Remembering through reading

This originally from SMS Book Reviews I found it at Book Haven - thanks Nyssaneala!

Book Memories...

20 Years Ago:
Hmmm, living in Milwaukee, running a theater company..October - season beginning...How am I supposed to remember what I was reading, probably books around whatever play I was doing. Jim Cartwrights Road opened in October. I wasn't in it, but wanted to be. I was preparing to direct Eric Overmyer's On the Road in November - a great play. Juicy language, very funny. I was probably reading diaries of female travelers from the late 19th century.

10 Years Ago:
That's a bit easier, I can look it up. 9/24/97 - had a committee meeting where I was teaching. Taught in the afternoon. I was reading composor Erik Korngold and conductor Fritz Reiner's biographies, I had just bought Come Back to Sorrento (Dawn Powell) and The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald) so they were on the TBR pile. Boy did I see a lot of movies! Nothing like a little leisure time.

5 Years Ago:
9/24/02 worked at a theater in New York, teaching, and preparing to rehearse a new operatic version of Tell Tale Heart. My last book order had included The Shape of a Pocket (essays of John Berger), Seeing in the Dark (by Timothy Ferris about astronomy), The Book of Illusions (by Paul Auster), and You are Not a Stranger Here (a collection of short stories by Adam Haslett).

3 Years ago:
9/24/04 still teaching, still at the theater, my most recent book purchases were The Glass Palace, which I've yet to finish, Cloud Atlas which I really enjoyed, and Strong Motion an early novel of Jonathan Franzen's that I had ordered since I had just finished The Corrections.

Last Year:
I had recently left the theater to go to school. Recent book purchases included The Future of the Brain, The Emperor's Children, Psychophysiology, Music and Memory, Foundations of Language and The is Your Brain on Music. If I remember correctly I was reading mainly on the brain and music last fall.

This Month:
This month, as you can see from my side bar, I am struggling to get through The Welsh Girl, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and Slouching Toward Bethlehem.

3 Favorite Reading Locations:
My bed, public transport, cafes.

3 Reading habits:
I read every night before I fall asleep
I make one, two, or three lines next to paragraphs to prioritize my spececial interest
I write in the margins (I used to be much worse about this) arguing with or vehemently agreeing with the author.

3 Things that distract me:
I assume you mean while reading...

The sound of the television or something on Youtube coming from the other side of the bed or living room
my own thoughts about the book
sleepiness

3 Characters I’d love to be:
For a long while, I fantasized being the protagonist in Maugham's The Razor's Edge and now I can't remember his name (funny)
Orlando
Joseph Knecht (The Glass Bead Game).

3 Characters I despise:
Quilp (The Old Curiosity Shop)
Michael Moran (Amongst Women)
Lady Marchmain (Brideshead Revisited, despise may be a little strong

3 Favorite Book Beverages:
Red wine
Tea
Red wine

3 Favorite bookmarks:
I reuse favorite bookmarks from bookshops based on their track record for my enjoying the last books they were in - a superstition. Two are from Three Lives & Co. and Three Geese in Flight in Kingston NY.
A business card from a restaurant I ate at in Stockholm called Bistro Ruby

3 Dead Writers I’d love to meet:
Virginia Woolf
Herman Hesse
Iris Murdoch
I'd add Dostoevsky, but he'd have wanted to borrow money

3 Alive Writers I’d love to meet:(wouldn't that be Living writers?)
I would say J. D. Salinger, but I understand he's not all that friendly
Richard Powers
Rohintin Mistry
Pat Barker

Join in the fun if you wish - I found it an enjoyable stroll down memory lane.