Holly's lists

Life and summer intervened, but luckily all but one of my "something about me" books are on other lists (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Neverending Story, The Bell Jar, and Speak). My fifth pick:

Six Memos for the Next Millenium, by Italo Calvino
A collection of essays by one of the most creative, brilliant minds in the last century asking, what qualities of literature should survive into the next millenium? The qualities he proposes are lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity. The sixth, consistency, remained unwritten at the time of his death. This little book provided a window into the kind of writer I wanted to become and led me to his fiction. His little novel, Invisible Cities, about a visit to Kublai Khan by Marco Polo, remains my favorite book of all time. (Ok, so that was cheating, two in one.)

I plan to read:

• Oh My Goth, by Gena Showalter (from Stephanie's list)
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler (from Julie's list)
• Dune, by Frank Herbert (from Karlene's list)
• Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld (from Faith's list)
• A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly (from SheReads/Diane's list)