I'll play.
Today is the third day of a workshop I'm enjoying a lot (nothing to do with writing, though) and thus no posts. Except I'm going to jump on this meme-ish bandwagon quickly, before I have to leave.
You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
So, I've got to pick a novel that (1) I'd want to memorize and (2) recite outloud constantly and (3) eventually pass on to another book-talker, (4) without losing my mind out of boredom. Oh and, it's got to be something that I feel strongly enough about that I want to save it from extinction. That means it has to be fairly long, episodic, with funny bits as well as good prose and excellent characters. Maybe Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War. Maybe Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo Rising. Maybe in a couple years, after rereading it a few times, I'll feel the same way about Mary Doria Russell's A Thread of Grace.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Crickey. All the time. Isn't that a big part of the reason to read fiction? So you can fall in love again and again without cheating on the person who takes out the trash and leaves marmelade covered knives on the counter and brings you chocolate when you're feeling down? I wouldn't trade him in for anything, but on the other hand, I'd be very sad if I couldn't open a new book ready to fall in love with the next Lucas Davenport or Niccolo van der Poele. Remember this movie quote? I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.
The last book you bought is?
Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor
What are you currently reading?
Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor; Francine Prose, A Changed Man; Beverly Swerling, Shadowbrook, Robert Remini, The Life of Andrew Jackson; Thomas Ingersoll, Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1718-1819.
Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Does this island have septic and a working well and a shower and kitchen facilities? How about a telephone? You've got to give me some more information before I go picking out books. Really, if there's nothing there, what choice do I have but take the five best books I can find on survival techniques? Okay, the four best and then as the fifth: Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo series. Yes, I counting it as one book. So sue me.
Three people you're going to pass this meme onto, and why.
I'll leave jumping on the bandwagon to the discretion of the jumper.