I don't believe I've ever been "tagged" before, but Phil Miller tells us of some of the books that he's read and challenges six others (including me) to do the same. So here goes:
1. Book that changed my life
That's an interesting one to start with. I'd have to say the Bible. Many books have influenced how I think. Isn't that what books are supposed to do? But changed my life? I haven't had that experience from any traditional book.
2. Book that I've read more than once
Quite a few. Two spring to mind. Chaos by James Gleick is a book that I have read a few times over the years. I've also read Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman more than once. I don't have much of a desire to read novels more than once, but two that I have read once that are on my list to read again in the near future would be The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor (I've read most of her short stories more than once) and Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.
And now you know how eclectic I can be.
3. Book that I'd want on a deserted island
Well, if it was a deserted island from which there was no hope of rescue and the end was near, I would choose the Bible. If escape from the island was feasible, I would want a "how-to" book on survival skills and raft building. One must be practical.
4. Book that made me laugh
All five in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
5. Book that made me cry
One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001 from the editors of Life Magazine.
6. Book you wish you had written
If you wish you had written a book that would imply a complete and total agreement with it. There are very few books about which I can say that. If you relax the criteria so that it just means that you agree mostly with it and wish that you had come up with the idea first, well then there are too many to list.
7. Book you wish had not been written
I'm not into suppressing thought and wishing that some things hadn't been written.
8. One book I am currently reading
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party on this one. This is a book that I have been meaning to read for years but it never popped up to the top of the priority list. I am not sold on string theory. I would like to read some of the criticisms of it as well (e.g. Not Even Wrong by Peter Woit). I've always been intrigued by the history and philosophy of science (e.g. The Copernican Revolution by Thomas Kuhn which I could have also listed in my "read more than once" category.)
9. One book I have been meaning to read
How about two? Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart and I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter.
10. Tag 6 people
I'm not going to put anyone on the spot, but rather I invite any of my readers to put your responses in the comments, or if you have a blog, do it on your blog and trackback it to let me know so I can stop by and read it.
Let me add one more category as well. A book that I've recently read that was an absolute page-turner and a fun yet enlightening read would be David Warsh's Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations.
I've collected a few reviews of Hofstadter's I am a strange loop at http://www.squidoo.com/strange-loop/
My other choices;
Life changing: Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach, and Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance stand out.
I've read Tequila Mockingbird several times, with a tear in my eye as well as Ulysses, tears of laughter in this case.
I wish I'd written anything that Daniel Dennett has written, especially Darwin's Dangerous Idea, or Breaking the Spell, both much more satisfying than Dawkins God Delusion.
Butterfly Economics is possibly the most interesting book on the dismal science, but Stewart and Cohen's Figments of Reality is much more enlightening.
Currently I am reading Strange Loop, plus Jancis Robinson's Oxford Companion to Wine, I love reading encyclopedia's I've spent several months on this one.