Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: a meme

Now, it may seem like cheating to do a meme instead of writing about a book I've been reading for pleasure, but I think that a lot of the answers to this meme are going to talk about books I read for pleasure, so that should count. Besides, Jane tagged me! (I'm ridiculously pleased by getting tagged.)

1. One book that changed your life?

Oh dear - why is it that as soon as I start these memes I'm stricken with amnesia? Okay,  lemme think... All right, this is embarrassing, but: Katherine by Anya Seton. It's a historical romance novel, written in the 50s, which I found in the stacks of old paperbacks that my mom brought with her from her single days in England (the price on it was marked in shillings) and which I read when I was around thirteen. Anyway, this book is set in fourteenth-century England - the days of Chaucer and the Black Death - and details the life of Katherine Swynford, the mistress and ultimately wife of John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III. (Looking up those links, I am amazed to find that there is a Katherine Swynford Society! The medievalists out there probably already know that she has recently started co-blogging with Chaucer.) Seton manages to pack this book full of fun medieval historical events and figures, like the plague (as a student once said to me, "Mass death - always fun!"), Chaucer himself, Julian of Norwich, and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Katherine was beautiful, John of Gaunt was handsome and arrogant, their romance was doomed from the start - what more could you ask for?

Oh, so why did this change my life? It began my love affair with the Middle Ages. We had two sets of encyclopedias (my dad is a great believer in the encyclopedia), a 1950s-ish World Book (VERY amusing to read - it still categorized the developmentally disabled as idiots and morons, each with their own specific characteristics, and also talked about the negroid and caucasoid races, though I can't remember what it called Asians ETA: I remember now - mongoloid!) and an 1980s vintange Encyclopedia Britannica (much harder to get through). After reading Katherine, I sat down and pored through both sets of encyclopedias, looking for entries on absolutely anyone ever mentioned in the book at all. (I was sort of peeved that the EB only included a brief paragraph on Katherine.) I wanted to know MORE.

(My runner-up for this category is Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, which qualifies as my favorite book.)

2. One book you have read more than once?

Okay, to be honest - what book have I NOT read more than once? (Remember, we're talking pleasure reading here, none of that academic work stuff.) When I like a book, I ALWAYS reread it. Partly this is because I read so fast, initially, that I make it to the end of the book before I've really processed the beginning of it. So I tend to turn around and read it again almost immediately, because it hasn't all sunk in yet. I do this with almost all fiction I read, but I can tell you the books I reread regularly: C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia; Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books; the Harry Potter books; My Antonia; Anne McCaffrey's Pern books; Dorothy Sayers's Peter Wimsey mysteries... That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Yes, I like series, and kids' books. I do read other stuff, but I keep coming back to these - they're like comfort food. (And yes, one of those things is not like the others...)

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

I'm going to say the Bible - I think being lost on a desert island would be the only circumstances under which I could get myself to read it, and it's one of those works I feel like I should know for its cultural/historical significance (especially as a medievalist), and except for a few bits that I teach - nope.

4. One book that made you laugh? 

There are many, but what comes to mind immediately are Dry and Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. It's a dark humor, I should warn you...

5. One book that made you cry?

Oh, god, I cry over books at the drop of a hat, but animals-in-jeopardy always get me. I cry every time I read about Jack's disappearance and return in Little House on the Prairie, and Jack's death in On the Banks of Plum Creek. I sobbed in numerous places in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (like the threat to Lyra's daemon, and what happens to Lee Scoresby). I am a huge sap. You can imagine that reading Where the Red Fern Grows went over well in grade school.

6. One book you wish had been written?

I'm not creative enough to answer this one.

7. One book you wish had never been written?

Despite my answer to #3, part of me wants to say the Bible. Oh, I know - The DaVinci Code! Please, people - it's not real - get over it! (and I refuse to link to that.)

8. One book you are currently reading?

 Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

Jill Ker Conway, True North (because my mom sent it to me because she thought I'd find it interesting, and she keeps asking me if I've read it yet!).

10. Now tag five people:

How about Nels, Geeky Mom, GayProf, turtlebella, and JM? And anyone else who's interested!

Comments

[JM]

oh man. I've been tagged TWICE now. I guess I should do it...

I'm going to join in solidarity on the DVC answer to Q#7.

[Flavia]

Oh my God! I read Seton's Katherine when I was about 13, too, and I think it was on my own mom's recommendation! (I was in that phase where I was no longer reading kids' or even young adult books, but wasn't really mature enough for REAL, adult fiction or literature, and my mom had a hell of a time trying to find books for me to read. She made some errors--I remember being totally traumatized/baffled by the unexpectedly kinky psycho-sexual drama in the midst of one historical novel set on an Irish plantation...but that's a story for another time.)

I'd completely forgotten the Seton novel until you mentioned it.

[anglophilia]

I *loved* My Antonia!! I was just thinking yesterday that I wanted to read it again... haven't read it since I was probably 13... this must be a sign!

[kfluff]

I'd like to emphatically second your reaction to the Pullman trilogy. I was totally *traumatized* by what happens to some of the children's daemons; all the furry creatures in our household got extra love on those nights. Now I hear they're making the books into a musical...

[grant]

Ooooo, Love Medicine is a wonderful book. Enjoy.

[meg]

This cracks me up: You read *Katherine* and become a historian; I read everything Rosemary Sutcliff wrote and become a litterateur. Wonder what the diverter valve consisted of?

And: You'd love the Bible if you gave it a chance. I may be a filthy atheist, but that really is the Best Book Ever. I'm hardly exaggerating at all when I say that it contains nearly everything written since, in any mode or genre, except perhaps EE.

[Celandine]

Ack. I couldn't stand Love Medicine when I read it, lo these many years ago. Don't even remember why I didn't like it, but I didn't.

And I read a ton of Arthurian literature and other lit with those sorts of quest themes and medieval influences, myself, and ended up in history. Life is weird.

[betty]

Ok - I loved your list because: Cat's Eye is tied for my favorite book as well (along with Haruki Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase or maybe Wind up Bird Chronicles). AND I loved both of Augusten Burroughs' books (if you haven't read Sedaris, give it a try - very similar although a teensy bit less dark). AND I am totally with you on DaVinci Code and I've also read most of your "more than once books" more than once (except the last two that you listed). Oh, AND, where the Red Fern Grows is pretty much the only book I ever cried while reading...mmmmm, except maybe a teeny bit during The Lovely Bones. I should ask you for all my book recommendations from now on since we have such similar taste!

[hypatia]

Your list of books you reread is identical to mine... except I've never read My Antonia. I think I'll put it on my list of things to read. How can it be one I don't like when we agree on so much more?

[Dany]

Out of interest, what did you think of "The pillars of the earth?"

[Nels]

Okay, I better get to thinking!

[Shelly]

God, I read LH to T&G this summer and I couldn't get through the Jack scene without crying.

[Jane]

Thanks for participating! _Love Medicine_ is on my to-read list...can you post a book report when you're finished? :)

And I totally agree about _The DaVinci Code_. It annoyed the hell out of me, particularly since I guessed the ending about halfway through the book.

[Terminal Degree]

I LOVE Dorothy L. Sayers. Have read all of her fiction, working my way through the nonfiction, and have read several bios. What a quirky character she was.

[Judy Perry]

Hi!

There's all kinds of new KS stuff online:

*the new KS Society you mentioned;
*my KS blog page (http://katherineswynford.blogspot.com)
*my KS website, sadly out of date (http://www.katherineswynford.net)

enjoy!