Friday, June 10, 2005

Book Meme

In which we tackle what seems to be the latest in blog chain letters, transmitted by my good friends at 201K. Sorry for the delay in responding, but here goes...

How Many Books Do You Own? I have no idea. Hundreds. And hundreds more. Our basic home decor is wall-to-wall bookshelf.

Last Book Bought: The National Trust Guide to Art Deco in America. Seriously. The May 26 NY Times special section on the Chrysler Building re-ignited my semi-dormant interest in Deco. I got hooked when I discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies. Ever see Top Hat? The sets are eye-boggling.

Last Book Read: Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah by Marc Maron
Because I love starting my day with Morning Sedition, because Marc and Mark have great on-air chemistry, and because Maron can make me laugh even at the news.

Five Books that Meant A Lot: Persuasion by Jane Austen. Actually, I could fill up all five spots with Jane Austen novels, but I'm trying to show off my wide-ranging interests here. I picked Persuasion over the others because it is a novel about hope and second chances.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read this in high school and fell in love with Fitzgerald's tragic life. A poetic and brutal look at a life spiraling down.

Make Way for Lucia by E. F. Benson. Sadly, out of print, though the novels are available individually. This one's a compendium of all of Benson's Lucia novels, which tell the tale of an upper middle class busybody and snob, set in small town England between the wars. A perfect antidote to too much news and politics. These stories are all about politics - on a micro scale.

Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin: Again, I could pick any Laurie Colwin book, including her two wonderful cookbooks, which are collections of her essays for Gourmet Magazine. Colwin has the Austenian eye for detail and a wonderful sense of humor as well.

John Kerry: A Portrait by George Butler: Because hope springs eternal, because he's my president, and because I just love torturing myself with visions of what might have been.

Tag, you're it - to Shaun, Mantisbot, MH, Linnet, and Politus. Sorry to do it, guys, but it was actually kind of fun.

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