One Book... I don't really get the meme thing.

But this looked fun. So I'm going to go off of what I saw at this post at culturespace.

One book that changed your life: Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky.

My parents' had been pressuring me to read more books outside of school, in an effort to make me more 'cultured' or well-rounded I suppose. Maybe that's why I have all these links on my blog to culture sites, right? Anyways. I was so busy with schoolwork and sports that I didn't have the time nor did I really care to read more.

At some point I got fed up with my dad's needling comments about lack of culture or whatever it was. I was French godamnit, and that meant that I had to become a snooty bastard. I decided to read a book that had been lying around my room for a while, Crime and Punishment. I still remember how amazed I felt in reading that novel, like I had discovered a new avenue for understanding life. Crime and Punishment was so powerful and psychologically dense, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I quit the basketball team so I could have more time to myself, and thus began my book reading adventures.

One book you've read more than once: Catcher in the Rye

One book you'd want on a desert island: Probably the Bible. Hopefully I will figure out what I need to do to please God so I can get out of such a mess. Plus the Bible is pretty long, so that should eat up some time. Can I have both the New and Old testaments?

One book that made you laugh: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

One book that made you cry: Bernard Edelman's Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam

One book you wish you had written: Gravity's Rainbow. Because then maybe I could understand it. This is probably one of those books you shouldn't read at 17, or at least I shouldn't have. I read the whole thing, and I don't think I understood any of it.

One book you wish had never been written: Can't think of anything. Even terrible things like Mein Kampf serve a purpose.

One book you're currently reading: La Guerra del Fin del Mundo by Mario Vargas Llosa.

One book you've been meaning to read: Sorry, more than one here. I want to read Stendhal's La Chartreuse de Parme. I'd like to read some Balzac novels, and also some francophone African literature. I've read a lot of literature from Africa, but funny enough, not from the french speaking parts.