Empty Shelves

Nick hit me up with this book questionnaire. And you know I always perk up when someone says "you're it !!!" (see previous post) --even if they don't mean it in the flattering Clara Bow fashion. I wasn't expecting to be tagged here... you see, Me and Books? We've and off-and-on again relationship. But it's less a passionate Liz & Dick thing and more a f*** buddy situation; we have hot times but we both know we're not in love. Our downfall? Well, I need more visual stimulus. And, as for my buddy Books...She needs a partner with more stamina / less attention deficit disorder.

1. Total Number of Books I Own
I'm guessing close to 200ish. I recently purged before a big move and some things are still in boxes currently, sooooo, an exact # I no give.

2. Last Book I Bought
Bite Club a West Hollywood vampire novel. I know. I know. But I was on a short vacation and I wanted something to read, light and easy, on the plane.

3. Last Book I Read
That'd be To Kill a Mockingbird (loved!) which was part of a series of intermittent attempts to bone up on things that everyone else knows by heart. The DVD of the Oscar-winning film version is atop my TV currently because I also haven't seen that incarnation. I've been Mockingbird-less my whole life.

4. Book I Am Currently Reading
Bite Club. I just started it. On the plane (see question #2) I read about the tabloid-ready adventures of Angelina & Brad instead --then fell fast asleep.

5. Fiction or Non-Fiction?
Fiction of course. I'm the same way with films. I know it's hip to love the documentary. But it's just not me.

6. The First Book I Read
I can't remember. But as a child my absolutely favorite book was One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer. And my parents read aloud to us a lot on family road trips so I vaguely remember Lord of the Rings (which I did not love) and The Chronicles of Narnia (which I did).

7. Largest Impact
The Little Prince I've read it multiple times and in three languages and it gets to me every damn time. Resonant, imaginative, profound, and plain ole perfect.

8. Favorite Scholarly Book
Desperately Seeking Madonna: In Search of the Meaning of the World's Most Famous Woman

9. Most Read Book
I'm copying Nick's answer here only because it's true: Inside Oscar --there are a multitude of books covering this topic but only this one is indispensable. The rest blur together.

10. Sexiest Book
I don't think I'm reading the right things.

11. Biggest Disappointments
I'm not disappointed in books so much as disappointed in myself for never reading them. My number one disappointment is that I've never read Another Country by James Baldwin which numerous people close to me swear by. I am so non-bookish that I thought it was the book that that 1984 Rupert Everett flick was based on.

12. Five Books that Mean Something to Me
05 Germinal because it, along with Cabaret (the movie) were important signposts to me in my adolescence that aesthetically, morally, politically, I was not my parents' son. The parents were horrified that I loved both.
04Beloved most particularly because it takes such a major dive into the glorious land of artistic gamble/risk and elevates itself to pure genius.
03The Uncanny X-Men (The Claremont/Byrne years)I know these are comic books and probably should be technically ineligible for this survey but to me they were everything at the time; Art, literature, mythology, and family.
02Queer in America by Michelangelo Signorile because it helped me to be strong, proud, and to fight the good fight.
01The Great Gatsby because I get all -well, simply put, I love it.

13. Tag
You are it. Answer any of the questions above herein if you don't have a blog. If you do, answer it there and direct us on over.