Book Meme

I got tagged by Brad Hoge over at the HUN Blog with the book meme. The English teacher in me thought: how could I refuse?

1. One book that changed your life? Tough one... I think I'm going to have to go with Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. It really changed the way I thought about the classroom and teaching. Ten years later, I still think about the lessons that book holds.

2. One book you have read more than once? (Well, aside from the one I just mentioned...) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I first read that in high school, and it could easily have fit under the first question. I read it in college, read it again at night when I was at the training session for my first job, read it again my first year teaching, and then taught it for the last few years at Beacon. What blows me away is that I've really identified with different pieces of it at different points in my life.

3. One book you would want on a desert island? World According to Garp by John Irving. I've read this book more than any other book, I just love the story, I love the writing, and I love re-reading it. After all this time, the characters feel like old friends. (Close second -- Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson.)

4. One book that made you laugh? White Noise by Don DeLillo. Yes, it made me think and question and write too, but it's also just really funny, satirical and spot on.

5. One book that made you cry? I'm going way back to the first book I remember making me cry -- A Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. I read it when I was in sixth grade. Wasn't expecting what happened. Was completely blown away. That was the first book that made me cry... there have been a lot since then.

6. One book you wish had been written? "Hamlet" or "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" -- heck, if you're going to dream, dream big. (O.k. -- I'd "settle" for Moral Leadership by Thomas Sergiovanni or The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn.)

7. One book you wish had never been written? Anything Ann Coulter has ever written.

8. One book you are currently reading? Deadwood by Pete Dexter.

9. One book you have been meaning to read? The Story of Science by Joy Hakim. I'm halfway through it.

10. Now tag five people. I'll tag SLA teacher Marcie Hull, fellow principal Steve Poling, charter school planner Amy Hendrickson, DesignShare's Christian Long (once he gets back from his travels), and fellow English teacher Bud Hunt.