Sunday, August 20, 2006
The Books Meme
Because Tym still has some leftover schoolmamarish tendencies:1. One book you have read more than once
Toni Morrison's "Beloved".
2. One book you would want on a desert island
If I can cheat - Alfian Sa'at's script for "Asian Boys Vol. 2".
3. One book that made you laugh
So many Evelyn Waugh books made me laugh; but "The Loved One" was (arguably) the funniest.
Notable mentions include all the medievial texts I read for A level literature - Shakespeare's "Measure For Measure", Chaucer's "The Merchant's Tale" and (especially) Wycherley's "The Country Wife". Ixer made all of them so funny - I miss him.
4. One book that made you cry
Too many books made me cry, but Annie Proulx's "Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories" and Jeanette Winterson's "Written On The Body" take the cake.
Then there are other books that don't make you cry, but leave you with a deep sense of helplessness i.e. all of Sylvia Plath's work, Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" and oddly enough, Audrey Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife".
5. One book you wish you had written
Alfian Sa'at's "A History Of Amnesia".
6. One book you wish had never been written
All the damn self-help books. Especially the self-righteous self help books.
7. One book you are currently reading
Cyril Wong's "Like A Seed With A Singular Purpose".
"If the life I chose is the life I chose. / If my self is a shadow, at least I made a dent in the light."
8. One book you have been meaning to read
Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit". Am I the only one who hasn't read this? Gah.
9. One book that changed your life
Indisputably - Alfian Sa'at's "A History Of Amnesia".
More recently, Andrew Koh's "Glass Cathedral". Flawed in so many ways, but so crystal.
10. Now tag five people:
1. pand3monia
2. naif
3. rainbowsandsunbeams
4. myfliendpirray
5. lastboy2005
(Though none of them will do it, I assure you - I do not have the same student-teacher stranglehold over my friends as Tym sometimes does. Harumph.)
strangemessages at 4:58 AM
