I regret having to put this here but... PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME A FRIEND INVITE UNLESS YOU ALSO SEND ME A NOTE EXPLAINING WHY YOU THINK WE SHOULD BE FRIENDS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE AN AUTHOR TRYING TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK(S).

2 books I absolutely love: Jorge Amado's Gabriela, Clove & Cinnamon and Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo is also up there for me.

2 books that made me laugh and laugh and laugh: Richard Russo's Straight Man and Anthony Winkler's The Lunatic

2 books that I think everyone should read: George Orwell's 1984 and Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom

2 self-help-type books that changed my life: Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist and The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

2 terrific depictions of politics in a novel: The Long Night of the White Chickens by Francisco Goldman and Robert Newman's The Fountain at the Centre of the World

2 favourite dystopian tales: Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring and Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale (of course!)

2 books that haunted me: Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Edward P. Jones' The Known World

2 good graphic novels: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and Marisa Accocella Marchetto's Cancer Vixen

2 fantastic memoirs: Gioconda Belli's The Country Under My Skin and Anchee Min's Red Azalea. A close 3rd is Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight.

2 of the best non-fiction books I've ever read: Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost and Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography

2 books that have most informed my parenting: 10 Basic Principles of Good Parenting by Laurence Steinberg and Our Babies, Our Selves by Meredith Small

2 books I thought I would like but didn't: Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk and Maxine Hong Kingston's Warrior Woman (I finished the former but not the latter)

2 books I disliked even though they are highly rated: Kite Runner and Ian McEwan's Atonement.

2 books that left me utterly depressed: Kiran Desai's t
The Inheritance of Loss and Ha Jin's Waiting.

Magazines I subscribe to: New Yorker, Atlantic (didn't renew after 7 years b/c I don't have time to read it), Harpers (didn't renew for same reason, also 7 years), Foreign Policy, Brain Child, Fast Company, O at Home and House Beautiful (not renewing these two) (and Babybug and National Geographic Little Kids for my daughter). I also get the Sunday New York Times (it gets to Jamaica by Tuesday or so.) I buy the Oprah magazine whenever I see a new issue. I just started subscriptions to Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks.

My guilty pleasure reading (and addiction) is momoirs and anthologies of essays by women about relationships and family life, books like Bitch in the House and May Queen.

I have a few of my 2 year old daughter's favourite books on here. She is a big reader, and these are just the ones that I particularly like.

Weird reading interest: memoirs and novels about the CIA (go figure)

All this info should give you a little idea of who I am and what I like to read!

This is the first online networking site I ever joined. I am enjoying meeting people online and communicating about books.

As for how my shelves are configured: On my shelf are all books that I own (or have owned--I give paperbacks and books I don't like that much away to anyone who'll take them), but many of them I have not read yet (I WILL get to them though, eventually).

On my wish list are books I don't own yet, but when I read some of the books I already own, I will treat myself to them (especially if they have come out in paperback.)

Theoretically the reading list comprises books that I am actually in the process of reading right now, but I don't maintain it very diligently. « less