If it were possible (i.e. no New York-sized apartment, no New York-sized rent), I would own every book I’ve ever read. I love being surrounded by books, and find comfort in having them around me.  But instead, I choose to be inspired by posts like this one. So, here’s my own version. But of course, since it’s impossible for me to limit my favorite anything to just one, I threw in my own bonus answers as well…

One book that has changed your life (plus two):

• Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the Worlds Most Precious Stones, Greg Campbell
• Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Paul Farmer
• And the Band Played On: People, Politics, and the AIDS Epidemic, Randy Shilts

One book you have read more than once (plus one):

• To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

One book you would want on a desert island:

• The Chosen, Chaim Potok

One book that made you laugh (plus one):

• Catch-22, Joseph Heller
• Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

One book that made you cry (plus one):

• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
• If This is a Man, Primo Levi

One book you wish you had written:

• The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

One book you wish had never been written:

• I don’t believe in books that never should have been written.

One book you are currently reading:

• A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

One book you have been meaning to read:

• I’ve been meaning to finish reading A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn forever.

One book you loved as a kid (plus five):

• Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
• A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L’Engle
• The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White
• Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
• Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume

One book you loved in school (plus one):

• The Awakening, Kate Chopin
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

One book that is your all-time favorite:

• Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

But that’s just me. How about you?