Remembering Lex's Mini Book Expo ALSO reminded me that I was going to do this book meme from Winter via Andy. Having left on my 6 week Fringe tour without bringing a single goddamn book, I'd been thinking about books, and my lack of them, a lot lately.
1. One book that changed your life:
Well, that's pretty extreme. I've read a lot of books in my day and you'd think I'd remember if one of them had a "change your life" sort of impact. Cunt by Inge Muscio came close, but I think I'll have to go with Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters for this particular question. Not because it was some big gay reveal ("Oh my GOD - I have a crush on MY dance hall partner Kitty too!") but because it was the first lesbonic historical fiction I read and therefore the first time I realized I was not alone in my - ahem - avid interest in Anne of Green Gables-like slash fiction. Furthermore, I realized there's an audience for that kind of sexy corset stuff and it's, uh . . . given my work some focus for the last several years. Thank you, Sarah Waters. Thank you.
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
ONE? I'm the queen of reading books multiple times. But I guess my latest re-read was The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. Atwood chaps my ass most of the time for a variety of reasons and other than The Handmaid's Tale, I'm not a big fan. But I've read The Robber Bride, like, five times. The plot is pretty compelling and I just can't get enough of Roz, Charis, Tony and that evil, evil Zenia. I will admit, however, that since the first read, I always skip Roz and Tony's childhood background parts, 'cause they remind me of Atwood's other books, which I don't like.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
Probably Neuromancer by William Gibson (preferably the trilogy - I think it's out in "one big book" form now, isn't it?). I don't usually dig the science fiction but there's something about Gibson's effortless blending of the technology, the grubby world and the poetry of same that I find breathtaking every time I read it. Lines like "Does its laser vision scan the silent fall of midnight snow?" I mean, seriously. Also, I've read it multiple times and still . . . don't really get parts of it. But I WANT to. Also, Molly/Sally, the chick with the sunglasses set into her skin and the razor-like talons hidden under her fingernails and her tear ducts re-rooted to her mouth so she when she cries, she spits? HOT.
4. One book that made you laugh:
Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Katr gave me this book for Solstice before I had even learned to knit and I worried that I wouldn't get the knitting humour without having the mad knitting skillz to back me up. But Yarn Harlot is just so hilarious anyway that I laughed and laughed, even without knowing shit about knitting. Now that I've been knitting for 8 whole months, I still laugh - but NOW I laugh KNOWINGLY. HA ha - yarn overs - SO TRUE.
5. One book that made you cry:
Fall On Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald. I saw Ann Marie MacDonald read what she called "the sexy bits" of this book at Nightwood Theatre's annual Feminist Cabaret before it even came out and was pretty excited to pick it up. Imagine my surprise when I found that 99% of the book was gut-wrenching. I found it so beautifully written, so rich and evocative and then was so disheartened and vomitous when it ended in that quiet and despairing way that's so popular with Oprah. The sexy bits were very sexy, though.
6. One book that you wish had been written:
Lizzie Liked the Ladies, Ophelia and Gertrude: The REAL Closet Scene and Anne and Diana Were Totally Doing It - Erotic Lesbian Fiction Involving Literature's Best Loved Heroines
How 'bout it, science?
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Fuck I hate that fucking book. I've never burned a book before but that one was so toxic that I was forced to set it alight so that no one could mistakenly say I'd lent it to them. If you haven't read it - and DON'T - it's one of those books where the heroine goes through all kinds of pain, world-inflicted AND self-inflicted and you look forward to her figuring her shit out and having, if not a happy ending, an ending rife with possibilities. Instead, our heroine settles for something that makes her go "meh" and that's the end. I could elaborate, but I've spent enough time on this already. Fucking Wally Lamb. Fucking Oprah, for having the book in her "lives of quiet desperation that never im-fucking-prove" book club. My mouth still fills with bile when I think about it.
8. One book you’re currently reading:
**Spoiler alert!!**
Well, I just finished Wideacre by Philippa Gregory which was deeply engaging in its complete horror. I picked it up for a trashy historical fiction romp - I enjoyed some of Gregory's other books, like The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool quite a lot and was expecting similar courtly intrigue.
Instead, I got patricide, lover-cide, sister on brother incest and sado-masochism, matricide and inbreeding. GAH. And yet, I COULD NOT STOP READING. The main character just kept making these terrible, terrible decisions and I kept thinking "She's gotta pull herself outta this downward spiral SOMEtime, doesn't she? DOESN'T SHE??" But she didn't. The best part is that Wideacre is the first book of a trilogy and I can only assume that one of the two inbred children is the main character in the next book. I expect there will be a lot of drooling.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
I am curiously book-ambition free at the moment, although that may be a form of denial brought on by having to seriously cull our book collection when we moved. I seriously cannot think of anything. Although I suppose that, given the opportunity to re-read the first two books, I would like to continue with the adventures of Thursday Next, Literary Detective, in the hilarious and literary works of Jasper Fforde. I loved the Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book - I think The Well of Lost Plots is next. I love books that make you laugh AND feel real, real smart. Huzzah!
10. Now tag five people I tag anyone who feels like sharing their reading habits. Like Winter, I too find them FASCINATING. No pressure.
