I was sent a book meme a few months ago, with questions about my favorite books and authors. It was tough then, it’s tough now. So I’m going to do it (with some additional questions), but only with books I’ve read this year. (I’m not passing it on to anyone. If you want to use this meme, take the questions and use them on your own blog and feel free to post the link in the comments section.)

A book that made you laugh: Naked, by David Sedaris

A book that made you cry: I didn’t cry, but got close with The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

A book you’ve read more than once: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

A book you’d take on a desert island: How to Survive on a Desert Island (the Dummies version).

A book that’s helped you personally: Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom

A book that’s helped you professionally: Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg

A book you wish you’d written: Maximum City, by Suketu Mehta

A book that was your favorite as a kid: The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. I devoured anything by Enid Blyton, too.

A book you wouldn’t want to admit you love: The Promise, by Danielle Steel (my all-time favorite love story).

A book that disappointed you: The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold (the icky sex-in-a-friend’s-body scene ruined it for me) and Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (painfully sloooooow, though I loved the ending.)

A book you’ve been recommended lately: A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

A book you’ve recommended recently: Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins (Definitely not for everyone. Flowery language alert.)

A book you couldn’t finish: This is a bit OCD-ish of me, but I have to finish a book I start. I gave up on The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells last month, but it keeps calling out to me. I’ll finish it one of these days.

A book you’ve been meaning to read: Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

A book you’re currently reading: The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart

An author you’d like to hang out with: Amy Tan. I can’t get enough of the stories of her Chinese-American family.

An author you’d want to go on a date with: Alex Garland. He looks yummy.

An author you’d read anything by: Nick Hornby

An author you think is a genius: I very rarely throw around the word “genius” because it’s a word I reserve for extremely special and talented people, but Harlan Coben has to be one, not only because of his absolutely incredible books, but also in how he conducts his personal life and handles his fame. (Gone for Good is my all-time favorite book.)

An author you think shouldn’t be in print: No specific author, but the whole Mills & Boon line could easily be thrown in a river. Then again, they did get me through my pre-teen years, so maybe not.

A genre you love to read: Crime fiction. And I’m a sucker for romance.

A genre you won’t read: I find True Crime a bit hard to get through because it depresses me, but it’s an important genre and I do read it from time to time.

Other authors you find worthy of your collection: Stephen King, Marian Keyes, Anna Quindlen, Pico Iyer.