Friday's List: Nine Questions

I've stolen this list from the Shelf Awareness newsletter. It's from their "Book Brahmins" interview they do with authors, once or twice every week. Looked like fun, so I decided to borrow it for a little self-interview.

1. On your nightstand now:
   An ARC of Tassy Morgan's Bluff by Jim Stinson, Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt, and Faithful Place by Tana French.
   
   
2. Favorite book when you were a child:
   Lewis Carroll's Alice books, The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis, and a big storybook by Nan Gilbert called 365 Bedtime Stories.
   
   
   
3. Your top five authors:
   Barbara Pym, Anthony Powell, Muriel Spark, P.D. James. Those are the top four. That fifth place is a problem -- today I'd probably say Mark Twain or Edgar Allan Poe. Ask me tomorrow, and you might get a different answer.
   
   
4. Book you've faked reading:
   Pride and Prejudice, when I was in high school. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but the goings-on of Lizzie and Darcy and their ilk bored the pants off me when I was seventeen. I read the first chapter and the last and faked my way through. Read the entire book years later and loved it.
   
   
5. Book you're an evangelist for:
   Another changeable area. But over time, I guess Wuthering Heights is the one book I've urged the most people to read. One of the greatest novels of all time. I'm always surprised to learn how many people haven't read it.
   
   
   
6. Book you've bought for the cover:
   Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand. A mistake. Loved the cover -- wasn't able to stick with the book beyond the first few pages.
   
   
   
7. Book that changed your life:
   Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass (Richard Alpert). All I can say is it was the right book at the right time.
   
   
8. Favorite line from a book:
   "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?" (-Alice in Wonderland)
   
   I also like "Reader, I married him" from Jane Eyre, but always feel like that's cheating a bit because I've never actually read Jane Eyre.
   
   
9. Book you most want to read again for the first time:
   Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, or Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym.