Blogger book survey

1. A Book I've Read More Than Once - I no longer read books more than once. I get impatient. As a kid, I read a great deal so as I got older, I sometimes re-read the ones that I was perhaps too young to understand. I think I read the "Anne of Green Gables" series more than once. I definitely read "Little Women" twice. I would like to read Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca" again, because I read it when I was about 11 and I think it's likely I didn't understand most of it.

2. A Book I'd Want With Me on a Desert Island - I would want to have something funny to read, like John Birmingham's "He Died With a Falafel in His Hand." Laughter cures everything. But in the unlikely event that, while on the desert island, I got eaten by a wild boar or bitten by a poisonous snake, I could at least rest assured that I did not die in a shameful way. For example, I did not die of a drug overdose with a Falafel in my hand, which is what happened in the book.

3. A Book That Made Me Laugh - A few books have made me laugh out loud recently. I read Susan Juby's "Alice, I Think" and "Miss Smithers" and they were both a joy. The main character in the novel comes from Smithers, which is where I grew up, so the laughter is usually in recognising the situation, and relating to it on some level. And the other book is a pretty obvious one -- Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island." This non-fiction book follows Bryson, an American writer, as he travels the British countryside. His observations are bang on, and usually hilarious. Unfortunately, he can be quite cynical and critical and if he starts ranting and raving about something you like, then it can put you off immediately. But because, like him, I'm a North American writer living and working in Britain, we have a lot in common. So when I read that book, it felt like I was tapping into something about my experience.

4. A Book That Made Me Cry - "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams makes me want to cry. It's very sweet book. More recently, "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger broke my heart. I cried on the train.

5. A Book I Wish Had Been Written - "Idiot's Guide to World Peace" by George W. Bush.

6. A Book I Wish Had Never Been Written - Machiavelli's "The Prince," Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," and, on a completely separate note, "Being Jordan" by Katie Price. I also wish that most of the novels about the British royal family were never written. If the family wasn't constantly being harrassed, perhaps they would actually get around to doing something useful. As it stands, they don't do anything particularly useful, so why do people want to read about them?

7. A Book I Am Currently Reading - "Last Tango in Aberystwyth" by Malcolm Pryce. It's an amusing book, but because the author likes to write a lot of description, I run out of patience with it. I'd rather read the newspaper. I'll probably finish it on my long-haul plane trip to Canada (If I'm allowed to bring it on board).

8. A Book I Am Meaning To Read - Where to start? I want to read some of the old classics that I read when I was younger. In particular, I want to read "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier and "Jane Eyre" by Emily Bronte. I also want to read the Jane Austen novels I haven't read. I also want to read "The Diary of Anne Frank." I also want to read the "His Dark Materials" novels before the films come out.

9. The Book That Changed My Life - I used to own a book, and regrettably, I've forgotten its title, but I would say it was a book that changed my life. I read it when I was little. It was called something like "Eleanor of Wintergreen". I remember the cover -- it was orange (perhaps because it was a Penguin novel?) and featured a young girl wearing green, who seemed to be trying to catch a butterfly. It was a book about a red-haired girl of about 16 who was a little bit of a loner. She lived on a farm, and her parents, or perhaps it was just one member of her family, died in a horrific accident on the river. I don't remember much of the book, but I remember it being an immensely sad book, but at the same time, full of hope. I think that's when I realised that emotion is a powerful tool -- and that words could move people. I really wish I could remember the name of the book. It might still be in my parent's basement