Sweet 16 questions for a bookie?

Not that kind of bookie.

The literary kind, like Julie (at the link) or The (very happy) Anchoress.

I hope Bookworm and Palmtree Pundit play with this meme, too.

I noticed that the questions vary a bit from blogger to blogger (one list does not ask what book other people would be surprised to hear that you've read, while another list makes a point of asking that. For anyone who wants to know my answer to that question, the obvious pick would probably be prima ballerina Suzanne Farrell's autobiography, Holding On to the Air).

1. Most treasured childhood book(s)?
The Mad Scientists’ Club, by Bertrand R. Brinley
Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein

2. Classic(s) you are embarrassed to admit you’ve never read?
Anything by Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, or Anton Chekhov

3. Classics you read, but hated?
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving

4. Favorite genre(s)?
Historical fiction, Alternate history

5. Favorite light reading?
Chandler-esque detective fiction

6. Favorite heavy reading?
Christian apologetics and theology (esp. by Ratzinger, Kreeft, and Thomas Howard)

7. Last book(s) you finished?
Reckless Homicide, by Ira Genberg

8. Last book(s) you bailed on?
Running Scared, by Edward T. Welch
(which is actually not a bad book, although I thought at the time it belabored the obvious)

9. Three (only three!) books on your nightstand?
Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, by Belsky and Gilovich
Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi, by Donald Spoto

(I can't remember the name of the third or fourth book, and one of them will probably have to make way for The King of California anyway.)

10. Book(s) you’ve read more than once?
Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Grizzly Years, by Doug Peacock

11. Book(s) that meant the most to you when you were younger (i.e., college/young adult)?
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
Karen, by Marie Killilea
Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy

12. Book(s) that changed the way you looked at life?
Introduction to Christianity by (then) Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Three Philosophies of Life, by Peter Kreeft
A Guide for the Perplexed, by E.F. Schumacher
Give Us This Day, by Sidney Stewart

13. Favorite books
Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford
Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand
Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
The Wild Shore, by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer, by Douglas C. Jones
The Miracle Detective, by Randall Sullvan

14. Favorite author(s)
Tom Wolfe, Terry Pratchett, Ellis Peters, Tony Hillerman, Dean Koontz, Loren D. Estleman, Jeff Schaara, John Steinbeck

15. Desert Island Book (apart from the Bible and a wilderness survival text)
(tie) He Leadeth Me, by Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.
(tie) Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI
(tie) Guess How Much I Love You? by Sam McBratney

BONUS! Desert Island Book for Your Worst Enemy
The collected works of Dan Brown and W.E.B. Griffin
(hey, they might make good tinder)