15 things about books

Toni tagged me with this meme, which is to write 15 things about books. This is, as far as I know, the first time I’ve ever been tagged with one of these things.

1) I don’t know when I started reading — somewhere between 2 and 3. I don’t remember my parents reading me stories before bed. I think I must have read myself my bedtime story every night.

2) A favorite family story about me is how one day during our vacation in Bermuda I disappeared in the main town. My mother, frantic, asked a policeman for help in finding me. He asked her about the sorts of places I liked. She mentioned bookstores, he took her to the nearest one, and there I was, reading the D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths. I still have that copy of the book with its original (though much battered) dust jacket; it’s currently on the bookshelf in Sophia’s and Simon’s room.

3) Darin’s favorite genre is science-fiction/fantasy; mine is mystery. Strangely, if I pick up an SF book, Darin is rarely interested in it, and likewise I am not particularly moved to read Darin’s set of mysteries.

4) I knew Darin was the boy for me when I discovered his idea of the perfect vacation was the same as mine: go somewhere peaceful and beautiful and bring a suitcase full of books along with. We actually brought a bag full of books with us on our multi-week trip to Israel. And we read them all.

5) My favorite book when I was a kid was Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key. I must have read that book ten million times. I saw the movie three times, but I was secretly disappointed because it veered so much from the book. Of course, I had yet to learn that was SOP for book adaptation. (My mother, when cleaning out her house and getting it ready for sale, found my old Scholastic book club edition of this book. We never throw anything away.)

6) I read The Lord of the Rings instead of studying for finals sophomore year of high school. I’m not sure what it means about me that a)I don’t remember a thing about the books except for the bit with the spider and b)I did pretty damn well on my finals anyhow.

7) I have never read Huckleberry Finn. In fact, there are quite a few classics I have never read but expect to before I, you know, die.

8) There are quite a few classics, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin that I have read and remember absolutely nothing about. I do not feel more educated as a result of reading these books.

9) I loved The Scarlet Letter when I read it in high school. I am undoubtedly the only former or current American high school student to make this claim.

10) How many books do we own? I have no idea. Easily a few thousand, in just about every subject and genre you can name. And we’d have a lot more than that, but we got rid of 26 boxes full of books back in 2001, in order to clean up our house a little.

11) The scariest book I own is Practical Homicide Investigation (the manual of choice for serial killers everywhere). When I finally get around to arranging the books in my office, the sex-related books go on the lowest shelves, and the crime-related books go on the uppermost.

12) Every so often Sophia says, “We need to go to the bookstore. I hear a book calling to me.” Darin and I look at one another knowingly.

13) I get books out of libraries now. If I really like them, I go buy a copy. I buy at least one library book per month (usually cookbooks, but not always).

14) I have read plays and short stories in French and German, but I have never managed an entire novel in a foreign language.

15) I read Klaus Mann’s Mephisto, in English, in one sitting at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Hmmm. I guess I’m supposed to tag someone. Well, I’ll tag the Maitresse, Andrea, and the Piefessor.