will get cracking this evening…
— michael Jun 17, 5:18pm # - Ulysses is the book I wish nobody had written, actually, along with Finnegans Wake. But I’m not “we all”, so it’s OK.
— Simon Jun 18, 9:38am # - about 500
Violet en de Dood —Gerard Reve, Dutch
something not good from Hrabal
Under The Vulcano —Malcolm Lowry
Die Andere Seite —Alfred Kubin
The Idiot —Dostoyewski
Don Quichote —Cervantes
All Lyrics —Jacques Brel
— Crachà t Jun 18, 9:10pm # - then can i add all lyrics joni mitchell?
— ruth Jun 19, 9:16pm # - Sorry I didn’t follow the directions, but Gail, I’m a teacher, and everyone knows that teachers are the absolute worst direction-followers. It’s a fact!
Besides, I don’t know seven other bloggers well enough to infect them with a meme. I’d better re-think my e-social life!
— wizmo Jun 20, 5:04pm # - Gail,
Thanks for the tag:
http://www.blurbomat.com/archives/2005/06/20/summer_reading
— blurb Jun 22, 6:09am # - Dear Anonymous!
More than half a year after the fact, I read your comment on my book “Polyplay” here in Gail Armstrong’s blog. It is precious to me for two reasons. First, it made a lousy evening shine. Second, it gave me a perspective on my own novel I’d never even thought about. To take a look at it in terms of musical structure – how interesting. Thank you so much!
All the very best,
M. Hammerschmitt
— Marcus Hammerschmitt Mar 1, 5:17pm #
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