Ten on Tuesday! Volume 2

Once again brought to you by the lovely Roots and Rings.  If you choose to do this, remember to go to her page and link your blog up!  And really, I promise that one week I will get this done on an actual Tuesday.  Starting it on a Tuesday has to count for something, right?  Moving along...Oh God, a book-centric ToT?!  I am so excited, and so damn confused!  This is hard to do when I've grown up in libraries.  My mom has been a librarian/worked in a library since I was 4, so I was raised on books and the Dewey Decimal System and alphabetizing.

1. Favorite book(s) when you were a child and why?
I was all up on Sweet Valley and Baby-Sitters Club.  I grew up on those Sweet Valley twins man, starting with the Kids, working my way to High, and even into University.  I was so much like Elizabeth Wakefield it was ridiculous.  And I loved me the BSC, but the thing is...I hate kids.  I've baby-sat once in my life, and that was when I was 20.  And I don't intend on doing it ever again.  But I just wanted to have a tight group like that and have a boyfriend like Logan (except when he broke Mary-Anne's heart).

2. First “grown-up” book you remember reading (i.e. written for adolescents or with adult themes, such as The Outsiders or Catcher in the Rye).
I have no idea why, but I read Toxin by Robin Cooke when I was 11.  I think I was bored and picked it up from a random shelf at the bookstore.  And as I am still today, I pretty much hate putting down a book once I start it.  So, I just kept on, even though it kind of freaked me out.  I don't really recommend it, actually.  I'm sure I'd feel different if I read it now, but I still glance at my burgers out of fear of undercooked meat.

3. Favorite movie that came from a book.
Crap.  Ummm...Pride & Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version, as I haven't seen the Colin Firth one).  I love that book.  One of my favourites.  And normally I hate hate HATE movies made out of my favourite books, but the beauty and the cinematography of the movie is stunning.  And I think how they handled Mr. Darcy is brilliant.

4. Movie that you loved so much that you WISHED there was a book out so that you could find out more about the movie.
Paris, Je T'aime.  I just want to know how the segment with Gaspard Ulliel (be still, my heart) ends!  Does he find him again?!  Do they connect?!  OH MY GOD I HAVE TO KNOW.

5. Worst book you’ve ever read?
Can I say Toxin by Robin Cooke?  I understand there's probably a bias there.  Will I be publicly slandered if I say A Farewell to Arms by Hemmingway?  It's not that it's a bad book, because it's not.  I understand it, I respect it, I see perfectly well its literary value.  But I just do not like Hemmingway's style.  In terms of worst content, I've read some pretty terrible chick lit books.  I didn't like Charlaine Harris's Shakespeare's Landlord.  The writing was so annoying and the characters were so unlikeable I didn't even finish it.

6. Book that everyone raves about that you either a) haven’t read and feel slightly dumb for not having read it or b) have tried to read and hated and so feel slightly dumb that everyone is getting something you don’t.
Anything by Vonnegut.  I couldn't get into him.  Like Hemmingway, I get the literary value (I did finish Slaugherhouse-Five, as it was a school assignment) and I respect the writing, I just don't like it.  And if anyone out there actually likes the Twilight Series for literary value, Wayne Brady is gonna have to choke a bitch.

7. If you were forced to choose only 3 books that you could read for the rest of your life, which ones would they be?
My heart just constricted.  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, because it is my absolute favorite book in the world. Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger, because every time I read it I get something new out of it.  And...this is so difficult ahhhh...the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman, because I can--and have--read that over and over and still enjoy it.  And yeah, I cheated, I know.

8. Name one book that if you could recommend that everyone you know read, what is it?
Agh this is just so hard!  I really do think the His Dark Materials series is something everyone should read.  Ignore the stupid ass movie completely, because it does zero justice to the books.

9. What is your “guilty pleasure” reading?
Chick Lit, though specifically Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  I always feel as though I should be reading heavier, thought-provoking books, but we all need a break sometime.  Give me a girl in crisis saved by the rugged but brooding hunk of a man any day.

10. What book (excepting the Bible or other major document of your religion/faith) has changed your outlook on life the most?
Viktor Frankl's Man Search For Meaning.  I don't quote it ever--I actually don't think I could--but I remember reading it in 12th grade for Doc E's class.  I remember sitting on my couch reading it, and I honestly felt that when I looked up from the page, my entire world view was different.  It's a very strange experience, but my approach to life, and how I live and what I view changed.


Ok, that was incredibly difficult, and I know the minute I read this later I'm going to want to change a million answers.