It's All About Meme

So. The redoubtable Top Management tagged me with this here meme a while back (as in, about eight damn months ago) and, in my oh speedy way, I finally responded. Aren't you lucky?

1. One book that changed your life?
Batman: The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. The single-greatest Batman story ever (followed by Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli). A relatively straight-forward story about the Batman and the Joker and the way their fates are inextricably intertwined, yet with incredibly sophisticated but crystal-clear storytelling, perfect characterization, immaculate pacing and phenomenal dialogue, all brought to life by the finest art any Batman book has ever had (although Mazzucchelli’s art for Batman: Year One comes damn close).

The Killing Joke led me to other—honestly, superior—works, such (in order of discovery) Swamp Thing, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Miracleman (as well as, much later, after they’d been written, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and so many others). He is not only one of the finest writers of the past thirty years, he’s one of the most important, something which will, I suspect, be blindingly obvious in another thirty years.

2. One book you have read more than once?
One? In honor of his passing, I'll go with Welcome to the Monkey House, my favorite Kurt Vonnegut book, which I’d guess I've read a half-dozen times at least—and a few stories from it as recently as yesterday. In fact, I read stories from it out loud to Top Management while she rocked Max to sleep as a newborn. Because what says familial bliss and romance like a Vonnegut story?

I've also read the books in Fred Chappell's series of novels about Joe Robert Kirkman and his family—I Am One of You Forever, Brighten the Corner Where You Are, Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You and Look Back All the Green Valley I don't know how many times, and each time they get more magnificent than the last...and they're magnificent from the first; I've actually read a few of the chapters to the girls as bedtime stories, and did so just last night. His tales are as accessible as any pulp writer’s, but as befits North Carolina’s poet laureate, his prose is luminous. Innerestingly, actually, his first chapters tend to be much more challenging, often quite dense, in stark contrast to each novel’s subsequent chapters, almost as though he’s testing the reader, making sure they’re up to the task, a sort of “you want to play, you gotta pay” thang. It is well worth the effort, to put it mildly. Gorgeous, hysterical, haunting works of art.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Oh, what the hell. I'll cheat and go the easy (but truthful) route and say the collected works of William Shakespeare. Either that or some sort of survivalist’s guide since, let’s be honest, it’s obvious I wouldn’t last two weeks otherwise.

4. One book that made you laugh?
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I don’t think I've ever laughed that hard at a book. Although I do recall reading some Paul Zindel book in eighth grade (during geography, which may explain why I failed geography) and being unable to keep from laughing hysterically at one point, which kinda blew my cover of Assiduously Studying the Major Exports of Guatemala.

5. One book that made you cry?
Across the Puddingstone Dam. I've read it five times and it’s made me cry every damn time. Also All the Places to Love, which is sheer poetry.

But Puddingstone's even better.

6. One book you wish had been written?
A final chapter to the His Dark Materials trilogy that was remotely worthy of the first installment. And, of course, anything else by J.R.R. Tolkien, especially, say, a huge collection of short stories featuring our beloved characters; the scene he wrote which was collected…in the Silmarillion maybe?...showing Gandalf in an inn talking to Thorin, and first broaching the idea of employing a hobbit as a thief was magical. Would that we had an enormous book of such.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
I'll go along with Top Management and say that I’m not comfortable with this question. But I will say that one of my major problems with so much speculative fiction—the hoity-toity name for sci-fi, horror, fantasy, alternate histories and the like—is that authors spend so much time creating these amazing worlds that they’re loathe to leave them. And the result, alas, is often novel after novel which fail to match the initial offerings and instead simply provide diminishing returns. So I guess I'm not going to name names, but I do wish some authors knew when to leave well enough alone, rather than tarnish the reputation of the original works by cranking out such substandard sequels. As Miles said, "Take the horn out of your mouth, [friend]."

8. One book you are currently reading?
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Apparently, I must live a long, long life. S’okay with me. And I'm currently reading The Horse and His Boy to the girls at bedtime.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Got it. It’s been sitting on the night stand since…well, since Virginia. It made the westward trek, it just hasn’t gotten quite as far as mine eyeballs yet.

10. Now tag five people:
I shall not. But if any of my regular Left of the Dialians who are sans blog wanna chime in down in the comments, that’d be awesome. Bring it, yo.

Comments

[Tom E.]

1. One book that changed your life?

Brave new World You can't begin to believe the effect of the work on me. One instrumental change: from prochoice to prolife. It's not easy to admit you've not been wrong but horribly, obscenely, arrogantly wrong.

2. One book you have read more than once?

Lots of them. Huck Finn (of course) Catch-22 ( I laughed, I cried, you know the drill.) Slaughter-House Five Like you, Scott, a Vonnegut fan since dewy-cheeked youth. And to prove I'm no belle lettres snob: Most of the James Lee Burke Dave Robicheau novels.

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

The one Karen is going to write.

4. One book that made you laugh?

Huck Finn Out loud! Getting Even and Catch-22

5. One book that made you cry?

Dubliners Specifically, "The Dead."...John 9:24-25

6. One book you wish had been written?

Tom Edmisten's Hall of Fame Career with the Yankees

7. One book you wish had never been written?

Can't think of one right now...really don't have a lot of patience for books I don't like, so I never finish them...I'm not in college anyomre so I don't have to.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Los Alamos a mystery novel by Joseph Kanon. A much-lauded work, but I'm having difficulty getting into it.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

The first Charlie Resnick novel by John Harvey (Lonely Hearts) if I can find it.

[DT]

Oooh...pretty!

1)"On The Road" by Jack Kerouac. The finest American writer of the 20th Century, along with Mr. Hemingway. It's not just that this book became iconic almost instantly upon being written. It's that it defined something that people since Hemingway had been trying so hard to define. I read it in college because I was told I had to, and it had nothing to do with any class. I've read it 7,8 times since. The idea of searching and hope. Searching for...something. And the beauty, the pain, and the mystery of the search. Wow. "I think of Dean Moriarty."

2)Well, I just mentioned "On The Road," but to give the impression I've actually read more than one book I'll go with..."To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. She didn't write another novel. Why bother when you'e written the perfect one? Makes me cry every time I read it (oh, sorry, am I jumping ahead?) "Miss Jean Louise? Stand up. Your father's passin'."

3) "Slaughterhouse Five" by the late Mr. Vonnegut. Because I'm stranded on an island and could probably use something to cheer me up. "Listen..."

4) Just one? "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. If you've read it, you know why. It's so funny because war is so f'ing sad. You think George Bush has read this book? Ha! I kid, of course. "It was never easy for Major Major Major Major."

5)"Oh! The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. Every. Single. Time. A national treasure, both the author and the book. "Still you'll hike on, and I know you'll hike far, and face up to your problems whatever they are."

6) "The Nowhere Travelers" by Dan Tapper. Long story. Short version? Remember to back up your work.

7) I don't understand the question. But I suppose I'd like Ann Coulter to forget how to type.

8) "1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" - What he said. I'm also starting James Joyce's "The Dubliners" again. Just for kicks.

9) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I am ashamed I have not read it yet. Ashamed.

That was fun.

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Is Too Stuffed To Jump by the Amazing Rhythm Aces on that list?

*laugh*

Under books you wish were never written (and yes, I understand the ambivalence about answering that question, but I'm going to throw this out there anyway...)

Anything after the second book in the Dune series.

Though I haven't read any of them since high school, so perhaps I'm being unfair and need to see them with an adult's eyes and perspective...