Here is your next regular instalment of All About the Books, this time round with Cassandra whose novel The Assassin’s Curse is being released in October 2012. As always, please give some love in the comments!

1) One Book That Changed My Life

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Garcia Márquez has said that when he read the first sentence of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, he hadn’t until that moment understood that you could write sentences like that – which pretty much sums up exactly how I felt when I read One Hundred Years of Solitude for the first time. I loved the way the magical was treated as ordinary and the ordinary (or what my American self would call “ordinary”) was treated as magical. It was mindblowing to me that someone could write a book that did that.

2) One Book I’ve HAD to Read More Than Once

This is a toughie! As an adult I almost never reread books, but as a kid I had a stable of books that I’d reread about once a year. My favorite was Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh, because I loved reading the notes that Harriet takes over all her neighbors (I remember times when I would go through the book and just read the notes!) However, even as an adult I still love one of my perennial childhood rereads: Weetzie Bat, by Francesa Lia Block. This book is so strange and magical and I want to move to Los Angeles every time I read it.

3) One Book I’d Want on a Desert Island

My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. When I read this book in fifth grade I was convinced I now had all of the knowledge necessary to survive alone in the wilderness. Might as well put it to the test.

4) One Book That Made Me Laugh

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson. I know this book has the reputation of being read and enjoyed largely by fifteen year old boys, which I am not and never have been. Still, I found my myself frequently laughing out loud in public while I read it. Certainly that should count as a testament to its hilarity.

5) One Book That Made Me Cry

A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin, specifically the scene during the Battle of Blackwater when Sansa Stark sings for Sandor Clegane. The sheer amount of pathos in those few pages – Sandor’s terror at the fire, the way that Sansa shows how kindness does have a place in that world – completely undid me.

6) One Book I Wish I’d Written

I’ve never really come across a book that I flat-out wish I’d written, though I have come across books that I admire partially because I don’t think I have the skills to ever have written them. I feel this way about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John LeCarre. The way LeCarre managed to seamlessly blend together the espionage plot and George Smiley’s troubled personal life was pretty astounding to me. Plus, the plot revolves around a retiree research something, and it’s still the most gripping spy novel I’ve ever read.

7) One Book I am Currently Reading

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor. Well, technically, I’m listening to it. I have a long driving commute to my day job, and I used to absolutely dread it. I decided to start listening to audio book instead of depending on the radio to entertain me, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the first one on my list. I love it! It has a lot of the usual tropes, but it presents them in interesting, unique ways, which is the sort of thing that’ll get me every time.

8) One Book I am Intending to Read

I bought Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, at a used book the other day. It’s one of those famous books that I’ve never read before, and I’m really looking forward to it. I have a plane trip this weekend, so I should get a lot of reading done!

Thanks Cassandra!

Any of these picks resonate with you? Have you read these books?