I'm *it*

I was tagged by Kasey. (Hi Kasey!).

1. What is a book that changed your life?

There are so many... I'll just go with the first two that come immediately to mind, and are diametrically opposed. Plato's Republic, read at age 18 in an intro to political theory course in college. It was a big reason behind my decision to major in pol. theory, and my secret desire to be a philosopher king (queen). And Mary Daly's Beyond God the Father, which I read in my early twenties and which nicely conflicted with my lingering patriarchal/religious sentiments.

2. What is a book you've read more than once?

I try to read everything at least twice; there's all this stuff you miss the first time around, so this is hard to answer. But a few that I have read over the years so many times I've lost count: all the Little House on the Prairie books ( I mean from age 7 to about 13 I read them over and over and over, and I still read them once in a while), all the Louisa May Alcott books, Jane Eyre, The Godfather (I have no idea why, but I was really into mafia shit when I was teenager), The Queen's Confesssion (a cheesy but very entertaining book by the romance novelist Victoria Holt about Marie Antoinette. It's a page turner. And I learned a lot about the historical facts and characters surrounding the French Revolution. Seriously. Historical biographies rule.) Anna Karenina, Foucault's Madness and Civilization, Swann's Way. MFK Fisher's The Gastronomical Me.

3. What is a book you'd want with you on a desert island?

Proust I guess, tho I don't really have an essential book.

4. What is a book that made you giddy?

Swann's Way. Those amazing sentences.

5. What is a book that made you sad?

Well, Paul Bowles's A Sheltering Sky made me depressed. Does that count?

6. What is a book you wish had been written?

Whenever I'm reading a good book I wish I'd written it.

7. What is a book you wish had never been written?

The bible.

8. What is a book you're currently reading?

I'm generally in the habit of reading several at once. Right now it's: The Portable Hannah Arendt, Daniel Deronda, Clark Coolidge's Space, Fredric Jameson's A Singulsr Modernity, Raymond Williams's Marxism and Literature.

9. What is one book you've been meaning to read?

Ha! Let's make this easier. Here's my Amazon wishlist

10. Now tag five bloggers.

Michael Schmidt, Shashi Thandra, Mr. Waggish, Kaplan Harris, Sarah Ruddy