Cloudbusting (aka timewasting)

Ooh! I've been tagged! And since I'm having a day at home thanks to a sick Bumblebee (he's not THAT sick, he has pharyngitis, but he can't go to school. But he can watch tv. And eat. And play gameboy. And I can blog.), I'll give it an instant response. Thanks, Kate!

1. One book you have read more than once

I Claudius. My grandfather lent me his Eye Clavdivs books when I was a teenager and I never gave them back, and the covers call me over every now and again. If I had a newer edition I probably wouldn't look twice at them.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

Hmm. Something about building a boat out of sand would be good, but I reckon a dictionary would also be quite fun good value. Once you finished reading it, the pages would be useful for other things.

3. One book that made you laugh

Spike Milligan's Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall has made me laugh loud and rudely for many years now.

4. One book that made you cry

From frustration or sadness? I guess sadness. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold made me cry sitting in the middle of a crowd at an outdoor sitar concert. Maybe it was the sitars. Nah, it was definitely the book. I was trying not to let anyone see the tears and snot, but all I wanted to do was howl. Next time I read it will be in my own house. Frustration? Voss, but I was quite young.

5. One book you wish you had written

Anything by Angela Carter.

6. One book you wish had never been written

Now there's a list. I like Kate's take on this question. That's a cop-out, isn't it? Um, Yellow Dog by Martin Amis was a bit of a space-waster, but never been written? That'd probably be the Bible. Nothing much against Teh Big Man, just wish the book didn't cause so much trouble.

7. One book you are currently reading

I'm re-reading Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, trying to keep my inner vision of William of Baskerville true to Sean Connery, not the tall thin sandy freckled bent-nosed picture Eco paints.

8. One book you have been meaning to read

Hmm. Tough one. I think Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. I don't go seeking, as a rule though. It has to find me. (Exceptions are times like when I happen upon the first two John Birmingham alternate histories in a secondhand bookshop, and then the third happens to be published two weeks later. I ran to the Co-op bookshop like the wind.)

9. One book that changed your life

Kate mentions Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which is spookily similar for me. So I'll add another: Nevil Shute's On the Beach, read when I was very young from my family bookshelf, and it scared me witless. Reading it whilst lying on my bedroom floor listening to the EP of the 'annihiliation mix' of Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was one of the scariest afternoons of my life, and sealed my disapproval of nuclear power.

10. Now tag five people

This is always hard, because you could be tagging the same people as other memers.
I'll give it a go, but don't feel obliged:

Crazybrave, anyone from For Battle (I'd love to tag Fuschia, but I think she's abandoned blogosphere for the real world), Pavlov's Cat (if you can spare the time, I'd love to know), Ennypen, and... let's address the gender imbalance by inviting Barista to share.