Book Meme

I just noticed that Yehuda has tagged me with this Book meme. These are just the sort of questions I love to answer, so here goes....

1. Book that changed your life.

The Bible of course, specifically the gospels. Pretty much every word that C.S. Lewis ever wrote. More recently True Conversion (Wallis), The Openness of God (Pinnock) and How Going to the Movies Helped Save My Soul (Higgins) have made a huge impact.

2. Book read more than once.

The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), War and Peace (Tolstoy), The Worm Ourobouros (Eddison), Tristram Shandy (Sterne), any of Jane Austen's books. Actually I reread books quite a lot, there are many more I could add to this list. Not quite sure what this says about me - I prefer safety? I spend too much time reading? I'm too mean to buy new books?

3. Book on a Desert Island.

BBC rules - I'm allowed the Bible and Shakespeare anyway? On top of those I think I would want the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations - gives you a window into the whole history of Western thought and culture.

4. Book that made you laugh.

High Fidelity (Hornby), all of Patrick O'Brian's books.

5. Book that made you cry.

Hmm. I don't cry easily, but Persuasion (Austen) gets to me every time.

6. Book you wish you'd written.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Jon McGregor). I loved this book, then heard the author speak at Greenbelt last month, and he made me feel that writing is not only a marvellous thing, but a possible thing too......

7. Book you wish had never been written.

Very hard to say this about any book - I hate the book-burning mentality. I don't think we ever improve the situation by suppressing ideas - not de Sade, not Hitler even.....

8. Book currently reading.

Empire of the Sun (Ballard), which was my choice for our next book group meeting (I belong to a fabulous book group in Richmond West London).
I have also been stuck in the middle of Boswell for several years now.....

9. Book meaning to read.

Don Quixote (Cervantes). And I really will, soon, it's there on the bookshelf waiting for me....

10 Tags ...

Phil, Rob&Bob, Annie, Mayank, Gareth