Book this meme.

1. First book to leave a lasting impression?

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  Written in the years following World War II with the rise of suburbia, this speaks to today’s world with how much has changed since then.  We’ve made progress, sure, but are we happy with it?  This was my favorite book as a smaller child and I still think of it often.

2. Which author would you most like to be?

Barbara Kingsolver.  She’s managed to marry her love of biology with her talent for writing beautifully.

3. Name the book that has most made you want to visit a place?

Anne of Green Gables – Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, Canada

Margaret Truman’s Murder in Washington series – Washington, DC

Many novels, including Dracula, Great Expectations, and (dare I say it) Bridget Jones’s Diary just to name a few – England

4. Which contemporary author will still be read in 100 years?

John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson

5. Which book would you recommend to a teenager reluctant to try ‘literature’?

Anything by Mark Twain.  Or Ray Bradbury.  Or Markus Zusak.

6. Name your best recent literary discovery.

John Irving.  Despite my brother and mother having had adored his works for years, I’d been reluctant to tackle the looming volumes of his writing.   I’m glad I did, even if it takes weeks instead of days to finish the stuff.  It’s so detailed, so funny, so devastating.

7. Which author’s fictional world would you most like to live in?

Tralfamadore from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

8. Name your favorite poet?

I don’t like most poetry, even though I can bullshit my way through analysis of poetry much more easily than through fiction.  That being said, I do like Marianne Moore and John Donne.  Some specific favorites include Andrew Marvell’s “To his Coy Mistress”, Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est”.

9. What’s the best non-fiction title you’ve read this year?

All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot.  (You could put this one in the books that have made you want to visit a place, too.)

10. Which author do you think is much better than his/her reputation?

Alice Sebold.  I adored The Lovely Bones, as she was able to conquer the point of view of a dead person with surprising results, and Lucky, the memoir of Sebold’s own rape and its aftermath allow us to know what a victim feels, thinks, sees, hears, etc.