Interesting little blurb I stole for A-Train....

1. One book that changed your life: As we have previously discussed in several graduate classes I am very skeptical of the "literacy as a means of life saving or life changing event." I think it is a dangerous and problematic message to send to students/people. However, if I had to choose one book that made a difference in my life I would probably choose Beowulf or The Sun Also Rises. The Sun Also Rises just made me love good literature. Beowulf made me realize that I really have a special aptitude for literature. As an undergrad everyone in a British Survey course was struggling with it, and did not understand but I got it, and quickly. It made me realize that I was a much better student than I thought and gave me confidence to stick with the English Major. I would also have to say The Wasteland for many of the same reasons A Train did. Dr. Stayer is amazing and very much missed. When I took his classes (which were typically called "blood courses" because of his penchant for bleeding on student writing, and bringing them to tears) and did well I knew I wanted to become a professor and not settle for coaching football in some small town with no growth for the next 25 years before retiring to a lake house to "run out the clock."

2. One book that you've read more than once: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I have read that book a thousand times but I have to admit it doesn't mean what it used to. As I get older and the 18 year old stilted male identity gets farther and farther away Hemingway loses some of the power he had when I was younger.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth. It is funny, sick, and awesome. It is Roth's masterpiece, and one of my favorite novels.

4. One book that made you laugh: Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This book was simply awesome and one of the few books to make me laugh out loud. I love the scene where the students are protesting below his office window because he has not returned essays, and he berates them unmercifully before dumping the box full of essays on their heads. Classic teacher moment.

5. One book that made you cry: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is one of the best books in the American Tradition. I have never read anything that has stuck with me or affected me the way this book did. It is grim, heart wrenching, and redemptive. It is the only book that has made me openly emotional after reading it. This is the only book I think that represents both the humanity and all that is good in Man and total evil and all that base is base and vile in Man. To say it is a good book is an understatement. This will go down as one of the definitive texts in world literature before all is said and done.

6. One book you wish had been written: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Strait A's as an Undergraduate Party Boy. I love my undergraduate experience but things would be a lot easier if I had studied a bit more, and partied it up a bit less. I mean I graduated with a 3.5 in English but a 4.0 would make applying to Graduate Schools a lot easier.

7. One book you wish had never been written: Push by Sapphire. The most worthlessly racist and stereotypical book ever with no story arch or plot.

8. One book you're currently reading: I wish I could say I was reading something interesting as "free reading" but alas I am in graduate student hell and I am reading Far From the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Not bad, but not something I would probably choose to read for fun.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: There are several books on this list the tops being Ulysses by James Joyce, and Absalom! Absalom! By William Faulkner. These are two texts at the center of the the canon that I really should have already read. However, I don't really care much for either author.