Like Read, And Stuff

I got tagged again, only this time was the first time but I'm too big an arse to have noticed in a timely fashion. Anyway, this time it's about books! And I was tagged by Joe at Low Resolution (his post here). Like years ago. My bad!

1. One book that changed your life?

In retrospect I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but in High School I was assigned Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, and became slightly obsessed with Objectivism, the brand of philosophy Rand’s responsible for. What can I say, I was an extremely sheltered youth brought up in a Christian Fundamentalist family and there was something incredibly attractive about a school of thought that says being selfish and only looking out for your own best interests is of paramount importance, especially to a kid who’s realizing he’s “different” and not gonna fit in with his close-knit family in a very short while. But, even though I now see Objectivism for the claptrap it is, I still am grateful to Rand for opening my brain up more with The Fountainhead than any book I’d read prior to that had managed; it really got the ball rolling on me figuring out me, outside of that claustrophobic sphere of influence my family had me in.

2. One book that you have read more than once?

I can’t remember the last book I’ve read a second time. I always feel as if I’m trying to keep up with everything I want to read, there’s too much! So going back and re-reading something is a frivolous pursuit, I say!

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Survive On A Desert Island, by Claire Llewellyn

4. One book that made you cry?

As I’ve expressed before, I cry pretty easily, so there’s a wide range of choices for this one. I’ll just pick the last one that springs to mind – Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

5. One book that made you laugh?

Plenty, but it’s way early and all that’s popping to mind is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

6. One book you wish had been written?

I wish that Tippi Hedren had written a book where she actually told us what happened with her and Hitchcock in that damned trailer and that fractured their relationship irrevocably!

7. One book you wish had never been written?

Nabokov’s Lolita – see Question 9 for why.

8. One book you are reading currently?

I’m in the middle of Black Hole, by Charles Burns. And it is freaking me the f- out.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

I have picked up and read the first 50 or so pages of Lolita about ten times now, and every time I stop because, and everyone thinks I sound weird when I say this but it’s completely true, reading it makes me feel like burning all paper and ink in the world because nothing will ever be as beautiful as the way Nabokov wrote this story. I have to put the book down every time because it depresses me that I will never write anything as gorgeous as what he accomplished therein. So I’ve never been able to get all the way through the book. One day I hope I’ll manage, though I fear it'll make my face melt off like the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

10. Pass it on.

If you wanna, go to town.
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