Comcastic Service + A Meme

Last night I went home to find my cable out, both TV and Internet. Cue the shakes and nausea of withdrawal! Not for the TV--although I was looking forward to watching "House"--but for my nightly fix of e-. Comcast, being the marvels of efficiency that they are, will address the problem with a service call on Friday morning. THANKS.

In the spirit of doing things when I DAMN WELL GET AROUND TO THEM I'm going to do this meme which Barb did about four months ago. Check out her answers.

One book that changed your life:
I usually answer One Hundred Years of Solitude, and it is that, but it's not the only one. Another is On Stranger Tides. García Márquez was a course correction for me; I came skeptically to that book, as I did to every book I had ever been assigned to read. I was still largely of the opinion that Ideas and literary metaphors only impeded storytelling. Solitude convinced me that great storytelling, great literature and great ideas could co-exist. After reading it I set out to fill in the gaps in my reading; I switched my major to Comparative Literature, read Homer and Virgil and Dante and others, much of which I wasn't ready for. I went at it so hardcore that I eventually burned myself out, culminating in a period during which I completely stopped reading for pleasure. I just wasn't interested. I had shelves of unread books in my apartment and couldn't get interested in a single one. But a friend had a paperback copy of On Stranger Tides in his apartment. It had a great pulpy/cheesy cover with a skeletal pirate on it. With the typical zeal of a convert, I'd become sort of a snob about fantasy novels. But I picked up the book and ended up reading it in the course of an afternoon. Pirates! Puppets! Zombies! Voodoo! William Ashbless! The Fountain of Youth! It was a smart book, but more importantly it was fun. I had kind of forgotten about fun. I hope I never do again.

One book that you've read more than once:
I don't do much of this anymore; there are too many books I haven't yet read to spend a lot of time re-reading, and I don't read as fast as I used to. But I re-read Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day for my Children's Lit course last year. It was silly but also awesome. I was a juvie mystery junkie back in the day, and basically that was Encyclopedia's fault. And Sally. I had a huge crush on Sally. Might explain this, actually.

One book you'd want on a desert island:
Herodotus' The Histories. Just 'cause.

One book that made you laugh:
Pride and Prejudice.

One book that made you cry:
I read Anne of Green Gables for my YA Lit course, and at the end (SPOILER!), when Matthew died, I started crying. What's worse is that I was in a coffee shop at the time. I kept my head down.

One book that you wish had been written:
Wellstone: A Biography of the 44th President of the United States

One book that you wish had never been written:
This question is sort of mean. I'm not feeling that mean at the moment. I dunno. Dianetics, maybe?

One book you're currently reading:
One? Right now I'm reading The Uses of Enchantment, Persuasion, YBFH 18 (I'm behind) and an unpublished manuscript.

One book you've been meaning to read:
One? There are hundreds. I'll say The Mahabarata, because it's intimidating.