Bookends

Praise be! The multi-lingual Mr. Atthebackofthehill has tagged me with a fun Book MEME. Thank you- finally I can legitimately write a post unconnected to war and misery!

1. One book that changed your life?
One?! It would be "The Musicians of Auschwitz" by Fania Fenelon.
(Close runner-up is *title censored* lent to me sometime last year by my friend RF- big shout out to you, and thanks for changing my life.)

2. One book you have read more than once?
Ooh so many. "The Handmaid's Tale", by Margaret Atwood.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Can I say "Goodnight Mr. Tom" by Michelle Magorian? I loved that book so much as a child.
Alternatively, I might take the Guinness Book of Hit Singles- then I could amuse myself for years, and sing too.

4. One book that made you laugh?
"Bridget Jones' Diary" by Helen Fielding. And out loud, and often! So sue me.

5. One book that made you cry?
Ah, they all do: But I can specifically remember sniffling at "Brave New World" (A. Huxley), "Great Expectations" (C. Dickens) and, um, "Fever Pitch" (N. Hornby). Yes, I too have noticed that those are all by men: Where's that AA commenter when you need him?!

6. One book you wish had been written?
I think that's a clear toss-up between "Healthy for Life with the Milk Chocolate Diet", "Middle East Peace in Ten Easy Steps" and "My Crazy Rock Star Life- An Autobiography" by Ms. P. Parrot. Guess which one still has an outside chance of being written…

7. One book you wish had never been written?
Well, there's all the racist tripe, and I could also get all pretentious about religious doctrine, or those professional manuals they charge lots for which tell you nothing.
But instead let's plump for anything by John Grisham since "The Runaway Jury"- talk about flogging a dead horse- the poor deceased equine of "against-all-odds plucky-southern-legal-tales" has been flogged, stripped of it's flesh and had a novelty xylophone made out of it's skeleton.
Ooh- also- "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. Read it, loved it, was SO disappointed when he admitted to embellishing.

8. One book you are currently reading?
"Watching the English" by Kate Fox. (Yes, Yellow Boy, you will get it back one day. And I will pay all fines.)

9. One book you've been meaning to read?
Yeah, right. The top books in my "to read/to finish reading" pile are currently: "This Side of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, "Tuesday's with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, and "From Plato to Nato- Studies in Political Thought" and a whole stack of "Empire", "Q" and "Word" Magazines. Which probably don't count, since this is a Book Meme.

10. Now tag 5 people:
Er, OK.

(DISCLAIMER> I know many people hate MEMEs… So you don't have to do this if you don't want to…and I've also not foisted it upon anyone who has an overtly political/single-issue blog, because you're all busy being political or singly-issued. But if it takes your fancy, absolutely consider yourself tagged!) So now to the "lucky" 5:

Titania, the new local blog on the block
Ushyman
Karma

HolyLand Hipster
MCAryeh

And special bonus tags for:
Graham (who has probably done it before, but I know he likes these things.)

Frumgirl

A the (not-got-much-tourguiding right now) Tourguide

Happy Reading/Distraction!