Book Meme

Found at a blog called The Meat of the Madness which is kind of a cool site, if you like meat and southern CA. :-)

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book would you want to be?

I kind of like the idea of an asbestos book, but that's not too original. I think I'd like to be a book filled with hidden dynamite so that when burned I catch the damn city on fire.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

This week?
I had a thing going for the Hardy Boys (BEFORE the bad 70s show, mind you). I would do anything, positively ANYthing for Robert Parker's Spenser (not, again, the TV incarnation played by Robert Urich). I sorta like Rochester in Jane Eyre too.

There are so many others....

The last book you bought is:

(was) probably a gift. I don't remember, though I'd bet on it being around Christmas-time. I know I bought a bunch then....

Oooh, I double-bought a book called Walk On (by Steve Stockman) for my nephew for Christmas. I've been reading it all spring. It's sitting next to me now; I'm determined to finish it today, not because it's so bad, but because there's a lot to reflect on.

The last book you read:

Does listening to the most recent Harry Potter book on CD count? Because otherwise, it's been a long time. Let me check my reading blog...The Lions of the North (Edward Marston) looks like the last book I finished...six freakin' weeks ago! That's a record for me.

What are you currently reading?

As I said above, I've been working on the Stockman book. I'm also plowing through The Brothers K (David James Duncan), The Four Witnesses (Robin Griffith-Jones), and listening to Blood Lure (Nevada Barr). Seems like I've forgotten one other one.

All this after a 3-month desert in which I did only magazine- and blog-reading. It's nice to be back in the traces.

Five books you would take on a desert island:

I've answered this so many times, I should compile the answers and see if they're all the same.
First, of course, would be The Message (Eugene Peterson).

Then I think I'd probably pack in a single-volume compilation of all of Shakespeare's works.

How about Dante's Hell/Heaven/Purgatory cycle? That would be sort of apropos, wouldn't it.

Another compilation of all the Stephanie Plum books (Janet Evanovich) would be nice to have for comic relief.

I still think the best book to have would be a "How to Survive on a Deserted Island Until You Are Rescued" type book.

It occurs to me that this question really needs to be rewritten/reimagined in this era of ebooks: there's really no longer a limit of number of books, but ohmy would you want to bring along a TON of batteries!!

What book are you ashamed to admit that you haven't read?

People keep trying to make me ashamed of not reading anything by Jane Austen. It has ceased to work. No guilt at all, not a shred left.

I've tried multiple times to read Cry, the Beloved Country. I wish I could get past the first 50 pages.

But I guess the one that I'm totally ashamed--really ashamed, not just wishing I could read, or wanting to read, or whatever...ashamed because I know I'll never ever be able to read it--is the book my dad wrote about 15 years ago and asked me and the Fun Sister to copyedit. We both started, she made it further than I did...and it was so awful that I couldn't bear to finish it. Now, I'm not even sure where my copy is.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 people) and why?

OK, here's the thing: I don't do this normally, but I am anxious to hear from people who don't generally get all talky about their reading. Then again, I'll read all takers' answers.