- What are your 5 most important books?
- What is an important book you admit you haven't read?
- What classic (or childhood favorite) was a little disappointing on rereading?
- What book do you (or did you) care most about sharing with your kids?
- Name an acclaimed book, either classic or contemporary, that you just don't like.
Okay, here goes....
My 5 most important books:
- War and Peace. The entire world--good and bad--is contained in this one.
- Pale Fire. If you've ever studied literature and, especially, literary theory, Pale Fire is a hilarious must.
- Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson. This is a recent one, but I think it's a perfect example of the comic novel.
- His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. Again, I'm counting His Dark Materials as one book. In my opinion, the best children's fiction ever written.
- Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan. A small gem of a novel. Like the Atkinson, I think this one is an example of form.
Important Book I've Never Read:
- Dante's Inferno. It's been on the to-do list for, oh, twenty five years or so, but I never seem to get to it.
What classic (or childhood favorite) was a little disappointing on rereading?
- This one's hard. I'll have to go with Little House on the Prairie.
What book do you (or did you) care most about sharing with your kids?
- Winnie the Pooh. It's too difficult to read on your own when it's most appreciated. But it's such a beautiful, funny book--one no child should miss.
Name an acclaimed book, either classic or contemporary, that you just don't like.
- This is an easy one! Notes from the Underground, by Dostoevsky. Oh, how I detest this book. Truly. I've damaged it in anger and frustration more than once in my life.
Consider yourselves tagged!!
