A series of thought-provoking questions on books is making its rounds in the blogosphere.  Here are Ann Bartow's and Jim Chen's answers.  Ann invites anyone on the blogroll to chime in, so I'll gladly play.  I'm so narcissistic that I love surveys -- Gallup guys, call me anytime.  Besides, we do have the Conglomerate book club, so we should chime in. 

1.  One book that changed your life?  On a practical level, Our Bodies, Our Selves, which I bought in law school on the suggestion of a friend and which really put together many of the legal issues that intrigued me in law school with sociological and medical issues.  On a theoretical level, The Grapes of Wrath, which I read my junior year in high school, because it woke me up to the power of narrative.  By authoring a fictional novel, or by telling a story, one can create facts, results and consequences in a way that lends power to your argument, whether you are John Steinbeck or Ayn Rand.

2.  One book you have read more than once?  The Handmaid's Tale.

3.  One book you would want on a desert island?  Other entries prompt me to write "How to Make a Navigable Boat from One Book," but more realistically The Bible.  Maybe Love in the Time of Cholera.

4.  One book that made you laugh?  One ultra-hip book about the dark side of family dysfunction, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and one not-so-hip book about the light side of family dysfunction, If Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?  Although in syndication Erma Bombeck became sort of cliched, like Dear Abby, this book fairly chronicles the hilarity of growing up in 1970s suburbia.  I remember after reading it when I was 12, I told my older sister that I was going to grow up to write books like Erma Bombeck.  I think her reaction was, "Um, I think it's harder than it looks."

5.  One book that made you cry?  Another Season:  A Coach's Story of Raising an Exceptional Son, which chronicles the life of Johny Stallings, son of Gene Stallings, who was born with Down Syndrome.  My dearest friend sent me the book nine years ago after my sister's son was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. 

6.  One book you wish had been written?  "Surviving Junior High:  You'll Meet the Man of Your Dreams When You're Twenty-Seven, So Quit Worrying About These Eighth-Grade Boys and Have Fun with Your Friends and Family."

7.  One book you wish had never been written?  Calculus:  The Easy Way.  It just got my hopes up, only to be dashed. 

8.  One book you are currently reading?  I just finished Devil in the White City and just started The Last Days of Dogtown.

9.  One book you have been meaning to read?  Double Billing:  A Young Lawyer's Tale of Greed, Sex, Lies, and the Pursuit of a Swivel Chair.

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