I've been tagged by my passionate literary sisters, Tigerlily and Popjunike D'oh!

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

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. By the man who influenced and changed English literature more than anyone save Shakespeare (or Marlowe). His most complete work. Social criticism, humor, memorable and complete characters, mystery, defeat, triumph, its all there. Also considered autobiographical.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Yes, a few of them. Eshter Summerson from Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Pretty, pure of heart, strong, smart, devoted, loving, and able to help and support those she loves unconditionally. I also fell hard for a pretty Irish lass in Leon Uris' Trinity.

The last book you finished is?

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Dr. Charles Pelligrino. An absolutely BRILLIANT book. Using the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius as a centerpiece, he takes you on a journey from the beginnings of the universe to the Titanic sinking and the World Trade Center collapse. Along the way archaeology, paleontology, vulconology, Greek and Roman history, modern disasters, theology and physics provide a wealth of information threaded together so seamlessly its hard not to see the single line that pieces the history of the universe together.

Particularly chilling are the details on what actually happened to people at Vesuvius and the WTC.

What are you currently reading?

I just started "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times columnist and author. I am hoping to find a trace of the writer I once idolized. His early columns were masterful looks at the world and how US policy affects it.

His first book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" is one of the best, most balanced and engaging books I have ever read on the Middle East, and I have read hundreds of them.

Then he started to slip, culminating with his horrid cheerleading of the Bush war and his backpedaling of the last 18 months. Also Lexus and the Olive Tree was oversimplified tripe.

This new book is about globalization. I hope I find redemption in it.

Five books you would take to a deserted island?

1. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

3. The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell

4. Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins

5. The encyclopedia of Myth, Religion and Theology