the first night i imagined my dinner as a book.
2. one book you’ve read more than once:
"curioser and curioser..." -- alice's adventures in wonderland by lewis carroll.
3. one book you’d want on a desert island:
codex seraphinianus by luigi serafini.
4. one book that made you giddy:
"farmermaids plough underwater fields with their tails." -- spiral agitator by steve venright.
5. one book that wracked you with sobs:
the bears and i: raising three cubs in the north woods by robert franklin leslie.
6. one book that you wish had been written:
english translation of codex seraphinianus.
7. one book you wish had never been written:
what is the point of wishing a book out of existence?
8. one book you’re currently reading:
finally we are no one by múm.
9. one book you’ve been meaning to read:
reading the illegible by craig dworkin.
10. now tag six people.
jilly, eiríkur, geeb, sina, paal, maggie: you're it!
this post has been brought to you courtesy of said like reeds or things. said like reeds or things: the tagging specialists.
6 comments:
1. one book that changed your life:
the yellow pages
2. one book you’ve read more than once:
"the double hook" by sheila watson; i go back to it every year or so
3. one book you’d want on a desert island:
a notebook?? perhaps the decameron
4. one book that made you giddy:
giddy being an ongoing affliction, the most recent book to make me so was probably The Paradox of Meaning by John Moss. Before that is was The Charge of the Exformidable Moose by Claude Gauvreau (and a small dance for E Clips E by John Riddell).
5. one book that wracked you with sobs:
the first and last book to actually cause visible tears (as opposed to throat-thickening, matthew-dying mistiness, etc) was most certainly Beautiful Joe. i was in grade two and a neighbour who happened to be a teacher decided that The Hardy Boys, Mad magazine, and Archie were no longer good enough and gave me the Marshall Saunders. i still can't believe the farmer chopped off the dog's ear.... hold hold... okay. i'm okay. fine...
6. one book that you wish had been written:
brothers karamazov
7. one book you wish had never been written:
this is sort of like that game, if you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? how about the novel i finished in grade 10, which is surely amongst the most indulgent juvenalia ever produced. so earnest, so troubled, so sincere. actually, there was one good line, by the antagonist: "my problem is that everybody understands me."
8. one book you’re currently reading:
the theory of the avant-garde by renato poggioli
9. one book you’ve been meaning to read:
i love literary confessions, so i'll treat this as 'one book you haven't read which you think you should have', to which my answer would be dante's inferno.
10. now tag six people.
who's playing? who's been tagged? how about lynn, gary, stuart, kevin hehir (does he read this?), sharon, nadia, and richard truhlar. (one substitute for good measure).
1. One book that changed your life
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
2. One book you've read more than once.
Cripes. i'm a constant re-reader, so how to pick? T.S. Eliot's Collected Poems is probably the book i've re-read most consistently over the longest span of years, and may hold my lifetime record for number of times re-read. Haruki Murakami's Underground is the multiply re-read book closest to my desk right now.
3. One book you'd want on a desert island
I assume the usual desert island rules prevail, and I get a Bible and a collected Shakespeare for free? if not, i'll have to go for a Bible (King James Version), even though that makes me look like the world's biggest dork. if it's included, perhaps i'll take Thomas Merton's Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, which can be read many times and is not a bad voice to have with you when you're abandoned.
4. One book that made you laugh
Happy Dog the Happy Dog
5. One book that made you cry
thing is, there are brilliant tragic stories that make me dazzled and a bit ill, but they don't make me cry. i cry when certain sentimental buttons are pushed. there is a passage in Margaret Drabble's The Middle Ground that consistently makes me cry even though I am fully aware of being manipulated.
6. One book you wish had been written
oh, i'll just join the hordes wishing that Jane Austen had lived to finish Sanditon
7. One book you wish hadn't been written
i don't know, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion maybe? but probably something else would have filled that space if it hadn't. i guess there are things i kind of wish i hadn't read, e.g. i would have had a slightly happier life had i refrained from reading the final chapters of Hannibal.
8. One book you're currently reading
John LeCarré, The Night Manager. sure, i could lie & make myself sound better (i could at least claim to be reading a good LeCarré), but this happens to be the truth at this moment.
9. One book you've been meaning to read
numberless as sands on the seashore, and at many different levels of obligation. let's see, Ada has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for months, and i'm not sure why I don't pick it up and read it, since i have every expectation of enjoying it. it's as if, when something sits in the to-be-read pile just a bit too long, it starts develop a weird inertia that makes it hard to extract.
There's no one left to tag!
-- maggie
1. One book that changed your life
Crime and punishment by darling Dosto made me realize that literature could be absolutely frantabulous – and not just a nice way to pass time. Naked Lunch made another change a few years later – that literature could also be bonkers beautiful.
2. One book you've read more than once.
The happy warriors by Halldór Kiljan Laxness – being icelandic it’s tantamount to treason to say it, but this is his only book that I consistently enjoy.
3. One book you'd want on a desert island
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. I would need something to relate to in my loneliness.
4. One book that made you laugh
The good soldier Svejk, by Jaroslav Hasek. I laugh just thinking of it. Read it in a brilliant translation by Karl Ísfeld.
5. One book that made you cry
The lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot – a poem more than book.
6. One book you wish had been written
Don Quioxote by Pierre Menard (see: http://web.archive.org/web/20030719111921/http://krakken.arrr.net/content/practice2.html)
7. One book you wish hadn't been written
Oh, loads and loads of books are spiritually cancerous and their authors should be shot. For instance: Supersex by Tracey Cox.
8. One book you're currently reading
Soliloquy by Kenneth Goldsmith. I’m pretty sure it’s not meant to be read from back to front, but I like it. Also: Lip service by Bruce Andrews, and rereading With Wax by Derek Beaulieu and Eðalog by Valur Brynjar Antonsson.
9. One book you've been meaning to read
Seven pages missing by Steve McCaffery, volume 1 and 2 – as soon as I can afford it I will read it to smithereens. Browsed through it at a bookstore the other day, and left the store crying for lack of funds.
1. one book that changed your life:
Paul Bowles: The Delicate Prey and Other Stories
2. one book you’ve read more than once:
Yannis Ritsos: Exile and Return (selected poems)
3. one book you’d want on a desert island:
Henry Miller: Under the Roofs of Paris (Opus Pistorum)
4. one book that made you giddy:
Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia
5. one book that wracked you with sobs:
Toni Morrison: Beloved
6. one book that you wish had been written:
Juan Munoz: Segment
7. one book you wish had never been written:
The Bible
8. one book you’re currently reading:
Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal: A Civilian Occupation
9. one book you’ve been meaning to read:
The Diary of John Jewitt
10. now tag six people.
Tag!
1. One book that changed your life:
When I was ten my teacher showed me the local public library. I borrowed one book. Which one isn’t important. The point is: I returned it the next day and borrowed two.
2. One book you’ve read more than once:
When and where does the reading ends? I don’t know. Some of the books I’ve been reading the last couple of years: Jörgen Gassilewski, skapelsens sedelärande samtal; Fredrik Nyberg, Åren; Helena Eriksson, strata; Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson, Block; Johan Jönson, I krigsmaskinen. And a lot more Swedish poetry.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
How to survive without books on a desert island, by J. L.
4. One book that made you giddy:
Martin Högström, Transfutura.
5. One book that wracked you with sobs:
Hmm, Harry Potter V (this feels like a confession).
6. One book that you wish had been written:
The one she’s working on.
7. One book you wish had never been written:
Do you mean never been published? Or never read by certain people?
8. One book you’re currently reading:
Emmanuel Hocquard, En prøve på ensomhet; Jacques Roubaud, Noget sort; Leevi Lehto, Lake Onega and Other Poems (manuscript); Jordan Scott, blert (manuscript); OEI, Finlandsnumret (anthology of Finnish poetry translated into Swedish, manuscript); Gregory Betts, If Language; Angela Rawlings, wide slumper for lepidopterists; Johan Jönson, Collobert orbital; Fredrik Nyberg, Det blir inte rättvist bara för att båda blundar; Caroline Bergvall, Fig, among others.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Right now: Jessica Smith, Organic Furniture Cellar; Derek Beaulieu, Fractal Economies.
10. Now tag five bloggers:
Johannes, Susanne, Miia, Martin, Marko.
11. Now tag four people:
Jørn, Espen, Mazdak, Stian.
See Omsensgate for more links.
geeb -- how did the yellow pages change your life? i recall the first time i saw mccaffery read from the phone book during performance; my brain mini-exploded with possibility, found text, what we read and why and how, context shift, awareness of constant saturation of text on everyday life...
maggie -- the book that changed your life... is it possible you named your daughter after the author?
eiríkur -- there've been a few texts that've so profoundly disturbed me i've had to stop mid-text. king's fish-eaten penis in it (i was eight or nine)... pedophilic incest and prostitution resulting in uterine inflammatory disease in kathy acker's blood and guts in high school (i later returned to this text; i heavily recommend a read)... and burroughs' naked lunch. (there's an irvine welsh short story in there somewhere, too, but i can't remember title). thinking on it now, this would likely've been my answer to 11. one book that made you nauseous... anyway, all this is to say you should read kathy acker.
anon -- who are you? also, can you even begin to imagine what life would be like if the bible hadn't been written? the mind boggles.
paal -- cheeky answer for #3 (that may be my favourite question). also, i'm digging the mix of swedish poetry and harry potter.
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