The Book Challenge

From my friend Andante, I received the book challenge.

I am stuck inside Farenheit 451, and I must choose a book to take to heart.  I have already started memorizing my book.  I memorized these three paragraphs from my first reading.

My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born.  Instead, they returned to Ireland when I was four, my brother, Malachy, three, the twins, Oliver and Eugene, barely one, and my sister, Margaret, dead and gone.

When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all.  It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while.  Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version:  the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Have I ever had a crush on a fictional character?  Oh fiddle dee dee, what kind of question is that?  Rhett Butler still does it for me.

The most recent book I purchased is Me and My Baby View the Eclipse, a collection of stories by Lee Smith.

I am currently reading On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt.

If I were to be marooned on a desert isle without  television or computer and I were given the opportunity to choose five books, which five would it be? 

Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas
Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino, in Italian or English
The Mind's I, Fantasies and Relections on Self and Soul, composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter
The Powwow Highway by David Seals
Island Survival for Dummies, author unknown

I'm supposed to pass this on to at least three other people.  Any volunteers?

Monday Evening
Brenda, of What's Up Down South has volunteered, and I volunteer Piggy and Tazzy.    The third person whom I would like to invite would be Shirazi, my most enigmatic blogger friend.  Books tell us a lot about each other.  Go ahead, you four.  Tell us about your books.  NTodd may play on a voluntary basis, but he really does have papers to grade.  Snicker.

Comments

[andante]

I had forgotten about Rhett Butler. I'd challenge you to a fight for him, but I'd probably lose.

Great list! Thanks for posting it.

[NTodd]

I am so glad nobody's passed the meme to me...

[Brenda]

Lay it on me!

[oldwhitelady]

You already started memorizing your book? Wow! Now, that really is impressive.

[Viking Zen]

Can I play too?
(I already did...snicker snicker!)
VZ

[Piggy & Tazzy]

Are we supposed to answer here, or on our own blog? Perhaps we'll do both, just to be sure.

Have I ever had a crush on a fictional character? Erm... not that I can think of, except maybe a character from Tom of Finland.

The most recent book I purchased is 'The Death of Distance' by Frances Cairncross. It discusses the history of communication and the ways the electronic era have altered our methods.

I am currently reading the book I mentioned above.

If I were to be marooned on a desert isle without television or computer and I were given the opportunity to choose five books, which five would it be?

'Wilt' by Tom Sharpe
'Fade Out' by Patrick Tilley
'Moonseed' by Stephen Baxter
'Time Manifold' by Stephen Baxter
'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' by CS Lewis.

We'll do this over at our place in a wee while.

[NTodd]

I still have papers to grade. I think I'm in hell, and that is my eternal torment.