Books, books, books!!!: a meme

I was tagged by Mardougrrl...so here it is. These books span the decades of my life (all 3 of them!), but I practiced the utmost restraint, really!

1. A book that changed your life:

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
  
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Writing without Teachers by Peter Elbow
• The Book of Promethea by Hélène Cixous
• Any book by Natalie Goldberg, but especially Writing Down the Bones, Banana Rose, Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life, Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World, Top of My Lungs....(oops! that's most of them!)
• Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
• House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• The Diary of Anais Nin Vol. 1
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest by Christina Baldwin
• Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin
• Teaser and Firecat by Cat Stevens
• Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Spiral Dance by Starhawk
• Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
• May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons by Elizabeth Bumiller

2. A book you've read more than once:

• All of the above.

3. A book you'd want on a deserted island:

• Oh my god, may that never happen! …but if it did, I’ve always said that I’d want to have One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (because I’ve been trying to finish that one for years.)
  

4. A book that made me giddy:

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (and I’m not even finished with it yet!)

5. A book you wish had been written:

• Mine. You know, the one about India. Or the one about writing. Or the one about hopping freight trains. Or the book of poetry. Or...................... but, right now, the one about India especially.

6. A book that wracked you with sobs:

• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (I will never forget it. When I was young, I found it at the back of the school library. It was meant for several reading levels above me, but I savored it like my own personal secret. I have loved many dogs since.)

7. A book you wish had NOT been written:

• The Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism

8. A book that you are currently reading:

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

9. A book you've been meaning to read:

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (I’m finally coming to terms with the notion that, even though I like it immensely, I may never finish it)
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg (what’s up with the bee theme here?)
• After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates (a young adult novel)
• Horns and Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson (also a young adult novel in an attempt to beef up my knowledge of YA lit. since I now work at a children’s book store)
• Nothing to Declare by Mary Morris
• Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair

….ok, this is getting out of control. This list could go on forever.

10. Tag! (and, no, I'm not forcing you)

• bee
• ruby
• Nelson
  
• someone who reads my blog but has never commented before. of course, that would mean that you should leave a comment and reveal yourself! :P