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October 12, 2006
Book Meme
Matt tagged me two weeks ago. Better late than never.
1. One book that changed your life? I'm hard pressed to think of a single title of such import. My introductions to McCarthy and Woolf and Sontag are certainly literary benchmarks in my life, but I see them more as augmentative discoveries, supporting me in a direction I was already headed. If anything actually changed me, it would be those books that introduced me to reading in the first place. I remember a primer version of Pinocchio that, thanks to its illustrations, had a big impact on me, and there were the Star Wars storybooks that were dogeared even as I was still learning the alphabet, but the first novel I ever read, when I was six or seven, was The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. I usually cite that as the one that set me on this path.
2. One book that you have read more than once? I'm more prone to picking up a title and browsing through it, re-reading it in well-loved bits and pieces. The last time I did that and ended up making it through the whole thing was with Graham Greene's The End Of The Affair. But I've read a handful of the scholastic classics multiple times, and there are a lot of books on filmmaking, like Sidney Lumet's Making Movies, which through multiple readings back in the day served as my film school.
3. One book you would want on a desert island? I don't think I can make that call. I really don't. Maybe something like Siddhartha, which might help me come to terms with my fate.
4. One book that made you cry? Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex was the most recent one.
5. One book that made you laugh? I read Moby Dick again earlier this year; I completely missed the first time around how funny it is.
6. One book you wish had been written? I wish I'd written the BFI Modern Classics text on Eyes Wide Shut. Not that I'd necessarily do a better job than Michel Chion, but I'd just like to have had my chance to delve into the film in such an extensively concise format.
7. One book you wish had never been written? A lot of people are saying Mein Kampf; what about The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion?. On a more casual note, there are lots of pop novels and self-help books that annoy me, and while I don't begrudge their existence, per se, I do find myself aghast at the waste of paper.
8. One book you are reading currently? I’ll finish McCarthy's latest, The Road, tonight.
9. One book you have been meaning to read? Rosenbaum's Movie Mutations, which I've been reminded of thanks to the many other responses to this meme. I just ordered it.
10. Pass it on. I think I might be the last one! I'll invite my blogless friends to respond in the comments below, though.
Posted by David Lowery at October 12, 2006 08:32 PM