GIVING IN TO TAG-GUILT

I've been "tagged" before, and usually ignore it, but when my old friend Julia tapped me on my virtual shoulder -- mind of winter: The Book Meme -- I decided to respond. First, because I like her. Second, I like books.

1. One book that changed your life: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday may be the first book whose opening pages hit me upside the head with language alone. I'd been a compulsive reader all of my life, but my brief obsession with Momaday's novels and poetry showed me the power of language in a way I'd never before experienced. That was 20 years ago, and I can still feel the words roll off of my tongue:

It was dawn, The first light had been deep and vague in the mist, and then the sun flashed and a great yellow glare fell under the cloud. The road verged upon clusters of juniper and mesquite, and he could see the black angles and twists of wood beneath the hard white crust; there was a shine and glitter on the ice. He was running, running. He could see the horses in the fields and the crooked line of the river below. .... For a time the sun was whole beneath the cloud; then it rose into eclipse, and a dark and certain shadow came upon the land. And Abel was running. He was naked to the waste, and his arms and shoulders had been marked with burnt wood and ashes. The cold rain slanted down upon him and left his skin mottled and streaked. The road curved out and lay into the bank of rain beyond, and Abel was running. Against the winter sky and the long, light landscape of the valley at dawn, he seemed almost to be standing still, very little and alone.

2. One book that you've read more than once: Just one? Impossible. I've read most good books more than once, but among those that have re-entered my reading periphery often would be most anything by Ernest Hemingway, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, diplomat George Kennan's beautiful autopbiography Sketches from a Life:

And meanwhile, the seasons have come and gone. The snows of winter have sifted in onto the huge rafters of the garret; in spring, year after year, the blossoms of the fruit trees in the upper garden have fluttered down onto my window ledges; on countless days the faint shows of midsummer have swept over the hill and cooled the hot tiles of my roof; in autumn dead leaves have blown whirlpools in the courtyards; the winds have screamed through the archways on long black nights.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: A blank moleskine notebook and a pen.

4. One book that made you laugh: Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, which collects Gopnik's poignant and hilarious experiences with his young family in Paris. Accounts of his son Lucas' first exposure to the Teletubbies and five-year-old Lucas' fleeting love affair with Sophie are beautifully penned.

5. One book that made you cry: I finally read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee in my hotel room on a cold, rainy night in Nancy, France. It touched some powerful chord, and left me curled on the bed sobbing until I fell asleep. Six months earlier, Bo Caldwell's novel The Distant Land of My Father had the same impact, except that I was alone on a cold, rainy night on a mountaintop in West Virginia.

6. One book you wish had been written: The collected autobiographies of everyone I have ever loved.

7. One book you wish had never been written:
 

8. One book you're currently reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
 

9. One book you've been meaning to read: Everything on my Amazon Wish List.

10. Some favorite books not on this list: Taylor Branch's massive trilogy of America during the days of Martin Luther King Jr; Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy; Memoir from Antproof Case and Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin; Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. 

Comments

[John Sarvay]

What is it with you people storing my entire library? No wonder Nikole and I don't have any books in our house!

[Brandon]

I have a confession to make. Ever wonder what happened to your (first?) copy of George Kennan's book? Well, it's sitting on the shelf in my living room right now.

[Julia]

You lost Borges?! Good god man. Thereis no saving you. I don't know if that particular edition is still in print. It was the first one I read, so I'm very attached to it. Craziness! Craziness, I tell you!

[Julia]

P.S. I love Murakami. I bought a collection of excerpts from novels and short stories of his last year when I stopped in Moab. It was amazing. Other than that, I've only read the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but I will add your pick to the list - after House made of Dawn.

[Julia]

Held on to it?! Are you kidding?! I have every book that you have ever given me (or that I stole from you shamelessly). I also have your letters. So there!

[John]

Ah-ha! At least you held onto it -- I did give that to you. It must have been around 1988? Get thee to the garage, woman! Hope to see you when you breeze through town this fall. xo.

[Julia]

Okay, now I feel like a perfect shit. I've had a copy of of House of Dawn (perhaps your copy?) sitting on my shelf for almost 20 years now, and I still have not read it. It's packed in the garage now, becasue in LA we have limited shelf space, but as soon as I finish Anna K, I'm going down to dig it out. Thanks so much for doing this. Now I have even more books to read, and I can think of you while I'm reading them. Love and miss you! xox, J