Memes aren't real, tell your friends*

Georg at Stack has passed me a meme. So I'll write a goddam post instead of sitting here quietly practising my Costello-esque smirk.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be saved?
The Human Stain, by Philip Roth.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Ahem. Yes. Sadly, it is tragically predictable.

The last book you bought was...?
The Shape Game by Anthony Browne, a picture book for my son. The last book I bought for me was The Crazed, by Ha Jin. He left China in 1985 and is a Professor of English at Boston University. Fantastic story of love, scholarship, politics, dying and how you can end up participating dumbly in history by following your human desires.

The last book you read was...?
The Dying Animal, by Philip Roth. Faark, he's good.

What are you currently reading?
Lone Star Rising - Robert Dallek, the first volume in a two volume biography of LBJ. The third volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ is waiting eagerly on the shelf. Interesting comparision of historical biography written by a historian and a journalist. Yes, I am an out and proud LBJ nerd.

Five books you would take to a desert island...
The Dispossesed - Ursula Le Guin
The Cook's Companion - Stephanie Alexander
A Path with Heart - Jack Kornfield
The Journals - John Cheever
The fattest Raymond Carver anthology I could find.

Who are you passing this stick on to and why?
Gianna of She Sells Sanctuary and Laura of Sorrow at Sill's Bend, because I want to know their answers.


* title flogged from Dean K.