Fad No# 19: Tagging!

So, it seems there's a cyber-game of tag going around, the aim of the game being to prise hopefully interesting information out of fellow taggees. The game I've been tagged into is a bit of a Getting-to-know-you-and-your-reading-habits.
So... I'm cutting and pasting from Pen's blog to answer the tag myself.

A book that changed my life:
Nerdy as it sounds, quite possibly it's Roget's Thesaurus. I suspect this book may have contributed firmly to my love of language and the subsequent Bachelor of Linguistics I did, said degree being rolled up in a cupboard somewhere and costing me a mega-thousand dollar debt to the government! Yay for Roget! (In primary school I went through a phase of writing lists of all the words I could think of. I used to do it wherever and whenever, including whilst walking home in the afternoon, trying not to trip over cracks in the pavement as I joyously scribbled "uncle, elbow, nudge" and whatever else popped into my head. I also ate crayons.)
Another book which impacted on me is Home In The Sky by Jeannie Baker. I think this book was pretty influential on my interest in the tactile arts, as were all of her beautiful books.


A Book I've Read More Than Once:
This is a question that risks a long answer. I am, like Penni, a comfort reader, and have old favourites according to the mood that needs feeding. For a belly laugh, I'll go to my threadbare copy of the Red Dwarf Omnibus. For a therapeutic cry, it's Bridge to Terabithia. For something wholesome I'll read Cold Comfort Farm.


A book I'd like with me if stuck on a desert island:
A really good dictionary. Maybe the complete Oxford. Except I think that's 24 volumes, and I don't know if you can count that as a book. Maybe Red Dwarf again. Geez, two appearances already. Must be a good book! Also, Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence. Always gives me hope for beyond the apocalypse.


A book that made me laugh:
Inconceivable by Ben Elton recently cracked me up for the second time. Also This Is Your Life, by John O'Farrell.

A book that made me cry:
When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. So poignant, so simple and so rich. I almost tear up just thinking about the illustration where the old man is bleeding onto his grimy white shirt and doesn't even realise it.


A book I wish had been written:
Well, I don't so much wish it had been written, as hope it may be made one day... a book of Stella images, with lovely glossy photos and a sense of achievement!

A book I wish had never been written:
Easy peasey! Wild Animus by Richard Shapiro. I know it is a bit mean-spirited to nominate a book for this question, but it was a freebie they were giving out as a promotional thing on Bookcrossing one time, and I got it and read, well, most of it, but it was so truly horrible that I couldn't bear to waste any more of my life force on it so gave it away in the bookcrossing tradition.

A book I've been meaning to read:
Well, many years ago I bought The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester, after a passionate recommendation by my favourite linguistics lecturer, but it is yet to be read, and has now migrated from my shelf to the bookcrossing pile to only be reclaimed by Dan and relocated onto his shelf. So maybe I'll try again. I feel as a linguist I ought to love it. Is it not enough to want to love it?!

A book I'm currently reading:
Just started Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. Uber-futuristic sci-fi. Too early to say what I think of it, but I'm intrigued by the premise of a world where people live in stasis six days out of seven to reduce their impact on an over-taxed world and its resources.