On the road

Yellow and I are checked into a hotel room in Denver, Colorado and trying to stay out of trouble. I blew into town to do a little research and will head for home and the Emperor tomorrow but meanwhile, here's a meme I found over at a little loopy . I tag anyone who's inclined to be tagged.

1. One book that made you laugh: Assasination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Vowell is a sharp but affectionate social critic and I love her books as well as her spoken essays on NPR.

2. One book that made you cry: The View From Here: Contemporary Essays by Flagstaff Authors. Oh my gosh, I bought this and started reading it when I was still almost physically sick with homesickness for Flagstaff. I got about an essay and a half into it and started sobbing inconsolably. The Emperor very gently took it away from me and hid it. I recently found it and gave it to a friend who grew up in Flag; he'll enjoy it without breaking down.

3. One book that you loved as a child: Armitage Armitage, Fly Away Home by Joan Aiken. It's a collection of stories about a slightly strange family that seems to casually attract magic.

4. One book you’ve read more than once: How about three? The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. I read this once a year, every year, for about twenty-five years, just to keep my hand in. And this year isn't over yet...

5. One book you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. Okay, I really was a child of the 70s and was affected by the story. Today, honestly, I can't recall what it was about, except for the seagull.

6. One book you hated: The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. I had to read this for class for about six years in a row, and hated it every single time.

7. One book that scared you: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. My dear aunt M-- made me sit down and read it and I never quite recovered.

8. One book that bored you: The King's Coat by Dewey Lambdin. It's an "age of sail" story about an officer in the King's Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and by all rights I should have been fascinated by it, but I got about one-quarter of the way through it before putting it down for good. This just goes to show that I won't waste my time reading bad naval fiction.

9. One book that made you happy: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, by Douglas Adams. I howled all the way through it, and looked forward to picking it up to read at the end of every day that it took to plough all the way through the whole series. I was genuinely sorry when I finished it.

10. One book that made you miserable: Dune, by Frank Herbert. It made me so miserable that I never got past the first chapter, despite the legion of friends who were completely certain that I would love every word if I continued.

11. One book that you weren’t brave enough to read: On Writing, by Stephen King. I've never been able to read anything by this guy and I couldn't even manage his book about the craft of writing. Brrrr!

12. One book character you’ve fallen in love with: Stephen Maturin, the surgeon in the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian. I love the distracted nerdy types, at least on paper. I think in real life I'd probably beat one to death with a book.

13. The last book you read: How about the one I'm reading now? An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, or 2000 Years of Upper-Class Idiots In Charge, by John O'Farrell. I saw the book advertised on the Underground last year in London, and on my last night in England I went out and found a copy. It has to be one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

14. The next book you hope to read: Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester. I've started it about three times but have been interrupted ever time. It's on the nightstand waiting right now.