BOOK MEME (by special request)

Well, I don’t usually do memes, this is my first – The Missus is the high-profile blogger in this family, and I can’t even identify her because I don’t want to besmirch her erudition with the four-letter filth that passes for my average post. That caveat out of the way, I’m flattered enough to be asked by The Lovely Salome to play along. One more caveat: I haven’t been a big reader for a while (time management issues), so my responses will probably refer mostly to old books, not to mention reveal the startling depths of my shallowness…

Moving right along, and without further ado:

#1 - One book that changed your life: Oh, here we go: “Atlas Shrugged.” It caught me at an impressionable time in my life, and I re-read it repeatedly for a number of The Rough Years. Its message that it’s not only okay to be different, but is often quite preferable, still resonates. All the crazy right-wing shit, not so much.

#2 - One book that you've read more than once: See above.

#3 - One book you'd want on a desert island: TV Guide, and the satellite television to go along with it.

#4 - One book that made you laugh: Hard to choose between Vonnegut’s immortal Breakfast of Champions and Al Franken’s “Lies, and the Lying Liars…”

#5 - One book that made you cry: The autobiography of Johnny Cash. This guy didn’t just sing about the ring of fire, he lived it.

#6 - One book that you wish you had written: Sorry, my Lovely one – the Da Vinci Code. Pure, populist swill that sells by the boatload that would enable me to buy an island that comes with TV Guide and a world-class satellite-TV hook-up.

#7 - One book that you wish had never been written: The Bible. Its fans have caused more heartache, death and human suffering in the last 2000+ years than a sweeps-month’s worth of Jerry Springer shows.

#8 - One book you're currently reading: Team of Rivals, about Lincoln’s political savvy. [Insert your own withering comparison to W here.]

#9 - One book you've been meaning to read: Night, by Elie Wiesel. But I’m already wrestling with depression, and I’m not sure a Holocaust memoir is the cure for what currently ails me.

I hope I have played your meme game successfully, and with honor. As I understand it, it is now my responsibility to tag five other people to do likewise. Not sure I know five other people who can read – I pick Trillwing, Clizbiz, Tamburlaine… that’s about it. Most of my friends don’t understand the blog thing or have active contempt for it (I call them members of the Blogadverse). It’s a shame, too, because most of them are pretty excellent writers themselves.

Next up: More of my standard blistering criticisms of all things hypocritical. Thank you for your attention.