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So I wound up the Book Brahmin interview with two more fun little queries:
Favorite line from a book:
“Reader, I married him.”
kick-ass writer
From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. If you don’t burst into tears when you get to that line, you’re made of stone.
Runners up:
- “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
- “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
- “Thar she blows! A hump like a snowhill. ‘Tis Moby Dick.”
Can you tell I have a taste for melodrama?
Your turn–what’s your favorite line from a book?
And finally…
Book you most want to read again for the first time: The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy. I sneaked my mother’s copy and read it with my jaw on the floor. A story of a naughty man doing naughty things, told with such originality and playfulness with the language that I feel like reading it again right now.
What book would you like to read for the first time again?
Another Q from Shelf Awareness:
my childhood library - MY kind of temple
Book you are an evangelist for:
SW: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris makes the perfect hostess gift—It’s everyone’s childhood in one volume. And Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGarde Smith is one I read while losing someone dear to me. I tend to give it to people in need of comfort. Regardless of where you’re coming from, both books are good for the soul, for totally different reasons.
[I love the idea of being a book evangelist. For me, fantasy jobs include bookseller and librarian. Some people sit around dreaming of being astronauts or movie stars. I imagine being in a position to invite people to read! And matching the perfect book with the perfect reader? Heaven.]
What books are you an evangelist for? What books do you buy over and over, giving them to people simply because you love them?
In my Shelf Awareness feature, I admitted to this:
Book you’ve faked reading: Du Coté de Chez Swann by Marcel Proust. In French. I was trying to impress a professor who I later learned was gay. Quel dommage!
image from Wikipedia Commons
I wish I could be more patient with this book, because the bits and pieces I’ve read are truly beautiful. All four of them. 
Yet the book was so good that one of the several publishers that rejected it later wrote him an apology. However, the image above stole my heart–it’s a galley proof from a manuscript that sold at Christies for £663 750. But that’s not what stole my heart–it’s his cutting-and-pasting technique. Masterful. But how did the poor man write a whole work of literary genius without Post-It Notes? No wonder he died young.
I'm a messy writer, too, Marcel!
And p.s., Proust is wise:
“Every reader finds himself. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.”
Your turn–have you fake-read any good books lately?
Harriet rocks!
In my Book Brahmin interview, I was only allowed to list one, but I had an ever-changing array as I grew.
Favorite book when you were a child:
SW: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I slept with it under my pillow so I could channel Harriet, and started carrying a notebook everywhere I went. I still do that.
Note: Please do not see the movie! It ruins the book. Movies have a nasty habit of doing that, except in certain cases, like The Wizard of Oz.
Other contenders for my favorites:
- You Were Princess Last Time – Long out of print; don’t recall the author
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – probably the most flawless book ever written
- The Watchbirds – another out of print, an author/illustrator I can’t recall
So many more. But I’ll shut up. List your childhood faves in Comments.
daily enlightenment for booklovers
This is probably my favorite daily e-mail. If you like books, subscribe. They’ll tell you what’s new, what’s hot, what’s interesting and what’s in the news.
Once a week, they pick a writer to be the “Book Brahmin,” and the answers always intrigue me. I got to be the Book Brahmin one day in March, and here are some of the questions and responses. I’ll post one or two over the next few days. Your mission–post your answers in Comments!
On your nightstand now:
SW: The Urban Outfitters catalog, a Clairefontaine notebook and pen, a tin of Bag Balm, a chapter of my work-in-progress, and The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant. I adore Roald Dahl, and I’m a sucker for true stories of heroic deeds in WWII.
Your turn: What’s on your nightstand?
I’ve always wanted to be some kind of Brahmin except maybe not the bovine kind. Remember all those novels about “Boston Brahmins?” Did they just feel special? Anyway, head on over to Shelf Awareness (my favorite online newsletter dedicated to books) and click the “Book Brahmin” link to see what’s on my nightstand, on my mind, and deep in the twisted reaches of my subconscious.
I would love to see your book brahmin answers! Add a comment!
So this is a first, not just for me but for the ENTIRE FREAKIN FERRY SYSTEM. I’m having a booksigning on the ferry Thursday, on the 4:40pm Seattle/Bainbridge run.
- Come to a booksigning aboard a Washington State Ferry!
I’m known for doing signings in unusual places. This one is to celebrate the publication of JUST BREATHE, and because there will be ads for the book on the ferry. Enter a drawing to win a gift basket filled with gourmet treats, a signed book and a certificate for an oxygen facial. There’s a nice article about the event in Shelf Awareness here.
All this scenery and a new book to read, too. You can’t beat that!
It’s deja vu all over again.
PICTURE OF THE DAY from Publishers Weekly:
Writerly Love in Bainbridge
On Thursday at Eagle Harbor Book Company on Bainbridge Island, Wash., Susan Wiggs celebrated the launch of her latest hardcover, Just Breathe (Mira). Wiggs (c.) is pictured here with local authors (shown l. to r.) Sheila Roberts, Carol Cassella, Suzanne Selfors and Suzanne MacPherson.
Image of the Day: Author and Her Writers Group
Last Thursday, Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, Wash., hosted a party for Susan Wiggs, whose Just Breathe has just been published. Here outside the store Wiggs posed with three members of her writers group (from l. to r.) Sheila Roberts, Carol Cassella, Wiggs and Suzanne Selfors–and, far right, Suzanne MacPherson, who is a local writer but not in the group. This coming Thursday Wiggs will do an autographing on the ferry to Bainbridge Island (Shelf Awareness, August 26, 2008).
(Courtesy of Shelf Awareness)
