Book MEME

Because I am making an effort to post more.
Because I don't want to do whatever I should be doing for my HOA (I really don't even know what I ought to be doing.)
And because it came from here.

1. Total Number of Books I Own
About five hundred, I would guess. I have probably only read about 350 of them. I like to buy, but then I let them sit.

2. Last Book I Bought
Stephen Jeffreys' adaptation of Charles Dickens' Hard Times. It came in the mail this afternoon. I'm directing it in the Fall.

3. Last Book I Read
Heidi Stillman's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Hard Times. It's called Hard Times for These Times. Since then I have re-read Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

4. Book I Am Currently Reading
Democracy by Michael Frayn
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
and Towards a Poor Theatre by Jerzy Grotowski.

5. Fiction or Non-Fiction?
Fiction, I suppose. But I read mostly plays and very rarely read novels. If I'm not reading a play, I am generally reading a non-fiction work of some kind.

6. The First Book I Read
I haven't the slightest idea. Probably some book of Bible stories my parents foisted on my unsuspecting mind. (Kidding. Sort of.)

7. Largest Impact
The Bible is probably the truest answer here. I can't think of a book that has had a bigger impact on my life (as long as the International Male catalogue doesn't count.) And it may sound trite but I think my day-to-day life is very much affected by The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruíz.

8. Favorite Scholarly Book
Easy: Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom. I look at this all the time.

9. Most Read Book
I honestly think this is Little Women by Luisa May Alcott... or maybe Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. I read those books over and over again as a child. What's a young impressionable girl to do?

10. Sexiest Book
Flesh & Blood by Michael Cunningham.

11. Biggest Disappointments
J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. I was too old to get it when I read it (like six months ago) and it just didn't resonate the way it might have if I were still an angry youth.
Bret Easton Ellis's The Informers. What is this book about? I don't get it. And I really liked The Rules of Attraction (the book NOT the film.)

12. Five Books that Mean Something to Me
In no particular order:
1. The Line of Beauty by Allan Hollinghurst. It is very rare to read a book that understands me as well as this one does. Aside from getting me in ways no other book has, this novel is so full of nuance and beauty and can't speak about it without becoming rhapsodic. You should read it no matter who you are. If you are a gay man, you simply must.
2. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't know why I love this book so much. Perhaps it's because I love the idea of mythology and I find creation tales very fascinating. The description in the portion of The Silmarillion called Akallabêth is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen.
3. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Not for the politics: I only half-agree with those, and I think her views on sex are rather disgusting. But this is the first book that told me it was okay to be intelligent. I remember reading it and crying. It allowed me to finally take ownership of my intelligence as an asset.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. Shut up; it's good.
5. Flesh & Blood by Michael Cunningham. So unbelievably awesome.

13. Tag
Play the game:
Elizabeth
Ashley
Kim
Justin
Becca
Tito
Allan
Angie
Danny
And anyone who reads this blog who isn't on my LJ list. Comment and link me to where you added this to your own blog, or post it in the comments.