Books Like Blink: A Questionnaire

If I Were…. and the Which Book Are You? quiz inspired such original, creative responses from readers. So, when I came across this interesting questionnaire over at Scheiss Weekly, I decided to take it. I hope you will take it, too because Shamash would love to hear YOUR answers to this questionaire.

1. If you couldn't get out of "Fahrenheit 451," what book would you like to be?

[This could mean one of two things: the book gets burned, and therefore no longer exists, or else the book gets memorized by the faithful outcasts, and is therefore is immortal.)

Deserves to be burned:

Any book in the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I can’t stand the authors (a “team with a shared evangelical fervor”) , and what they represent (LaHaye is the cofounder of the Moral Majority), even though one in eight Americans are reading this series.

Deserves to be memorized:

The Essential Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)

2. Did you ever have a crush on a fictional character?

Oh, yes:

-the tall, dark, mysterious men in the Harlequin romances that I read when I was in middle/high school

-Asher Lev in My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

-Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

-fictional, big, bad guys with attitude (and tattoos) like these in "Gothic" novels. Where's the bat for the SHARP bodyguard, and why wasn't the chick wearing a"Hand of Fatima" round her neck? Where are the guys like this in real life who rescue a damsel in leather and studs?

3. What was the last book you bought?

A cookbook: Green’s Greens: Mostly Vegetables with an Oriental Twist by Daniel Green

4. What was the last book you read?

Punished by Rewards The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans,A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn

5. What book are you reading now?

Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman

6. Five books you would take with you to a deserted island?

1. a. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
2. b. The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
3. c. a coloring book (with crayons)
4. d. The Holy Bible
5. e. Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

7. The last book given to you?

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

(thanks to “My Precious” Ruby, who, by request, hand-carried it all the way from Abu Dhabi and speed-read it on the plane.)

8. Three people you're going to pass this on to, and why?

Have Coffee Will Write: because I like the books he reads

Expat Nomad: because I always love to read his responses to quizzes and other, general questions about life (and the differences between the male and the female psyche!)

Legend of Y and Ms. Penelope, because they are bibliophiles, just like me.

Comments

[Irresistable]

When you throw down the gauntlet like that and speak of my responses as such, how can I resist? I gotta throw out my perspective since you want to see how our psyches differ... ;-)

1. If you couldn't get out of "Fahrenheit 451," what book would you like to be?
"All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" - a simple classic. Kids have a much simpler way of looking at the world and wouldn't life be much easier if we listened to them more often than politicans?

2. Did you ever have a crush on a fictional character?
Not in a book but Princess Leah in "Return of the Jedi" when she is in that slave outfit. Ooooohhh...

3. What was the last book you bought?
From the annals of trivial knowledge - Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into the Universe. If you've never picked up an Uncle John's book, you gotta buy and read at least one in your life. Very short stories (1-3 pages) with information that just makes life a bit more interesting. Shamash will agree with me on this one.

4. What was the last book you read?
"Apollo 13(formerly titled Lost Moon)" by Jim Lovell. What can I say, once a space science dork, always a space science dork.

5. What book are you reading now?
"101 Ways to Postpone Doing Your IB Coursework Grading Because You Just Don't Feel Like It" by Me. What can I say, I'm in the same mindset as the kids - I wanna go out and play in the sunshine too!

6. Five books you would take with you to a deserted island?
a. Contact by Carl Sagan.
b. Robinson Crusoe by Defoe - hey, if I'm on a deserted island, this may have some helpful hints!
c. Freak: Inside the Twisted World of Michael Jackson by Ed Breslin - no matter how horrible life would be alone on a deserted island, I would still feel better about myself because I am not Michael Jackson and not a child molester.
d. The Zombie Survival Guide : Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks - hey ya never know! The living dead can be anywhere!!!
e. War and Peace by Tolstoy - lotsa pages in case I need to start a fire - hehehehehe...

7. Three people you're going to pass this on to, and why?
Umm, sorry to say but no one. Slim, I did this for you and whoever else wants to read it. But alas, I shant be passing it on to anyone else.

[Irresistable]

Almost forgot - Last book gifted to me -
Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World by James J. Cramer. What can I say, my Dad wants me to starting investing for my retirement.

[Datta]

-If you couldn't get out of "Fahrenheit 451," what book would you like to be?
Probably "In Watermelon Sugar" by old romantic Scorpio boyfriend used to read this to me.

-Did you ever have a crush on a fictional character?
More than I can think of

- What was the last book you bought?
(Shyly) The Complete Tightwad Gazette for thrifty money-saving ideas

-What was the last book you read?
Same

-What book are you reading now?
Does a knitting pattern count?

-Five books you would take with you to a deserted island?
Hard to say, probably a survival guide, my family photo albums, Prodigal Summer by B. Kingsolver, and I wouldn't mind a copy of W & P for fire-starter.

-Three people you're going to pass this on to, and why?
No one here for me too. I hate forewarding stuff for the pure logistics of it

-Last book gifted to me
Wow, no one has given me a book in years. The latest book loaned to me was Feng Shui for Dummies and the last book gifted to me was probably The Medicine Wheel by Sun Bear when I was 17 :(
Oh wait, that's not right, my husband gave me The Bean Trees by B Kingsolver when we lived in the mountains.

[shamash]

Love your answers, Datta and Expat Nomad. I'm honored that you answered the questionnaire "just for me"! :-)

[Jeff Hess]

Shalom Shamash,

I was meme'd with this one by Tish G. at Love And Hope And Sex And Dreams, so I'll be working on it for the next couple of days.

Thanks for the tip about KTAO. I'm listening to it right now. Strangely enough. I've been thinking a great deal about Taos over the last few days. There is something in the desert that is calling me.

B'shalom,

Jeff

[Irresistable]

Hey, who's this Expat Guy?!?! ;)

Anytime chica... :)

[shamash]

Jeff: I can relate to the "desert call"... There is no place on earth like Taos. It's the only place on the planet where I truely feel "at home."

I find it ironic that another one of your readers "meme'd" you with the book meme. (Meme is a new word for me, by the way.) Looking forward to your response, but only if you want to!!!