A Book Survey
 

Please let us know:

1. One book that changed your life
2. One book you have read more than once
3. One book you would want on a desert island
4. One book that made you laugh
5. One book that made you cry
6. One book you wish had been written
7. One book you wish had never had been written
8. One book you are currently reading
9. One book you have been meaning to read

Write as much or a little as you like (but preferably the former). I'll post my answers later.

1. One book that changed your life
That was Then This is Now
2. One book you have read more than once
Catcher in the Rye, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, On the Road, Hamlet(Which I might read next), many I can't remember right now.
3. One book you would want on a desert island
The Raw Shark Texts
4. One book that made you laugh
The Raw Shark Texts
5. One book that made you cry
So many I can't remember
6. One book you wish had been written
Hamlet
7. One book you wish had never had been written
Anything by Ayn Raynd
8. One book you are currently reading
Slaughter House five
9. One book you have been meaning to read
Hunger by Knut Hamsun.

1. Harry Potter series. I'm proud to be a nerdy wizard! Really though, I think Harry Potter was very significant for me because it was the first real book that I wanted to pick up and read. I think it was Harry Potter that really got me into reading.

2. In Cold Blood

3. House of Leaves

4. The Importance of Being Earnest (do plays count?)

5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

6. ??? Is this supposed to be "a book you wish you had written?"

7. I agree with the Ayn Rand thing

8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (I find myself completely spacing out while reading this, and not caring to go back and figure out what I missed)

9. Dostoevsky. But I don't have the time to really concentrate.

8.

1. One book that changed your life
Master and Margarita , maybe... not sure.

2. One book you have read more than once
Alice in wonderland

3. One book you would want on a desert island
Alice in wonderland

4. One book that made you laugh
Alice in Wonderland (:p), no, c'mon, I can drop another name: "Zazie in the metro"

5. One book that made you cry
Little Prince, back in the days

6. One book you wish had been written
Kinda hard to find a subject not already "covered"....

7. One book you wish had never had been written
The Da Vinci Code, never read that but all the fuzz about it tired my nerves.

8. One book you are currently reading
Chaplin's autobiography

9. One book you have been meaning to read
Some Pennac stuff, never read a line.

1. One book that changed your life
fear and loathing in las vegas

2. One book you have read more than once
also fear and loathing

3. One book you would want on a desert island
again, fear and loathing or other HST material

4. One book that made you laugh
how many times can i possibly repeat myself?

5. One book that made you cry
i have never cried because of a book

6. One book you wish had been written
???

7. One book you wish had never had been written
a million little pieces -- that bastard doesn't deserve a dime for making all that shit up

8. One book you are currently reading
i haven't read anything in quite awhile

9. One book you have been meaning to read
open up and bleed

1. One book that changed your life
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
2. One book you have read more than once
His Dark Materials Trilogy
3. One book you would want on a desert island
Complete collection of Camus
4. One book that made you laugh
Ahthing by Wilde
5. One book that made you cry
His Dark Materials Triliogy, I wept like a 5 year old grazing his knee
6. One book you wish had been written
The Bible. Man, I'd be so loaded from the sales from that.
7. One book you wish had never had been written
Not gonna answer that as it's a stupid question
8. One book you are currently reading
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (again)
9. One book you have been meaning to read
The Illiad

1. One book that changed your life
Siddharta by Herrmann Hesse
2. One book you have read more than once
1984 by George Orwell
3. One book you would want on a desert island
The Black Book of Communism
4. One book that made you laugh
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5. One book that made you cry
Snow and Blood by Dorota Maslowska
6. One book you wish had been written
I can't think of any right now
7. One book you wish had never had been written
??
8. One book you are currently reading
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
9. One book you have been meaning to read
The Bible

1. One book that changed your life
1984
2. One book you have read more than once
trainspotting
3. One book you would want on a desert island
the divine comedy (i've only read the inferno)
4. One book that made you laugh
american psycho
5. One book that made you cry
none
6. One book you wish had been written
the idiot
7. One book you wish had never had been written
the outsiders
8. One book you are currently reading
early poems and journals by allen ginsberg
9. One book you have been meaning to read
the rest of the divine comedy and kazantzakis' the odyssey

^ the "rest" of the divine comedy is boring. circling planets & light everywhere--yawn. inferno is where it's at. but yeah skim thought it you'll find out.

1. One book that changed your life
Picasso by Gertrude Stein

2. One book you have read more than once
Funeral Blues by Jean Genet

3. One book you would want on a desert island
The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson


4. One book that made you laugh
The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp

5. One book that made you cry
Pass

6. One book you wish had been written
Tonnes. Probably a good study of the New British Poetry post-war including J.H. Prynne, Andrew Crozier and others.
I would also like Jackson MacLowe's French Sonnets back in print, and somebody to collect in one volume and put out the Susan Howe chapbooks that are long out of circulation.

7. One book you wish had never had been written
None, that is brutal Nazi mentality. Keep all books because all are precious..... man.

8. One book you are currently reading
The Book of Images by Rilke

9. One book you have been meaning to read
Ways of Seeing by John Berger.

One book that changed your life

Beyond Good and Evil.

2. One book you have read more than once

too many to say-- including the above mentioned-- but picking one out of a hat... Ficciones, by Borges.

3. One book you would want on a desert island

Manual of Practical Teleportation

4. One book that made you laugh

Candide

5. One book that made you cry

I don't remember crying at books (honest), but Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina was quite a fucking depressing shock when I read it.

6. One book you wish had been written

Manual of Practical Teleportation

7. One book you wish had never had been written

Mein Kampf

8. One book you are currently reading

Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko.

9. One book you have been meaning to read

Nightwood. I've started it a couple of times and somehow got derailed.

1. One book that changed your life
Jean-paul sartre's Being and Nothiness
2. One book you have read more than once
Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange
3. One book you would want on a desert island
A survival guide
4. One book that made you laugh
Stephen King I luahg at least once in all his books
5. One book that made you cry
The Cay
6. One book you wish had been written
I don't quite understand this.
7. One book you wish had never had been written
Harrpy Fucking Potter
8. One book you are currently reading
Quite a few, I haven't finished a book in a while.
9. One book you have been meaning to read
I've wanted to finish Being and Nothing for a couple of years.

1. One book that changed your life
Hubert Selby Jnr, Last Exit to Brooklyn.

2. One book you have read more than once
Maury Terry, The Ultimate Evil.

3. One book you would want on a desert island
Tolstoy, Anna Karenin.

4. One book that made you laugh
Stanley Booth, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones.

5. One book that made you cry
Tolstoy, Anna Karenin.
6. One book you wish had been written
The Harry Potter series (for financial reasons alone)

7. One book you wish had never had been written
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on Las Vegas.

8. One book you are currently reading
Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out.

9. One book you have been meaning to read
Michael Moorecock, Dancers at the Edge of Time.

Bollocks. Purgatory is miles better than Inferno. Paradiso is unmitigated turd mind. Inferno has all the imagery, but purgatory has all the suffering.

1. Finnegans Wake, Joyce. I still can't read in the same way I did before.
2. The Bible. There's no way you can take any of it in first sitting.
3. Hegel's phenomenology of spirit. The only chance I'd ever get to finish it.
4. 100 days of Sodom. It's hilariously bad.
5. The complete Sarah Kane. Sick.
6. Anything by Joyce.
7. Whichever one started the beats, unless it was Miller or Burroughs.
8. Derrida's gift of death.
9. Pound's cantos.

God, I'm an unsufferable prick, aren't I?

Interesting you would mention that as it was actually on the Michael Moorcock message board that I lifted this survey to begin with!

Here are my answers:

1. One book that changed your life

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

2. One book you have read more than once

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

3. One book you would want on a desert island

The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs since it could be read in more than one way and would hold up well to many rereads consequently.

4. One book that made you laugh

Glover Undercover - Introducing the Sensuous Cop by Gary Blumberg

5. One book that made you cry

Iron Council by China Mieville

6. One book you wish had been written

Another Mathew Swain book by the late Mike McQuay

7. One book you wish had never had been written

Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard

8. One book you are currently reading

In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford

9. One book you have been meaning to read

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

1. One book that changed your life- Catch-22
2. One book you have read more than once- Dr. Seuss- Green Eggs and Ham (I'm not one for rereading books, but I'll most likely reread my favorites someday)
3. One book you would want on a desert island- something full of information on how to survive on a desert island
4. One book that made you laugh- Catch-22
5. One book that made you cry- ummm, I don't think I've ever cried while reading a book. Dostoevsky's The Idiot is pretty damn sad though.
6. One book you wish had been written- The Life of a Great Sinner (Dostoevsky died before he could write it)
7. One book you wish had never had been written- The Scarlet Letter
8. One book you are currently reading- Charles Bukowski- Ham on Rye
9. One book you have been meaning to read: Fyodor Dostoevsky- The Posessed

1. unbearable lightness of being
2. catcher in the rye, player piano, basically every book i've ever read
3. the raw shark texts, jpod, anything by poe
4. the whole gossip girl series (my guilty pleasure)
5. eh, never happened to me
6. anna karenina
7. bible
8. infinite jest
9. girl with curious hair

here goes:

1. One book that changed your life

american hardcore, though it mostly confirmed many things in my life instead of changing them. but it still was a big impact.

2. One book you have read more than once

a lot, a.h. is the one i've read the most, but about 90% of the books i've read have been done more than once.

3. One book you would want on a desert island

on the road, very obvious answer for many but since i would be in a desert island, the idea of getting on the highway to somewhere else, would be appealing and make for good escapism. it's also a great book.

4. One book that made you laugh

lester bang's psychotic reactions and carburator dung.

5. One book that made you cry

lester bang's psychotic reactions and carburator dung (well, i didn't literally made me cry but i felt sad reading the pieces on peter laughner, sid vicious and new year's eve).

6. One book you wish had been written

mostly music and history stuff, documenting stuff to preserve for future generations.

7. One book you wish had never had been written

none, all books serve for a purpose and reason. there are people i wish wouldn't have written or even read books in the first place.

8. One book you are currently reading

crime and punishment; yeah, that one.

9. One book you have been meaning to read

japanrocksampler and anything by kenji siratori.

i re-read it during my first year of college and i couldn't really take it all in, it was pretty sad.