I'm not much for some of the goofier meme-things that get randomly spread across the internets, but this one is about books, so it is hard to resist. Also, because tas tagged me with it.
You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book is so covertly anti-agenda (it mocks everything from beauracracy to religion) that you just now that when the books start burning the entire H2G2 series will be some of the first of burn lists. On the other hand, the book is so overtly humorous and optimistic amongst easy pessimism that everyone should read it hiding in their basements while waiting for the Firemen. At least they'll have a few laughs before being accused of their crimes. It might even give them some ideas on how to deal with. (By the way, I definitely plan to bring my towel the 29th when the film opens in theatres.)
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I'll admit that I will often get swept up into the characters that I'm reading/watching. Most recently it was Kada thanks to today's Sluggy Freelance. How I can not crush on a crazy geek chick stuck in the Timeless Wastes and deciding to go "full pirate" wearing a shirt that says "Wet Nerd Pirate"? Next most recently it was Megan, Bast, and Rachel of Emerald Sea.
The last book you bought is?
Friday, I did some studying at the Heine Brothers' Coffee on Longest Ave. Conjoined to the Coffee Shop is Carmichael's book store. It was so hard to resist wanting to browse the stacks of the small local book store. Then, it was even harder to resist buying anything when I learned that this weekend is the store's 27th anniversary and they were giving a 25% discount on everything in stock. So, I picked up Against the Tide, the just now released follow-up to Emerald Sea. I also picked up A Scanner Darkly, PKD's drugged paranoid novel of an ouroboros of a polic officer chasing drug lord circle. It's one of the few classics of PKD that I haven't bought, yet. Because they only sell them in "mini-trade paperbacks" (size of a smallish - normal paperback, glossy cover and price of a trade paperback), I've only really bought them when I had a gift card, nice discount, or reason to. (By the way, A Scanner Darkly is to be the next PKD property to the big screen in 2006 (according to IMDB)... its not the Charlie Kaufman script and it is starring Keanu Reeves, so I'm a bit sceptical.)
What are you currently reading?
As far as "books with bookmarks" currently reading, I have spots in Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds, Star Trek: The Eugenics War: Volume 2, and one of the Sluggy books (I beleive its the second of the series, Worship the Comic, but I'm too lazy to check and only read the books when I want "classic laughs", as opposed to "new laughs" from reading the strip near religious day to day). Right now I'm thinking I'll try to work my way through both of these a bit more before moving on to more in my "to read" book stack.
As far as "books of the moment", the books that I currently find interesting enough to blog about and link to on the frontpage, the current one is Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Giant, which I finished before even blogging about it, so I'm going to leave that up as the current book of the moment for a bit longer. (Basically, until I crack open a new one, which could be a while if I stick with trying to finish the bookmarked books, what with finals around the corner and all.)
Five books you would take to a deserted island
I liked tas' answer:
I always make the wrong choices for these desert island things, so I would instead demand that my friends pick out the books for me, something that I haven't read before but they think I would enjoy.
Since I'm expected to come up with my own original one, instead of just copying someone else's, and being a big sci-fi "future oriented" individual, I figure I could take a Ben Franklin-esque approach: I would have to say that I would enjoy having next year's, or next decade's, or next century's, or next millenia's (if suitable translations or personal uplift were available, I might add), top humor book, top satire book, and top three science-fiction books. Between these five books I think I might have a real interesting and entertaining glance into the foibles, dilemmas, brilliances, and hopes of that next era.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Tony, is the easiest person to pass to... Even though I generally know about what he is currently reading from between class discussions, I'm sure his other answers could be insightful. James because he seemingly exists only on the event horizon of my personal universe now, and if he finds the time to read amongst his hectic work schedule, I'm sure it would be intriguing. Laura (Ekhi), even though she's become a huge stereo-typical LiveJournal meme-propagator and might enjoy this meme too much for her own good, should have her own interesting take on such questions.