Some procrastinatory memery

I'm heading up-island for my conference again! But Marc tagged be with the book meme and I can't remember if I actually did it before. It'll also be some nice escapism for me, because I don't get to read any fun books (non-comps books, at least) yet. My rule with this one, as always: my answer can't be "The Bible." Because that very easily could have been my answer to #1, #2, #3, #5 and #8.

1. Name one book that changed your life.
I'll have to say Catherine Marshall's Beyond Ourselves. I first discovered it when I was teenager. It was at my grandparents' house during a holiday visit when we all were coming to terms with the fact that my grandfather was really deteriorating with his Alzheimer's. I slept through an entire day, just avoiding everything, and then woke up after everyone else was asleep. I wandered the house, looking for something to do, and I found this book. And then read most of it that night. She starts it saying something along the lines of "If you're already completely satisfied with the way your life is right now, put this book down. It's not for you." I end up re-reading it periodically, pretty much any time I'm going through change in my life.

2. Name one book you have read more than once.
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. Seriously, I've read that book roughly a zillion times. I can't get enough of it.

3. One book you would want on a desert island.
Hm. I'm going to say Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, because I remember that it took me roughly a million years to read it but I loved it. I've been meaning to re-read it, and it would take a desert island stay to get through it, it seems.

4. Two books that made you laugh.
The Making the Cat Laugh part of my Lynne Truss Treasury
Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman

5. One book that made you cry.
Catherine Marshall's A Man Called Peter. (Also her book Julie. But not Christy because I always get confused at the end when it's all "in his voice was the voice of the children" or whatever that means.)

6. One book you wish you’d written.
Modris Ecksteins's Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age. I just love how he frames books so much.

7. One book you wish had never been written.
Something like Mein Kampf? I'm not very "I wish it had never been written" when it comes to books.

8. Two books I am currently reading.
Well, I'll be done them by the end of the night, but I'm scanning over Jay Winter's Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning and Peter Gay's Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider right now.

9. Five people that I tag.
Hm. Now I get to think of who hasn't written this one yet, or hasn't written it lately. Ky, Kate, Janny, Anastasia and the very-soon-to-be Dr. Styleygeek.