The book reading meme

Everybody seems to get this (I sure hope chicken flu won't be as rampant):

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Just simply the funniest thing I have ever read. It is such a shame it wasn't recognised as such when he tried to get it published and caused his suicide. It convinced me that New Orleans is really the only American city worth visiting. (Something on the to do list). The book is in "The Great American Novel" category.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I always had a bit of a soft spot for the actor Mark Greenstreet, who played the lead role(s) in the BBC serial based on "Brat Farrar" by Josephine Tey, but the book was crap.
More of a turn on than a crush on is "Siggi", a sextoon character by The Hun.

The last book you bought is:

"The Embarrassment of Riches" by Simon Schama. I was very curious how a non-Dutch person would get under the platitudes and cliches surrounding the stoop-washing, clog-wearing, money-hoarding 17th Century Dutch, and it is a marvellous and riveting read for anyone interested in cultural, social and economic history.

The last book you finished is? The one I last bought.

What are you currently reading?

"Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance" by John Hale.

Five Books you would take to a deserted Island?
- Anything edited and written by Boyd McDonald, a literary hero I take inspiration from for the "Sex in the news" blog entries. He collected news items with salacious content from obscure local newspapers to comment on. Great fun! As one his readers said: I've never laughed so much with a roaring hard-on.
He also ran for years a magazine called "STH Straight To Hell: The Manhattan Review of Cocksucking", for which he asked readers to contribute their true life sex stories. Many items were later edited into a series of books with titles such as "Sex", "Filth", "Lewd" and "Scum". You can read a few stories before buying them, which I highly recommend you do. You'll never read a porn mag again.
- an atlas, with pages that update automatically
- the internet (and I don't mind if it's a no-graphics, read-only connection)

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
- Joe, of JoeMyGod, because he not only knows how to read but to write too;
- Peter McL, of DubDotDash, because he will enjoy this;
- Mark Simpson, to go through his vast library.