I Was Tagged. In A Non-Childhood Trauma on the Playground Way. *UPDATED WITH OTHER ENTRIES*

Karol tagged me. This is incredibly exciting because it is mad reminiscent of when Looby used to forward those email surveys to me in high school. But Looby and I are arch enemies now, so this is the first time I've gotten to really blatantly stoke my narcissistic twitch in quite a while. That said, I have hardcore strong opinions about books. And I just gave this list a cursory glance, but I can already tell that I'm not going to be able to narrow such a thing down to one book each.

1. One book that changed your life?
The first "adult" book I ever read was Insomnia by Stephen King. If you've ever read it, it talks a lot about auras. I had no idea what an aura was and I refused to look it up in the behemoth dictionary downstairs because I figured they would just GIVE me the definition later in the book. They did not. It didn't really change my life as much as it made me realize how fun it was to read a gigantic book, and to this day, it is extremely rare to find me reading something shorter than 500 pages. The first book that I intrinsically identified myself with was probably I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier or This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm very into intellectual disillusionment.

2. One book you have read more than once?
I have read every single Babysitters Club books about 20 times. I've read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead three times each, and if you've ever heard me babbling about how amazing a book is, I've probably read it more than once or twice.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
I would want every book Steinbeck wrote between 1936 and 1961. If those were somehow unavailable, I would bring the Dark Elf Trilogy. Stories about drows and fantasy creatures underground are best not experienced in non-desert island-like conditions.

4. One book that made you cry?
Every book in the world has made my cry. I suspect my ex-roommate still tells people about the day she saw me sobbing on the futon from the end of A Prayer for Owen Meany. But that book seriously ruined me. Other books that have made me cry: The Fountainhead, A Day No Pigs Would Die, Tropic of Cancer.
5. One book that made you laugh?
Books RARELY make me laugh. One sentence in A Prayer for Owen Meany did, and one sentence in The Nanny Diaries did. That's it.

6. One book you wish had been written?
You can bet I've carefully compiled the list and I'm just waiting for some extra money so I can begin research on them. I think I've made my desire to revamp the hypothetical historic genre pretty clear to the populace.
Look for "Put Your Coat On, William Henry Harrison, Or You Will Get Sick and Die After 30 Days in Office" in bookstores, Spring of 2015.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
Barbary Shore by Norman Mailer. There's three hours I'm not getting back.

8. One book you are currently reading?
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis

10. Now tag five people…
I don't think I know five people personally with blogs...
I will humbly tag Morgan, Rachel...and I'll find others to submit their own.

UPDATE:
I convinced my friend Mikey to complete the survey during an AIM conversation.
sanock42: 1. One book that changed your life? -Walden, by Thoreau, because it was then that I realized how incredibly stupid people are to think that such drivel is actually literally intelligent.
sanock42: 2. One book you have read more than once? Lord of the Rings trilogy. Because it's entertaining.
sanock42: 3. One book you would want on a desert island? "Getting off a desert island for dummies."
sanock42: 4. One book that made you cry? The encyclopedia. It's heavy and hurts when it lands on your toe.
sanock42: 5. One book that made you laugh? "The Elenium Trilogy by David Eddings... or any of his books, since they are all exactly the same."
sanock42: 6. One book you wish had been written? "How to not be a dummy for dummies."
sanock42: 7. One book you wish had never been written? "Mrs. Dalloway."
sanock42: 8. One book you are currently reading? "Reader's Digest Guide to Home Improvement." That's right, I'm a homo---wner.
sanock42: 9. One book you have been meaning to read? "I can't think of a book that I wanted to read and haven't yet."
sanock42: and I'm not doing #10.

We thank Mikey for his participation.

We also convinced Maulik to answer some questions. Maulik's screenname has bovine in it, which made me think we were soulmates in the distant past. Alas, it was not to be.

MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that changed your life
Drbovineluve: Maybe shogun by james clavell
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you have read more than once
Drbovineluve: great gatsby
Drbovineluve: stupid teacher made reading that thing a chore
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you would want on a desert island
Drbovineluve: Dummies guide to how to get off a deserted island
MyDadIsAWeenie: whoa
MyDadIsAWeenie: you're the second person to say that
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that made you cry
Drbovineluve: nothing pops into my head
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that made you laugh
Drbovineluve: Anything by terry pratchett and some by dave barry
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you wish had been written
Drbovineluve: A book about jesus impersonators that flooded the middle east in days of yore
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you wish hadn't been written
Drbovineluve: Cum mardy
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you're currently reading
Drbovineluve: Lots of law books? Last one i read was insomnia by stephen king
MyDadIsAWeenie: we're soulmates.
MyDadIsAWeenie: book you have been meaning to read
Drbovineluve: anything by hemingway

I don't think is how you actually "tag" someone in the blogosphere, i.e., randomly assaulting people on an instant messaging service and making them answer your questions. No matter - we just need three more.

I next approached Ricky Raccoon, my Facebook friend that I obviously contacted because I thought he was an animal. He turned out to be human, but a literate one, so we have no opposition to him participating in our study.

MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that changed your life
quagmire02: catch-22
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you have read more than once
quagmire02: ender's game
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you would want on a desert island
quagmire02: the bible
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that made your cry
quagmire02: the worthing saga
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book that made you laugh
quagmire02: 1984
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you wish had been written
quagmire02: the top 100 ways to make god cry
MyDadIsAWeenie: one book you wish had never been written
quagmire02: brave new world

That was insanely fun, even if I don't know how to tag people, which harkens back to 1992, when I was always it for freeze tag and couldn't catch up with anyone. Sigh.