Blogging about books

Borrowing a meme from Winston, here are my weekend book reflections:

One book that changed my life:

Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture by Holland & Eisenhart. I read it in 1990-91 and became a feminist. Most of the time I was reading, my jaw had dropped and I gasped, often out loud, to see how much I was a part of the statistics!

One book I have read more than once:

Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem by Gloria Steinem. I often see movies more than once. With books, I don't usually read them right through again, but seek out quotes or pieces that have been memorable for me. This book I have sought out so many times that I probably have read it more than once in its entirety by now. One of my all-time favorite couplets that Steinem quotes in her book from Vita Sackville-West is:

I worshiped dead men for their strength,

Forgetting I was strong.

One book I would want on a desert island:

Gee, people are always wondering what they would read on a desert island. I think I would want to walk or sit and stare at the sea for huge chunks of time, like I do lately, staring out at the Wissahickon and Fairmount Park. But if I must take a book with me surely it would be a handbook on how to survive on a desert island?

One book that made me laugh:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. In fact, I discover that most of my books are serious even though I adore laughing! Anne Lamott makes me laugh out loud while at the same time tears rise in my throat.

One book that made me cry:

I read this book recently while traveling to Greece. I cried for the maturity, beauty, purity, spirituality, humor, sorrow, understanding of the human condition, and for how well it was written: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

One book I wish I had written:

Too many to mention. But I think I will choose: The Woman Who Gave Birth to her Mother by Kim Chernin. There is so much of my own experience that is tied up in Kim Chernin's story that I kept on wondering why I had not written something so similar.

One book I wish had never been written:

Dare I say it? Okay. I dare!

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

The only thing that was good about it, for me, was watching the movie in a tiny little theater in the back streets of Athens, Greece, when it first came out. What a great big do about absolutely nothing.

One book I am currently reading:

... And I am taking my time with it because each letter is like a jewel of gorgeous writing, romance, intimacy and deep, human emotion: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell Leaska.

One book I have been meaning to read:

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. For some reason I have started it what seems like a million times, and I cannot get past the first five or six pages. When I was younger I would have difficulty reading books that my mother told me to read. In the end I would read some of them and enjoy them so much. I think it might have been the sharp, domineering way she would demand that I read them, giving me her opinion even before I could make up my own, in such a way as if to ensure I would, in fact, have no opinion of my own. Thank goodness I am over that adolescent rebellion for I would not have read Gilead (see above) if it were not for my mother's recent "suggestion." Perhaps I will soon be able to read De Beauvoir's masterpiece as I realize this too was one of mother's suggestions to me, many years ago.

Tag five people:

As T would say: "Let's not and say we did!"

Comments

[savtadotty]

Hi Tamar - Thanks for your comment. I have never heard of "The Woman Who Gave Birth to Her Mother" but the title alone makes me want to read it immediately!

[tamarika]

Ah - so there you are, Winston! Smiles.

[Winston]

I would swear I left a comment here yesterday. Must be losing my mind... Of course, small things get lost easily... Anyway, thanks for the link and the followup on the book meme...