He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. —Psalm 113:9

August 25, 2006

Now that there's time for reading once again...

Matt reserved the tuxes. That just leaves arranging the flower bouquets, and my bridesmaids are sticking around to help with that after the shower on Saturday. Almost there. Woo!

And now, I meme. I'm not generally much of a meme sort of person, but I saw this book meme in Bojojoti's LJ the other day and it grabbed me. Maybe because I don't talk about books nearly as much as I should, and I'd like to remind myself and others that I do, in fact, read:

1. One book that changed your life?
I would say the Bible, but that's pretty much a given. So instead I'll change things up and go with Women With Attention Deficit Disorder by Sari Solden. Because if I had any lingering doubts about whether I had ADD when I picked up the book, by the time I finished it I not only had no doubt but also had a greater understanding of my type of the disorder and what I could do to keep it from interfering with my ability to be a functional adult. I highly recommend it not only for anyone who suspects they might have ADD, but also for anyone who is in any kind of relationship with a woman who has ADD, because this will help you understand what it's like to be her and why she does the seemingly stupid things she does. And, hopefully, make it a little easier for you to forgive and accept the way she is.

2. One book you have read more than once?
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I read this one way back when it first came out, having only a passing familiarity with "that Sandman guy." I loved it enough to recommend it to friends a few years later, and when they tried to enthusiastically discuss it with me and I found I didn't remember a lot of what they were going on about, I picked it up again and found new layers that I'd missed the first time, as tends to happen. I've read it again since then, and it's come to feel like an old friend.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
The Bible. I'm not just saying that because I have to. Spending time in the Word centers me and gives me a sense of peace and calm like nothing else, save prayer. It would keep me from losing my mind.

4. One book that made you laugh?
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman (again) and Terry Pratchett. It's like Monty Python meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (another book--series of books, really--that made me laugh) meets the Book of Revelation. Irreverent and naughty and hilarious.

5. One book that made you cry?
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. If you've read it, you know what and why. If you haven't read it, you should. And then keep going with the rest of the series (to date), because it only gets better.

6. One book you wish had been written?
I've got about three partial manuscripts on the back burner that I wish could write themselves.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
I don't tend to think that just because I don't like or agree with something, it loses its right to exist and be enjoyed by other people who don't share my brain or my beliefs. That said, the world would probably be better off without any book that was written with the intent of inciting people to evil acts. Or without unbalanced propaganda in general.

8. One book you are currently reading?
I'm slowly but surely working my way through A Confederacy of Dunces. It's... not as funny as all the blurbs on the cover led me to expect, but it has its moments. Mostly I just feel sorry for the main character, who I suspect is an undiagnosed high-functioning autistic. He reminds me of this kid in my sister's ED class when I was interning, and what he'll probably turn out to be without the proper intervention, and... yeah. Kind of a painful read, which is why it's taking me so long. But I'm also re-reading Stardust (another Neil Gaiman fairy tale) in anticipation of the movie, and finding that I like it much better than I remembered. And it's moving along much more quickly.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
The Catcher in the Rye has been sitting on my shelf started but not finished for years. Ditto 1984. I always plan to get back to them.

10. Now tag five people.
Er... no. But if you run with it, please comment and let me know. I'd love to read your version.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Popped in to comment on your exquisite taste! You've named many of my favorite books.

I love Neverwhere. It was just perfect. Stardust was good, but it wasn't as appealing to me.

I can't wait for George R. R. Martin to get another installment out. He had the thing nearly written, I thought, what with dividing the book and printing only half the characters. I love his characters. He better write about Jon Snow, Jaime, and Brienne next time, or... I don't have a good threat, but, darn it, I don't want to wait a handful of years to read more about them.

I loved your claddagh rings. I showed them to my son, and he is thinking of getting his girlfriend a sterling silver one for Christmas. She is a Buffy fan (we corrupted her), so she should enjoy it.

The wedding is drawing near! I hope you'll share wedding photos.

bojojoti

Anonymous said...

Everyone keeps telling me to read George RR Martin - I should relly get on that.

I read Catcher in the Rye a few years ago. I was in my late 20's and ... hated it. The people I know who like it read it as teens. I think it really speaks to that disaffected, "I'm so smart but so disenfranchised I'll never be recognized for my brilliance", Buffy S1/Dawn S5, teenager.

Good luck - I'll be interested to get your take.

Jean Bauhaus said...

Bojojoti -- I love claddagh rings. I've always loved them and kinda fantasized about having one for a wedding ring someday, and I almost didn't get one because of Buffy fandom. Of course now I can't convince anybody who knows me that we didn't choose these rings in homage to Buffy. But that's fine if they want to think so.

Martin mentioned over on his blog a while back that the next book is going to keep going past the timeline where FfC left off and will pick back up with some of the characters from that book. So I'm crossing my fingers for more Jaime and Brienne. But I'm also crossing my fingers that he'll wrap it up and publish the book already.

Garnigal -- It's been too long since I last tried to read it to remember, but that's probably the reason I kept putting CitR back down.

And I'll tell you this about Martin-- A Song of Ice and Fire is a hard series to get into (it took me a year of slogging through the first three hundred pages of the first book and wondering why I should care about these charactes before I finally got hooked), but it's totally worth it.

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