The booke meme
I got tagged by my friend Repressed Librarian, but I would have played even if I didn't get tagged. I haven't done a meme in too long. Warning for male readers: some female talk ahead!
1. One book that changed your life? I can't limit it to one; two affected me so much at about the same time for the same reasons, that I have to mention them both. The first is a book I just mentioned in a previous entry, Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper. I read it before I even started trying to get pregnant, and it had a profound impact on my views of pregnancy and birth. Oh yeah...pregnancy isn't an illness. Sick people go to hospitals, and if I'm not sick, why do I need to?
The second is Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler. When we first decided it was time to start trying for a baby, I stumbled on this book at Borders. It introduced me to charting my cycles, both for the purposes of achieving or avoiding pregnancy, and also as a method of understanding better how this woman's body works. Being the control freak that I am, I thought, a-ha! This thing is going to tell me how to become pregnant immediately! No worries about it taking too long!
Well, it took six months, even with charting and very careful timing. That said, I learned so much. I considered myself a fairly enlightened person about how babies are made. After all, I'd had sex education...twice, in junior high AND in high school. Plus, I'd been married for a few years and had the mechanics down pretty good, I thought. But I learned that I'd been taught some fallacies (not every woman ovulates on day 14, for example), and I learned WHY my body does certain things (like those little gurgly sounds and slight cramping in my belly around day 18? Mittelschmirtz.) And I learned about all the hormones that interact each month, and how they change when pregnancy is achieved. In charting my temperature and other aspects of my cycle, I developed self-discipline, knowing that forgetting a day in the middle of the month could be detrimental to whichever goal I was trying for, getting pregnant or avoiding it. And the best part was seeing that, yes indeed, if my period has not come 16 days after ovulation, I am almost certainly pregnant!
Both books helped me realize that ultimately I am in charge of my body and my health, and no one can force me to make choices that I am not comfortable with. I am more aware and intuitive about my body, which has in turn led to greater intuition about the world around me, which has led to yet more life-changing discoveries.
2. One book you have read more than once?
The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. So far I've only read it twice, but I definitely anticipate reading it over and over again. I would say it's probably my favorite book, and will remain in that position for a long time.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
The Bible. New International Version. I'd need all those reassurances of hope, whether I was going to be rescued or not! Preferably my old, beat-up paperback Student Bible (no link availabe to that edition, it's way too old) that I've had since 9th grade, because all my favorite verses are underlined, and I know exactly where on the page to look for it!
4. One book that made you laugh? I'm not usually a comic strip kind of person, but I was working (with part of my day in a cubicle) when I first came across a collection of Dilbert comic strips, by Scott Adams. I had to laugh at the truth and irony expressed by Dilbert, Dogbert, Catbert, Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB), and others, especially since I worked for a micromanaging supervisor myself.
5. One book that made you cry? The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, which I read right before it came out as a movie. I was probably 12, and I was completely unprepared for the ending. (Plus, I knew Ralph Macchio was going to play Johnny, and I had a huge crush on him at the time.)
6. One book you wish had been written? An autobiography by Rich Mullins, a contemporary Christian musician who truly lived his life the way Christians are meant to. There does exist a great biography, An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, by James Bryan Smith. But I would have loved to have read about the man's life from his own pen. Sadly, he died way too young, before he probably ever even considered it.
7. One book you wish had never been written? I can't really think of one. As a librarian wanna-be, I'm way too sensitive about the implications of censorship this holds, anyway.
8. One book you are currently reading? The Flower Net, by Lisa See. I put a bunch of books by her on hold at the library after reading her newest book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a novel about two young girls who grow up together in China when foot-binding was still the custom. I loved Snow Flower, but am finding that Lisa See's other fiction is not necessarily the same. They seem to be crime fiction, which I actually do also enjoy as an escape, but it's not what I was hoping for. But since Flower Net and the others were written before Snow Flower, I can hope for more like her newest one!
9. One book you have been meaning to read? A Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion. I keep forgetting to put it on hold at the library!
10. Now tag five people.
I don't tag for memes. Play if you want to, but let me know if you do so I can come read yours (and maybe get some ideas to put on my hold list at the library!)
1. One book that changed your life? I can't limit it to one; two affected me so much at about the same time for the same reasons, that I have to mention them both. The first is a book I just mentioned in a previous entry, Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper. I read it before I even started trying to get pregnant, and it had a profound impact on my views of pregnancy and birth. Oh yeah...pregnancy isn't an illness. Sick people go to hospitals, and if I'm not sick, why do I need to?
The second is Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler. When we first decided it was time to start trying for a baby, I stumbled on this book at Borders. It introduced me to charting my cycles, both for the purposes of achieving or avoiding pregnancy, and also as a method of understanding better how this woman's body works. Being the control freak that I am, I thought, a-ha! This thing is going to tell me how to become pregnant immediately! No worries about it taking too long!
Well, it took six months, even with charting and very careful timing. That said, I learned so much. I considered myself a fairly enlightened person about how babies are made. After all, I'd had sex education...twice, in junior high AND in high school. Plus, I'd been married for a few years and had the mechanics down pretty good, I thought. But I learned that I'd been taught some fallacies (not every woman ovulates on day 14, for example), and I learned WHY my body does certain things (like those little gurgly sounds and slight cramping in my belly around day 18? Mittelschmirtz.) And I learned about all the hormones that interact each month, and how they change when pregnancy is achieved. In charting my temperature and other aspects of my cycle, I developed self-discipline, knowing that forgetting a day in the middle of the month could be detrimental to whichever goal I was trying for, getting pregnant or avoiding it. And the best part was seeing that, yes indeed, if my period has not come 16 days after ovulation, I am almost certainly pregnant!
Both books helped me realize that ultimately I am in charge of my body and my health, and no one can force me to make choices that I am not comfortable with. I am more aware and intuitive about my body, which has in turn led to greater intuition about the world around me, which has led to yet more life-changing discoveries.
2. One book you have read more than once?
The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. So far I've only read it twice, but I definitely anticipate reading it over and over again. I would say it's probably my favorite book, and will remain in that position for a long time.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
The Bible. New International Version. I'd need all those reassurances of hope, whether I was going to be rescued or not! Preferably my old, beat-up paperback Student Bible (no link availabe to that edition, it's way too old) that I've had since 9th grade, because all my favorite verses are underlined, and I know exactly where on the page to look for it!
4. One book that made you laugh? I'm not usually a comic strip kind of person, but I was working (with part of my day in a cubicle) when I first came across a collection of Dilbert comic strips, by Scott Adams. I had to laugh at the truth and irony expressed by Dilbert, Dogbert, Catbert, Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB), and others, especially since I worked for a micromanaging supervisor myself.
5. One book that made you cry? The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, which I read right before it came out as a movie. I was probably 12, and I was completely unprepared for the ending. (Plus, I knew Ralph Macchio was going to play Johnny, and I had a huge crush on him at the time.)
6. One book you wish had been written? An autobiography by Rich Mullins, a contemporary Christian musician who truly lived his life the way Christians are meant to. There does exist a great biography, An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, by James Bryan Smith. But I would have loved to have read about the man's life from his own pen. Sadly, he died way too young, before he probably ever even considered it.
7. One book you wish had never been written? I can't really think of one. As a librarian wanna-be, I'm way too sensitive about the implications of censorship this holds, anyway.
8. One book you are currently reading? The Flower Net, by Lisa See. I put a bunch of books by her on hold at the library after reading her newest book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a novel about two young girls who grow up together in China when foot-binding was still the custom. I loved Snow Flower, but am finding that Lisa See's other fiction is not necessarily the same. They seem to be crime fiction, which I actually do also enjoy as an escape, but it's not what I was hoping for. But since Flower Net and the others were written before Snow Flower, I can hope for more like her newest one!
9. One book you have been meaning to read? A Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion. I keep forgetting to put it on hold at the library!
10. Now tag five people.
I don't tag for memes. Play if you want to, but let me know if you do so I can come read yours (and maybe get some ideas to put on my hold list at the library!)
posted by Andrea | 12:22 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for playing! I enjoyed reading this.
I am in a toss-up between the battered Student Bible from 1991 (high school graduation) with all the notes from friends and cool quotes ("Many have served Christ under the threat of the upraised sword; we should not be afraid to serve under the threat of the upraised eyebrow." - Steve Rigdon, Cedar Campus, 1993) or the newer Bible with all the study helps and commentaries -- more stuff to read on those long days on the island...
Just got your comment on my post about my grad degree. Thanks! I'm not sure that cataloging will be like grammar for me, since I come from the hippie-English major variety of English majors... lots of reading poetry, writing fiction, and discussing "the canon." I just hope I can keep the rules in my brain long enough to digest it. We'll see...
I haven't done this one, mainly because I haven't been able to sit still and read a full book for several months. Maybe the new dose measure of my medicine will help even my systems a bit.
However, I did find that Maria at Silver Fox Whispers did a very nice list.
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