Sunday, September 24, 2006

TAG! You're It

Thanks, Megan, for tagging me. As soon as The Mayor gets his HUGE jank online, I’ll tag him, too. Perhaps the correspondent will correspond, too.

Here goes:

A Book That Has Changed Your Life: The Death and Burial of Poor Cock Robin by H. L. Stephens

When one is about 5 years old and hasn’t seen many books, or at least read them on his own, picking one up at the elementary school library and seeing a picture of a dead bird with an arrow sticking out of its chest, it makes an impression.

Looking back on it, my main question is: What kind of sick animal snuff comic book is this? At the time, though, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t recall a prior instance of such graphic imagery in my reading life. That could be because I don’t recall much of anything before that point.

Bonus points for the trippy artwork elsewhere in the book. There’s something creepy about anthropomorphized animals.

A Book That You Have Read More Than Once: (tie) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald/The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

I read these two in high school, like a lot of other high-schoolers, but it wasn’t until I read them in a grad-school lit. class that I really understood them.

I think for one to really get Gatsby, they must have loved and lost. Who can really say that in high school? But among adults, who can’t? Guys, who hasn’t gone to great lengths to get a girl or anything else for that matter, only to find out the thing/person you wanted wasn’t what you thought it would be? In Gatsby’s case, his quest ends with him floating around in his fabulous pool with a bullet hole in his head. How’s that for an indictment of the American Dream?

I didn’t feel Hemingway in high school, either. Again, surviving hard times creates a deeper understanding of this book. And makes an excellent case for/against alcoholism. Hang in there, Jake Barnes. Maybe that next drink will be the one that makes you feel better. And Romero the bullfighter, who gets his ass beat by Jake’s friend Cohn, still goes out to fight bulls the next day. Sometimes getting back up isn’t the answer.

A Book That Makes You Laugh: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart and the writers at The Daily Show

Hauled this one down from the shelf to get the following quote in the introduction by Thomas Jefferson:

“P.S. Is it true Halle Berry is once again single? If so, I’d be forever in your debt if you would put in a good word for T.J. Oh how I loves the mochachina.”

A Book That Makes You Cry: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The written word doesn’t usually get me going the way a sad film does (ask my wife. I can’t control myself when I run across Forrest Gump on TV and Forrest comes to visit Jenny and finds little Forrest watching TV in the family room and asks if he’s smart). But the scene where Jane’s little friend dies and she finds her dead in the bed and, grief-stricken, Jane crawls into bed next to her friend kills me.

What can I say? Been listening to too much John Mayer.

A Book You Wish Had Never Been Written: anything by Ann Coulter or Bill O’Reilly

Books You Are Currently Reading:

The Best American Sports Writing 2005: Mike Lupica, editor

The Best American Essays 2005: Robert Atwan, editor

Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After Sept. 11 by Thomas Friedman

Love this guy, though he doesn’t sexually excite me like he does Charlie Rose

Witness to Gettysburg by Richard Wheeler

Was JEB Stuart really a fuck-off? Let’s find out!

Imperial Hubris by Anonymous

Am I going to be on a watch list for checking this out at the public library?

The Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

A Book You Have Been Meaning To Read: Confederates in the Attic (ever since I moved to Va.). Coincidence it wasn’t at the library when I went Saturday? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Posted by Unclejbird @ 9:17 PM