A Life in Books Meme

Tricia over at The Miss Rumphius Effect has created a new book meme. It's a hard one too! Here are the questions:

1. What are your 5 most important books?
2. What is an important book you admit you haven't read?
3. What classic (or childhood favorite) was a little disappointing on rereading?
4. What book do you (or did you) care most about sharing with your kids?
5. 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!!