Obligatory Book Posting

Jodster from JPTH has asked me to complete this. So in the interests of interblogger relations, here you go!

What book do you want to be?
Eh? What? I don’t want to be no book sucka. I ain’t goin on no plane eitha.

But I would like to be as witty as say the dialogue in, Catch 22, or perhaps The Hitchhiker’s Guide series- particularly Life, The Universe, and Everything. (PS I’ve had it on good sources that the new movie is nowhere near as cool as the trailer.)

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Absolutely. When I was a child I loved every long-haired girl on The Electric Company- I always hoped they would escape the dumping of water on the head. Soon that moved on to Daphne from Scooby-do (who didn’t love Daphne?)

The last book you bought is:
The last book I bought was probably the K-PAX trilogy. I was at an airport and wanted something easy going. I digested those books very quickly, considering their size. I really enjoyed them, particularly the second one- much better than the Kevin Spacey film (nothing against the gov’ner of the old vic). The third one Kind of removed doubt as to wether he was an alien or not, so I’m less inclined to like that one.

The last book you read was:
This is probably No Picnic on Mount Kenya loaned to me by a good mate. It’s the true story of a few Italian prisoners of war in a British POW camp in Africa who are so bored with their camp life that they decide to climb the enormous mountain behind their camp, not to escape, but simply to climb it, come back down and get recaptured. This is a real feat even with modern equipment, but these crazy guys do it by fashioning all their mountain climbing and survival tools out of common items found around the POW camp. It’s part escape story, part mountain climbing story, and it’s got the buddy thing going on. It’s an older translation from the Italian so some of the phrases and humor is a bit clunky, but what a tale!

Oh do Audiobooks count?? I recently listened to America: The Textbook- The Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction. And it was HILARIOUS.

I also recently enjoyed Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, Black Hawk Down and Killing Pueblo, both by Mark Bowden.

What are you currently reading?
Trying to do the daily Bible thing, but I’m falling off the wagon a bit! My wife is luckily there to crack the whip.

I’m actively reading Shaking Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire. Really powerful stuff by the French-Canadian guy who led the intervention force in Rwanda, the one that the UN chickened out of after realizing there was nothing worth keeping the peace over and loosing its taste for peacekeeping in the Black Hawk Down incident of Mogidishu- one country over. If you’ve seen HOTEL RWANDA, Nick Nolte’s character is based on this fellow who can’t believe that he’s stopped from helping- and 800,000 Rwandans die because of it. I see now there is a film specific to Dallaire’s experience, I hope I can see that soon..

Five books you would take to a deserted island:

1. Me Bible- Gotta say that or jodster will beat the tar out of me.
2. Catch 22, Joseph Heller- I read this book till it fell apart, literally. My brother in law had to get me another one for Christmas! (I've started reading the sequel at least 3 times, and just plain lost interest each time. What does that say about me?)
   
3. Animal Farm, George Orwell.. OK at only 100 pages I might want something a bit longer on a desert island, but I read it every year. I still cry when Boxer…..
4. A Short History of Nearly Everything- Bill Bryson. Hey this science stuff is really interesting and it might come in handy. Bill Bryson makes it hilarious too.
5. From here, I’m not sure. I could say raft building and survival etc, but I’m sure that defeats the purpose of the exercise!! Perhaps then Whale Music by Paul Quarrington. An excellent tale of Rock n’ Roll, family and amphetamines.

There you go Jodster!!