Tagged by Laurel
Book that:
changed my life?
Russell Edson's The Very Thing That Happens made me want to write poetry. (And anything by Lauren Myracle.)
I've read more than once?
I just reread Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Steven Kowit's In the Palm of the Hand, and most of Sheridan Blau's The Literature Workshop. I've read Jane Hirshfield's Nine Gates... book more than once, and will return to it soon. Every year I reread the books I teach. The one I usually get the most out of rereading is King Lear. It's odd. I think my own writing actually improves while I'm reading and shortly after reading King Lear.
I'd want on a desert island?
A book about how to get off the particular desert island I was on. And anything by Lauren Myracle.
made me laugh?
John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorites. Also, when I was 19 or 20 I read John Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield war. I was reading at night the scene where the old woman throws rocks. I laughed so hard I fell off my bed.
made me cry?
Most of them. None of them. I don't know. Let me think about it. You know the character in John Irving's book, I think it's the 158 Pound Marriage, the character who won't finish a book, he reads right up to the last few pages and stops, because finishing a book makes him too melancholy?
I wish had been written?
I don't think I've ever made that wish. But I do wish somebody would write that book about how to get off whatever island I will be stranded on. I'm waiting for more books by Lauren Myracle.
I wish had never been written?
Never wished this either. However, I can think of a few didactic grammar exercise books that are useless to most students because teachers so often misuse them.
I'm currently reading?
Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch
Beloved Infidel by Dean Young
Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford and a couple of books about how to use the writing portfolio in a high school classroom.
I've been meaning to read?
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
And I guess I'll tag Glenn and Henhen and Smartweed and Don.
changed my life?
Russell Edson's The Very Thing That Happens made me want to write poetry. (And anything by Lauren Myracle.)
I've read more than once?
I just reread Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Steven Kowit's In the Palm of the Hand, and most of Sheridan Blau's The Literature Workshop. I've read Jane Hirshfield's Nine Gates... book more than once, and will return to it soon. Every year I reread the books I teach. The one I usually get the most out of rereading is King Lear. It's odd. I think my own writing actually improves while I'm reading and shortly after reading King Lear.
I'd want on a desert island?
A book about how to get off the particular desert island I was on. And anything by Lauren Myracle.
made me laugh?
John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorites. Also, when I was 19 or 20 I read John Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield war. I was reading at night the scene where the old woman throws rocks. I laughed so hard I fell off my bed.
made me cry?
Most of them. None of them. I don't know. Let me think about it. You know the character in John Irving's book, I think it's the 158 Pound Marriage, the character who won't finish a book, he reads right up to the last few pages and stops, because finishing a book makes him too melancholy?
I wish had been written?
I don't think I've ever made that wish. But I do wish somebody would write that book about how to get off whatever island I will be stranded on. I'm waiting for more books by Lauren Myracle.
I wish had never been written?
Never wished this either. However, I can think of a few didactic grammar exercise books that are useless to most students because teachers so often misuse them.
I'm currently reading?
Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch
Beloved Infidel by Dean Young
Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford and a couple of books about how to use the writing portfolio in a high school classroom.
I've been meaning to read?
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
And I guess I'll tag Glenn and Henhen and Smartweed and Don.
posted by Anonymous at 8:35 AM
5 Comments:
Oh, The Things They Carried. What a hell of a book.
Ever read In the Lake of the Woods? It's one of those rare books that you literally can't put down. I read it in a day and a night and was so damned disturbed afterwards that I couldn't get it out of my head for months.
I'd like to finish Confederacy of Dunces someday. It was a little too close to my life experiences at one time for me to keep going.
Mm, The Things They Carried belongs on my "meaning to read" list. It's moved to the top of the list now.
p.s. is your blog name a rough translation of "redneck opera?"
Don't forget to notice that Lt. Jimmy Cross is a Christ figure. (Not that it really makes the book any better.) What makes it deep and good is the way OBrien fiddles with the ideas surrounding truth and story and true story, etc.
Redneck Opera. Yeah, I guess so. I think I'll anagram it next back into Lemon something
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