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I'm not familiar with the whole tagging thing but I thought this was a good idea, and, like Collier, I love to think about reading almost as much as I love to read.

So I'll pretend like Ryan tagged me. Here goes.

Changed my life?
The Old Testament. I know I'm a freak but it is true.

When I was little, the Exorcist and Damien and Salem's Lot were the shit in the movies and on TV and, as a Jewish kid, I realized that I didn't have the protection afforded my little Christian friends - the sign of the cross. So I came up with an elaborate form of security for myself which involved being an extremely devout Jew. I told myself that if Jesus were really the Big Kahuna, he'd approve of my devotion to my religion and family and extend his anti-vampire/devil powers over me. So I read the Old Testament every night before I went to bed.

I honestly think that the good bits - about being kind to strangers, loving thy neighbor as thyself, judging not etc - sunk in pretty well. Not perfectly, but not too badly.

Also, the dictionary.

I've read more than once?
I am chronic re-reader so I won't list them all. I can't even begin to list all the double-reads.

The Old Testament - 5 times?
The Chronicles of Narnia - Gosh ... except for the Last Battle, which I read only once ... 8 times? (This one might've had as much impact on my character as the first.)
Pride and Prejudice - 4 times, plus one time in Spanish
A Room with a View - 5 times
The Corrections - 3 times
Crime and Punishment - 4 times
Ellison's The Invisible Man - 3 times
Catch 22 - 3 times


I'd want on a desert island?
The Boy Scouts Guide
The first narrator in Wilkie Collin's The Moonstone reads Robinson Crusoe as if it were the Bible and he's incredibly funny so I'd probably give that a shot.

Made me cry?
Of Mice and Men
The first half of David Copperfield. (The second half kinda sucks)
The Idiot by Dostoevsky

Made me laugh?
Charles Dickens (Great Expectations and The Pickwick Papers are tops) always makes me laugh
The first half of the Moonstone, narrated by the guy who only reads Robinson Crusoe.
Jane Austen
The salmon scene and the talking shit scene in The Corrections almost made me piss my pants.
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet

I wish had written?
The Corrections
Wonder Boys

I wish had never been written?
The Old Testament?

... as if humans wouldn't find some other spiritual justification to destroy each other ...

I'm currently reading?
I am between books at the moment. Just finished Into the Wild and might start another John Krakauer book or Kafka on the Shore by Murakami.

I’ve been meaning to read?
Lordy, where to begin?