One of my very favorite bloggers, from back when the blogosphere was very new and all, asked me to try my hand at this meme and who am I to turn down the illustrious and wonderful Tony Woodlief? Besides, I love answering these things. Tony wants to know what someone with lots of children hanging around deems worthy of rare book time. Unfortunately, I find that I rarely deem anything good worthy of that time, because good books generally require thought and thinking time. I've always like a bit of fluff reading, but I think I turn to it even more these days, because it fulfills my desire to be reading something, while not requiring my brain to actually work too hard.

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?

Tony chose several books he'd be willing to memorize and I know I could think of a lot -- I already have The Complete Works of Sandra Boynton memorized, but the book that first comes to mind is Alice in Wonderland. I love the story and the dialog and if I had to have something playing in my head all the time, I think that's one I wouldn't tire of swiftly.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

I can't remember any crushes off-hand, but there were a lot of fictional characters that I wanted to be -- particularly Anne Shirley and Harriet the Spy.

3. The last book you bought was...?

I pre-ordered Harry Potter for myself, but the last book I actually bought was the Family Treasury of Bible Stories by Roberto Brunelli. It has gorgeous illustrations and I enjoyed the way the Bible stories were told. One complaint though is that the author doesn't include enough, because the book is limited to fifty-two stories, so that you can do one per week for a year, many things are left out, which isn't exactly the best way to do a Bible. This, of course, is not an actual Bible, but I still would have liked to see more than what is included.

4. The last book you read was...?

The actual last book I read was a version of Tarzan by Robert San Souci, but if the question means the last book I read to myself -- well, I just finished Amanda Bright @ Home by Danielle Crittenden a few weeks ago. I remember when it was serialized by Opinion Journal, but hadn't gotten around to reading it back then, so when I ran across it at the library, I picked it up. It wasn't a great book and it never pretended to be one, but it was a fun read and not deserving the many scathing reviews it has on Amazon.

5. What are you currently reading?

I'm reading two things at the moment, though I suppose neither counts as much a book. I'm reading Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase -- because a commenter a week or so ago asked if I'd seen any of Loretta Chase's recent books and I discovered I had missed the last several.

I'm also reading The Weekend Chef by Barbara Witt. I love the idea of once-a-month or once-a-week (since I do not own nor have room for a deep freeze) cooking, but other books I have read on the subject mostly contain recipes that are not my style. I'm a good cook. I like to cook fairly gourmet meals and this book has a lot more interesting recipes, though there are still not that many recipes I want to try, it still has been up my alley and given me ideas for other things to try for my freezer.

6. Five books you would take to a desert island...

Such questions are always so arbitrary and probably tell you little about a person, because heading off to a desert island, I would take things that would keep me occupied for a long time, not necessarily the stuff I would enjoy the most right now. But then what I should really take is probably not just reading material, but guides to living on the island.

So I would take -- for reading purposes: The Bible, The Complete Works Shakespeare, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, a Norton Anthology of Poetry, and a book with both The Illiad and The Odyssey.

If I was going to have to be a survivalist, I'd swap out some of the reading material (I'm not sure what) and take a Boy Scout Handbook and a Medical Encyclopedia.

7. Who are you passing this stick on to and why?

I haven't checked with anyone to see if they are willing, but I would think The Llamas would have something interesting to say. I'd also like to pass this on to Terry -- because I just think he's funny and well read. And finally, Blair -- because I want to see if she mentions Modesty Blaise.

Posted by Jordana ~ May 11, 2005 10:26 AM