Books that made me questionnaire

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I enjoyed this overblown questionnaire from Joshua Ferris is the Guardian.
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/10/joshua-ferris-a-house-for-mr-biswas-is-as-near-to-perfect-as-a-book-gets

Would anyone like to fill in the questionnaire too, maybe without the adjectives

Book i'm currently reading: Armageddon by Max Hastings - the last months of WWII

Book that changed my life: A Fine Balance by Robinson Mistry. Decided never to complain about my life again

Book I wish I'd written: a sequel to a Georgette Hever. I've got one half written.

Last book that made me laugh: Inside Story by Martin Amis

Book that influenced my writing: Stephen King's writing book, it's a lot of fun.

Book over or underrated: Tolkien. All of it. Not knocking it but the reverence is ridiculous.

Last book to make me cry: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Book I give as a gift: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. The secret about Roth is just how much of a page turner he can be. This one is much more tender and affectionate as well as genuinely darker than most of his.

Earliest reading memory: my dad reading me The Butterfly that Stamped by Rudyard Kipling with loads of drama.

For which Georgette Heyer have you half written a sequel, please?

The book I'm currently reading: When the Sparrow Falls, by Neil Sharpson (amazing!)

The book that changed my life: The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir

The book I wish I'd written: Circe, by Madeleine Miller

The last book that made me laugh: re-reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

The book that had the greatest influence on my writing: Ovid's Metamorphoses

The book I think is most over/under rated: Moby Dick

The book that changed my mind: Bad Blood by John Carreyroun. I rarely read non-fiction but found this utterly gripping

The last book that made me cry: Piranesi by Susannah Clarke

The book I give as a gift: most recently that's been Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

My earliest reading memory: reading my mothers old Judy and Eagle albums at my grandparents' house.

Thanks OP - this was surprisingly hard but good fun

Ooh @fillybuster some great ones there.

@upinaballoon I wrote half a sequel to A Civil Contract. It's extremely bad.

The book I'm currently reading:
Got 3 on the go
*The Girl Who Stirred the Hornet's Nest (thought a decade on I ought to see what the fuss was about)
*The Only Plane in the Sky (oral account 9/11)
*Cider With Roadies, Stuart Maconie for when too much detail about Swedish street names and politics and desperately sad transcripts of phone calls get too much.

The book that changed my life
Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain when I read it in 1985.

The book I wish I'd written- totally shallowly, Harry Potter. So I'd have the money to give up the day job and write the books I want to write.

The last book that made me laugh
As above, Cider with Roadies

The book that had the greatest influence on my writing
The Blood of Others, Simone de Beauvoir

Over-rated
Anything by Edward Rutherford
JK Rowling post HP
Pride and Prejudice

The Book that Changed my mind
Chavs Owen Jones

The Last Book That Made Me Cry
Can't remember. I remember crying at Angela's ashes years ago before discovering he'd made half of it up.

The Book I Give As a Gift
Gave Dp all the Leon Uris books years ago. Bought DD Obama's autobiography and some light feminism at Christmas. And Delia's cookery course

Earliest Reading Memory
Being taken to the local library aged about 4 and choosing a Miffy book. The librarian said I could have 3 but I refused and said I only wanted one.

More on my tbr pile Solinvictus. What's the thing about The Blood of Others?

Book i'm currently reading:
Pride & Prejudice, Austen
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard

Book that changed my life:
To Kill a Mockingbird, I think reading this in secondary school is what made me a reader.

Book I wish I'd written:
Frenchman’s Creek - it is surely due a TV adaptation

Last book that made me laugh:
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado

Book that influenced my writing:
Anton Chekhov’s short stories made me think maybe I don’t need to write a novel.

Book over or underrated:
Catch 22 - it could have been 140
Pages and been wonderful.

Last book to make me cry:
Once, Morris Gleitzman. It broke me for a couple of days actually. I do cry a lot though.

Book I give as a gift:
Pereira Maintains, Antonio Tabucchi

Earliest reading memory:
I’m not sure this counts, but my dad telling me a particular folk tale from his home country. He didn’t read it though. The other is getting a copy of a Catherine Cookson book for young adults/kids ‘Our John Willie’ for Christmas. Still love Cookson.

Book I'm currently reading: Harlem Shuffle Colson Whitehead

Book that changed my life: Cry, the Beloved Country (also made me cry!)

Book I wish I'd written: The Goldfinch

Last book that made me laugh: Death and the Penguin, Kurkov

Book that influenced my writing: I'm really not a writer!

Book over or underrated: Over rated - My Sister the Serial Killer

Last book to make me cry: Another Country James Baldwin, Hamnet

Book I give as a gift: I last bought 4,3,2,1 Paul Auster, for a friend

Earliest reading memory: The first book I remember reading on my own was called 'The Cricket in Times Square' a most beautiful book about a cat, a mouse and a cricket that live in the New York Subway