The Ludic Reader

I followed a tweet to Such A Book Nerd‘s post answering these questions, which she got from Shelf Awareness. I can never resist a good meme.

On your nightstand now:

Kelly Creagh’s fabulous YA novel, Nevermore (which I am thoroughly enjoying.)

But my bedside table (actually a hope chest) is  home to a big pile of books – some of them waiting to be read, some half read, some destined for my Book Graveyard. They include:

The Flight of Gemma Hardy (which I hope to read in the next few days as Margot Livesay will be reading at The Lorenzo Society  on November 9.); Midnight is a Lonely Place – Barbara Erskine; Juliet – Belinda Seaward; Pharos – Alice Thompson; The Night Bus – Janice Law; The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy; The Essential 55 – Ron Clark; The Tarnished Eye – Judith Guest; When I Was a Loser – John McNally; Girls in White Dresses – Jennifer Close; The Savage Garden – Mark Mills; The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell and The Golden Book of Bovinities, the latest book of poetry by my dear friend, Robert Moore. Yeah, I have a small problem.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I have a lot of favourite childhood books. Going WAY back: Uncle Wiggly, which I remember my mom reading to my brothers and me. I was a huge Bobbsey Twins fan. I always got a couple new books for birthdays and Christmas. I loved Trixie Beldon. I loved A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Your top five authors: (subject to change, of course)

I love Carolyn Slaughter, Helen Dunmore, Helen Humphreys, Thomas H. Cook, and Lisa Reardon

Book you’ve faked reading:

Sometimes I just say…I read it a long time ago; I don’t really remember it. Ha!

Book you’re an evangelist for:

Sorry – I pimp lots of books.

The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness (so far I have two girls in my grade ten class reading through the Chaos Walking Series)

The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly

The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak

Book you’ve bought for the cover:

While I do enjoy a good cover, it’s rarely the sole reason I buy a book. There are too many books I want to read (too many on my physical shelves waiting to be read) to waste a purchase on a pretty cover.

Book that changed your life:

Jane Eyre changed my reading life at a young age, but lots of other books have impacted me in positive ways. For example, Carolyn Slaughter has written a couple books – The Banquet & The Story of the Weasel – which showed me a fearlessness that has stayed with me. And the book I’ve  reread the most, Velocity by Kristin McCloy, continues to speak to me in ways I can’t explain.

Favorite line from a book:

I love this line from Thomas H. Cook’s novel Breakheart Hill: This is the darkest story that I ever heard, and all my life I have laboured not to tell it.

And from Velocity:  Sometimes in my dreams you rise up as if from a swamp, whole, younger than I remember, dazzling, jagged, and I follow you into smoky rooms, overwhelmed by the sense of being in the presence of an untamed thing, full of light, impossible to control.

I would quote more, but the question asks for a line, so I’ll resist.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Jane Eyre – but it’s been so long since I first read it, that it would probably feel like the first time.

If you could encourage any beginning writer, what would you say?

Just write. Don’t edit yourself; don’t second guess yourself; don’t censor yourself; be fearless.

If you answer this meme, be sure to let me know; I’d love to read your answers.