Monday, January 28, 2008

Now is the time. And then bed.

Live the Gospel! Now is the time. That's the theme of my son's school year and the upcoming mission for Lent. I've been thinking about it a lot and it suits since I'm a born procrastinator. OK, so I should probably be concentrating on the first portion, but the second portion has my attention. So I'm making a list and going through all the minutae that I've been putting off - after reading some blogs, of course. And then Katie tagged me for a meme, and well, now is the time! Right? And then bed because I'm tired. But tomorrow, tomorrow I will work on the list and the minutae and perhaps even a few thoughts about Lent.

1) Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?


 Almost any book that has been featured on Oprah Winfrey's show. I read a few, then was scarred forever by White Oleander. Now, her approval is like a death knell for a book regardless of how many other people recommend it. 


2) If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Dinner, of course. And let's see...Anne of Green Gables, Lord Peter Wimsey, and someone fun and a little crazy. Someone out of a T.R. Pearson novel.

3) (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

4) Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Who? Me? I'm scrupulously honest. 


5) You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP). The 58 Pound Marriage by John Irving. It's a tremendously underappreciated book.
 


6) A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

 Chinese. I suspect that a lot gets lost in translation.

7) A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

I very, very rarely re-read books and then only the very best books after years have passed. So I choose Where the Wild Things Are so I can get it over with and move on with my life.

8) I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)? 

 I have no idea. I might come back to this in a few days. I might not.



9) That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free. My dream library isn't a personal one. It's a public library where the book I want is always on the shelf, where kids can be noisy, and where the lights are very bright.

4 comments:

Kelley said...

I totally agree with you about Oprah's book selections. Big, bad horror, victimized woman, everyone is either dead or crying at the end. Reader left spent.

That's the formula and it never varies. LOL

cheribear said...

If its got an O on it, I'm not reading it either.

It was "She's Come Undone" that did it for me. Or, didn't do it. Whatever.

I took a Women Writers class in University and finished it in disgust. I wondered why my prof figured the only Women Writers worth reading were those who were miserable, wrote miserable stories, and a story wasn't worthy of consideration without incest/homosexuality/sexual abuse/physical abuse/ - it made me sad for Women. We have so much more to write about. Oprah's book club reminds me of that class - only she manages to find depressing, awful books written by men, too!

Kelley said...

"She's Come Undone" was my first clue that the book club was awful. Or was it "The Book of Ruth."

Ick. Bleh. Don't remind me of more.

Mary Witzl said...

What a great meme this is, and how I wish Katie had tagged me too! (Maybe I'll horn in on this, pretending that someone has tagged me.) I like your answers. Our kids loved 'Where the Wild Things Are' and so did we.

While I could not agree with everyone more about Oprah's book club -- and how glad I am that there are others who feel this way! -- I LOVED 'She's Come Undone.' But I didn't need Oprah to tell me to read it. Someone described White Oleanders to me once and told me I just had to read it, and my mouth dropped open. I don't think I'd read that one unless I was desperate. Seriously: I might go for a dental handbook in Spanish first.