On the last page of the magazine, Vanity Fair publishes a celebrity’s answers to questions from the infamous Proust Questionnaire (which in fact was likely modeled after a popular party game of the time rather than invented by French writer Marcel Proust), questions like "What is your greatest extravagance?" or "What do you consider the most overrated virtue?" Upon reading this last page, I generally take a deep breath, go back to the top, and answer that month’s selected questions myself to see how profound, witty and succinct I can be. I don’t know if I do this so I’ll be ready for when I, too, have done something of note and get interviewed, or for the practice it provides me, a wordsmith, in saying what I want to say in the fewest words possible. I also read the feature in O magazine where a celebrity talks about five favorite books. I used to devour this, hoping to find a new book that would also become one of my top treasures, or at least uncover a good book club suggestion. I rarely find either one, but what I do find is a really interesting window into that celebrity.

So in keeping with the book theme Erin started the week with, here’s my mini hybrid VFO questionnaire:

What book did you reread the most as a child?
Two-way tie: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, and C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

What book can you not believe is still taught to most high school/college students?
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Gotta be men making these curriculum decisions who still remember the guilty pleasure of reading an assigned book that has someone "breaking wind" in it…

What is the high school/college book that is taught, and rightly so?  
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Every young adult would be better prepared for life, or rather for changing life, in this war-torn world by reading this book.

Who was your favorite author in college?
Thomas Hardy, hands down. Don’t know if he would be now, but Anita Shreve’s story twists sometimes remind me of Thomas Hardy, and I read her a lot.   

What classic book just does not get it done for you?
Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.  Like the emperor’s new clothes, I can only imagine people don’t want to be so uncool as to admit it’s not so special.

What book may have been aptly notable when published, but needs to be retired from the classic list now?
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Too much of a stretch for us now to identify or care about what supposedly made this book so important in 1962; same with On The Road, actually. The substance may have been important, but the writing doesn’t hold up over time. (My book club backs me on this one.) 

What classic book has retained its greatness over time?
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. (No relation that I know of; too bad.) I could read this any time at any age, to myself or out loud; hope any future grandchildren of mine feel the same way.

What one book would you want on a deserted island?
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay and Joan Perrin Falquet. A gift I wouldn’t be without; a personal bible.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Pelin. Loved it; incredibly moved by it; fantastic. 

Who is your favorite current author?
Impossible to answer...but one of them would have to be Pat Conroy, and another would have to be Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I just pinch myself on a daily basis to live in an age of such accessibility and abundance of good reads; it's heaven on earth.

Now, take your own deep breath, and post your answers...if you dare.