What Happens to a Meme Deferred?
No one tagged me, but how could I let that stop me? Cut and pasted from dear Ann Powers.
A book that changed my life: Sound and Sense (back-up: Grendel by John Gardner)
A book I've read more than once: The White Album by Joan Didion (back-up: Money by Martin Amis)
A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island: I guess you’d be a sucker not to take something huge, and I guess you’d maybe be more of a sucker to take something that you identify too closely with the misery of real life. If there were a complete collected works of Charles Dickens, I would take that—but I would have to make sure that the print was big enough for my increasingly functionless eyes to make sense of. Failing that, I liked the Bullfinch’s Mythology answer by Ms. AP. You want to believe you’d take a collected Shakespeare, but it would be a little oppressive after a while. Norton Anthology? Definitely fiction. Definitely big.
A book that made me laugh: The last time I read Portnoy’s Complaint (in a thatch-roof hut on a tiny island in the South Pacific) I laughed so hard it scared the lizards away and made the Aussies wonder if perhaps I had a few ‘roos loose in the top paddock.
A book that made me cry: Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction (both stories, different reasons)
A book that I wish had been written: My Effortless Brilliance, by Sean Nelson.
A book I wish had never been written: I don’t care. How can you wish a book un-written? So harsh. I mean, The Bible, because of all the terrible things people have done because of it (like, uh, believing it), but then, you could also basically wipe away 75% of all Western culture with it. Maybe Illusions by Richard Bach? But only because of all the theater girls I loved in high school who made me pretend to read it. The Celestine Prophecy (a/k/a The Philistine Heresy)? For Common Things by Jedediah Purdy (what a d-bag!)?
A book I've been meaning to read: Everything by Don DeLillo. I tried to read White Noise and thought it was awful, like a Stanley Kramer movie or something—relevant to its time, maybe, but painful now. Then I read Running Dog and thought it was great. So now I reckon I’ll try Libra.
I'm currently reading: Patrimony by Philip Roth, Libra by Don DeLillo
A Book I Wish I'd Written: I feel that way about every book. And every song. And every film. To the extent that when I don’t like something, I even feel relieved, like, well, it’s probably ok that I didn’t write that, even though it’s reprehensible that I’m not writing, even now. The feeling is more like “I wish I were capable of having written that.” Most recently, most palpably: The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem.
A book that changed my life: Sound and Sense (back-up: Grendel by John Gardner)
A book I've read more than once: The White Album by Joan Didion (back-up: Money by Martin Amis)
A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island: I guess you’d be a sucker not to take something huge, and I guess you’d maybe be more of a sucker to take something that you identify too closely with the misery of real life. If there were a complete collected works of Charles Dickens, I would take that—but I would have to make sure that the print was big enough for my increasingly functionless eyes to make sense of. Failing that, I liked the Bullfinch’s Mythology answer by Ms. AP. You want to believe you’d take a collected Shakespeare, but it would be a little oppressive after a while. Norton Anthology? Definitely fiction. Definitely big.
A book that made me laugh: The last time I read Portnoy’s Complaint (in a thatch-roof hut on a tiny island in the South Pacific) I laughed so hard it scared the lizards away and made the Aussies wonder if perhaps I had a few ‘roos loose in the top paddock.
A book that made me cry: Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction (both stories, different reasons)
A book that I wish had been written: My Effortless Brilliance, by Sean Nelson.
A book I wish had never been written: I don’t care. How can you wish a book un-written? So harsh. I mean, The Bible, because of all the terrible things people have done because of it (like, uh, believing it), but then, you could also basically wipe away 75% of all Western culture with it. Maybe Illusions by Richard Bach? But only because of all the theater girls I loved in high school who made me pretend to read it. The Celestine Prophecy (a/k/a The Philistine Heresy)? For Common Things by Jedediah Purdy (what a d-bag!)?
A book I've been meaning to read: Everything by Don DeLillo. I tried to read White Noise and thought it was awful, like a Stanley Kramer movie or something—relevant to its time, maybe, but painful now. Then I read Running Dog and thought it was great. So now I reckon I’ll try Libra.
I'm currently reading: Patrimony by Philip Roth, Libra by Don DeLillo
A Book I Wish I'd Written: I feel that way about every book. And every song. And every film. To the extent that when I don’t like something, I even feel relieved, like, well, it’s probably ok that I didn’t write that, even though it’s reprehensible that I’m not writing, even now. The feeling is more like “I wish I were capable of having written that.” Most recently, most palpably: The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem.
posted by Sean Nelson at 12:05 PM
3 Comments:
Illusions by Richard Bach - Could not agree with you more. Due to this book I spent a good portion of my adult life avoiding falling feathers in fear that some silly new age boy I was dating at the time would think it was a sign that we were meant to be together forever. Ugh.
And don't even get me started on The Celestine Prophecy... Double ugh.
Sadly I've read them both, only so I could criticize them with a clear conscience.
I still say I am going to write a sci-fi book someday and start my very own cult. That's where the money is.
But you should read Being There by Jerzy Kosinski if you have not already.
For DeLillo, I suggest Americana. I keep trying to find time to read Underworld, but I don't think that's going to happen until I'm Dr. Heathalouise.
there is one paragraph worth reading in Libra. move on to Underworld for pure, hopeless, mental masturbation.
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