Oooooooooh! Books! (I stole this from Dr. No

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

Strangely, I had to write a paper on this exact topic when I was a senior in high school. I said it once, I'll say it again: To Kill A Mockingbird all the way. It's socially responsible, it's funny, it's sad, it shows life at its absolute worst and absolute best. Plus, I am Scout.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Atticus Finch, of course. And the boy from Beverly Cleary's Fifteen.

The last book you bought is?

I buy books constantly even though I own anywhere between 50 and 100 books that I have yet to read. I think the last book I bought was Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund for my book club. It's really good so far but I only started it. It's about 400 pages and when I realized I was going to have to miss that particular meeting in favor of California, well, my need to finish it diminished. But I will prevail! I am trying devise a strategy for taking the train to work and, if successful, I believe that this will increase my reading time ten-fold.

What book are you currently reading?

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler for my book club. See, this is exactly the reason I wanted to join a book club. You get introduced to new authors and you read stuff you might otherwise not (like Barack Obama's book-excellent!). I now have to find and read every Anne Tyler book ever 'cause she's my kind of storyteller!

Five books you would take with you on a deserted island?

Oh, dear. Well, To Kill A Mockingbird, of course. A dictionary (also stolen from Dr. No) because I like reading them too, but also because, if I come across a word I don't know in one of the books, my mom won't be there for me to ask. My Year of Meats, which I recommend to everyone. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Something by Barbara Kingsolver. Um, Prodigal Summer, maybe? I think I'd need at least one of her books to sink into and block everything out. Plus, one of the main characters in Summer is a forest ranger...I can't recall, but maybe there are helpful hints for surviving outdoors on a deserted island. This is way harder than I thought it would be! Also, my memory is not so good. Something funny, too. My new mystery guy is Tim Dorsey and he's funny as hell. So, I pronounce the fifth book to be Cadillac Beach because it's a Serge book and I haven't read it yet. I can't only bring books I've already read! I should probably also bring the last 20 or so pages of Lady Chatterly's Lover. I've been meaning to finish that book for six or seven years now. I do want to know what happens. I just dread having to slog through the needlessly academic philosophizing that is interspersed between the dirty parts.