Spreading the meme love (aka Meme with Relish)

Every so often you happen across something on the internet that you can really sink your teeth into. I found this meme on Dave's blog (who in turn got it from Floor to Ceiling Books who got it from Un:Bound), and it made me think.


So the questions asked here was:

Name:

1. One book that changed your life
2. One book that you have read more than once
3. One book you'd like to have on a desert island
4. Two books that made you laugh
5. One book that made you cry
6. One book that you wish you'd written
7. One book you wish was never written
8. Two books you are currently reading
9. One book you've been meaning to read

Let's see where I go with this. It was surprisingly difficult to think of some of these answers.

1. One book that changed my life.
I would have to name the Terry Brooks novel, Sword of Shannara in this category. Before this book, my reading scope was limited to Enid Blyton and the like. I read The Sword of Shannara at the tender age of 12, and immediatly fell in love with the Fantasy genre. I have since devoured every book in that series, apart from the last trilogy, and the Word and the Void trilogy. But believe me, they're on my to be read list!

2. One book that you have read more than once
Soliloquy  by Stephen Finn. This is a brilliant book about a boy who was bullied at school, who ends up murdering his tormenter. It is beautifully written and very sad. The back cover blurb reads:

"I'm sixteen years old and I killed a boy of seventeen. Yes, I admit it. I stabbed him in the heart with a knife which happened to be in my pocket."

3. One book that you'd like to have on a desert island
This one was easier than expected. An Idiot’s Guide on Surviving and Enjoying a Deserted Island (how to live life to the fullest until rescue arrives without anything at hand). But seriously? It's hard to ignore Dave's brilliant suggestion of The Passage by Justin Cronin, because it is easier to lug around than my Wheel of Time collection.

4. Two books that made me laugh
I'm not sure whether this means books that made me laugh because they were written in a humourous style or books that made me laught because they were so blatantly implausable or stupid. I'll name one of each then.

Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy can definitely be rated up there in the humourous books category. I first got this as an audio book, way back in the day, and I've loved it ever since!

The Twilight series rates up there as the most humourous implausable series of all time. I started reading it with a glimmer of hope that the idea can be salvaged into something less ridiculous. I was sadly mistaken. And I have to say, I think I laughed for 5 minutes straight when ol' Edward stepped into the sunlight and sparkled. It was just too much for me. Then when the movie came out, I went to watch it again, just for that scene. And it did not dissapoint,they added little bell chimes to it and made me laugh all over again.

5. One book that made me cry
Only one? You see, I really live my character's lives. I experience their emotions with them, I laugh with them, I cry with them. (One reason I don't like reading first person POV, It takes me weeks to get rid of the character in my head.) So I cannot name one book that made me cry, the most recent one was The Passage by Justin Cronin, and that was only last week.

6. One book that I wish I'd written
Now this one is a doozie. How do you single out a book that according to you was the biggest literary accomplishment? It is hard. If I'd have to choose, I would choose The Lord of the Rings. It has been hailed as the Romeo and Juliet of the Fantasy genre, and I'd have to agree. Tolkien shaped the fantasy genre for years to come. We're only now beginning to see a proper breakaway from a tolkienesque way of fantasy writing. For that sir, I commend you.

7. One book you wish was never written
This one was equally difficult. I would have to say any book written by Dan Brown, they were truly aweful, and made my life hell as a bookseller (one person referring to it as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Bible, and many people not realising that it was a work of fiction). I hated that book with a passion!

8. Two books that I'm currently reading
Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes and Spellwright by Blake Charlton


9. One book that I've been meaning to read
Anything by David Gemmel or Steven Erikson - Many people will most probably stone me for this, but I've never read either of those authors' and I've really been meaning to!

So that's my take on it. If you see this and would like to use it, feel free - it's a meme after all.

Keep it real!