I’m sitting here in the comfy chair in my living room, with a glass of Shiraz, listening to the thunder boom and watching the lightning flicker in the sky, and I figure now is as good as time as any to complete the One Book meme, for which I was tagged by Heather. So, without further ado …

One book that changed your life.
Not pulling any punches with the first question, are we? Hmm. OK, I’m going to go way, way back and say A Child’s Garden of Verses. This is one of the earliest books I can remember reading, and several of the poems have stayed in my mind all these years (The Land of Counterpane, Bed in Summer and Where Go the Boats? being just three I distinctively recall). The various poems sparked my imagination, had me creating towns upon my bedspread and dreaming of far-off lands, and helped to instill both a love of reading and a sense of wonderment at the great, wide world, that continue to this day.

One book that you’ve read more than once.
I reread books more when I was younger. Now, with so many books on my ‘to read’ list, it’s rare for me to go back and reread something. But one that does come to mind is A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson’s hilarious and educational quest to hike the Appalachian Trail. I love his caustic sense of humor, and several passages or particular quips made me laugh out loud, and then I bought the audiobook (one of the few times I’ve done so), so I could listen to him recount his experience. Great fun, and it even had me momentarily contemplating hiking the AT one day myself. (hah!)

One book you’d want on a desert island.
My standard answer to this question is War and Peace, since I think I would have to be stranded on a desert island to have the patience to make my way through the roughly 1400 pages of it.

One book that made you laugh.
Besides the above mentioned Bill Bryson book, another would be Me Talk Pretty One Day. I am a diehard fan of Davis Sedaris and love anything he writes, but I think this is my favorite of his books. It’s one of my dreams to attend a live performance of his one day, but so far it’s eluded me.

One book that made you cry.
I’m not generally a cryer, even when a book affects me emotionally, it rarely brings me to tears. One exception I can recall is Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing, in which a daughter’s experience of her mother’s death resonated with me deeply. I not only shed a few tears, I openly wept when reading that one. Same when I saw the film adapation. But, in a way, it was cathartic.

One book that you wish had been written.
A sequel to the Bell, Book and Murder trilogy featuring Bast, a modern-day, kick-ass, mystery-solving witch living in NYC.

One book that you wish had never been written.
There are any number of books that I think the world could do without (the Chicken Soup franchise, any of Ann Coulter’s diatribes, the Left Behind series) but since I’ve never actually read any of those myself, I’ll give one that I did read – The Lovely Bones. To each their own, but I think this is one of the most overhyped pieces of tripe out there, and just cringe inside whenever I hear someone sing its praises.

One book you’re currently reading.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It’s been around for a few years, and I even remember a coworker enthusiastically lending me her copy, which I never got around to reading and returned to her, back in 2001. I recently acquired another copy, and have finally decided it’s time to read this much-lauded book. I’m only a couple chapters in, but so far, so good, and I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll enjoy it. Stay tuned.

One book you’ve been meaning to read.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I’d started back in November, put it down, picked it up again a couple months ago, and put it aside once more. It’s now been moved from my nightstand to my bookshelf, which means it will probably be awhile before I try again. But so many people have raved about this book, that I know eventually I’ll get to it, just to see what all the fuss is about.

Now tag five people.
Let’s see here. Who’s due for some introspective meme fun? How about Susan (aka Kate), Maggie, Rinn, Kate, and Renee.