A couple of weeks ago Dom tagged me with the "One Book Meme" …so here goes. It will probably be lame.

One book that changed your life:

The Early Church by Henry Chadwick. It was the primary text in the first quarter (yes, UT was on the  quarter system, not semester, back then) of "History of Western Religious Thought and Institutions" taught by David Linge that I took as a sophomore. At that point I was a rather dissatisfied political science major (political science turning out to be more theoretical than I’d though it would be.), and this book, as well as the professor who taught the course, turned me into a history major. I found the history of Christianity endlessly fascinating. I still do.

One book that you’ve read more than once:  Does Goodnight Moon count?

Oh, you mean..read to myself. Okay…Harriet the Spy?

Still not good enough?

Let’s see…aside from all those I’ve had to teach and write about, which require multiple readings…I’ll say Straight Man by Richard Russo. It’s hysterically funny and quite true, emotionally.

One book you’d want on a desert island.

I’m guessing the "How to Build a Boat" and "How to make a Radio out of Coconuts" have been done to death. I should say the Bible, but I think I’ll go out on a limb and say the collected works of William Shakespeare because there’s too much of him I’ve not read and I need to catch up. On that desert island, I should finally have the time.

One Book that Made You Laugh

Well, I’ve already blown this. Straight Man makes me laugh. Oh, but I’d say the book that’s made me laugh the hardest and longest of any book I’ve ever read was surely Handling Sin by Michael Malone – a masterwork of what they call the picaresque, a modern Don Quixote of a sorts, and once again, that aside from the absurdities and wild ride, actually packs quite an emotional punch.

One book that made you cry:

Oh, The Yearling, of course. Read it when I was twelve. Sobbed and sobbed…I think I even wrote inside the back cover, "This is the saddest book I’ve ever read."

One Book You Wish Had Been Written:

All Your Nagging Questions: Answered! by Jesus of Nazareth.

Just kidding!

Sort of.

One Book You Wish Hadn’t Been Written:

Well, Dom mentioned DVC as a popular choice. So I’ll say….er…Joshua by Girzone.

Finally…One Book You’ve Been Meaning to Read: 

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni – I bought it, got a few pages into it, then life interrupted. I think I’ll try it again..I feel a responsibility to, for some reason. That or (from the other end of the spectrum) The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, which I picked up at an airport. Whoops…that’s more than one book. I broke the rules, alas. I need something light after wrestling with the intricacies of the Spiritual Franciscans for the past week or so. So I think Venus might win.

And so in the great tradition of meme-ing, I’ll tag…you all. Go for it!