Book meme

Rozanne tagged me with this, so here goes:

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be saved?

Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Many, many times. On everyone from Loyd-with-one-L in Animal Dreams to (as a preteen, so cut me some slack here) John Galt (who is he, anyway?). I develop crushes easily. Hell, I’ve had crushes on cartoon characters before.

3.The last book you purchased?

A 1915 translated edition of Virgil’s Aeneid at a flea market. And I have bought (but not yet received; it’s in the mail) the brand-new signed reprint of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s A Cook on the Wild Side.

4.What are you currently reading?

Princess Alice: A Biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, by James Brough. I’ve only just started it, but it has promise.

5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?

(1) A Dashiell Hammett anthology

(2) The Time-Life Foods of the World series, 1975 ed., because they are just as much travelogues as cookbooks.

(3) Arts & Humanities Through the Eras: Medieval Europe 814-1450, which my mother and stepfather co-edited. I’ve really enjoyed the parts of it I’ve read, but I haven’t had time to dig into it the way I’ve wanted to--it is an encyclopedia volume, after all! Being trapped on a deserted island would be the perfect opportunity to read it cover to cover.

(4) Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

(5) Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, because no matter how many times you read it, you’re never really done reading it. ;-)

Okay, looking for victims...I tag Witho and her BF, Alda, and Kat.