My jaw hurts a lot. To readers over 21 years of age: Do you remember Glass Joe from Mike Tyson's Punchout? I'm hurting like Glass Joe after a first-round TKO at the hands of Little Mac.

But this is a daily blog now, and we do not stop for rain or sleet or snow or bone grafts into our jaws.

Thanks to Literaticat and Sarah Dessen.

1. One book that changed your life:
I guess I would have to say Mark Twain's "Huck Finn." I first read "Huck Finn" when i was in sixth grade, and it was far and away the best book I'd ever read, and then I read it again as a sophomore in college, whereupon it regained its supremacy. And while obviously I'm not as good a writer as Mark Twain, it's the book that has probably taught me the most about how I WANT to write.

But a lot of books have changed my life. "Looking for Alaska," for example, changed my life in several observable ways.

2. One book you have read more than once: The last book I re-read was "The Great Gatsby." But I try to re-read Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men" every year or so.

3. One book you would want on a desert island: Maybe the Bible, because A. it's long, and B. if I were on a desert island, I could relate to all that suffering and oppression and locusts and weeping and gnashing of teeth and everything, and C. it's good reading, and D. I'd probably be praying a lot, and also E. not to be sacriligious or anything, but you could use the lesser-read books (I mean, who reads Obadiah or Nahum?) as kindling. Kindling is huge on a desert island, as you'l no doubt remember from "Cast Away."

But anyway, I have an inherent problem with this question. What does it matter which book I take with me on a desert island when I'll be dead in a week? Don't desert islands, by definition, have no fresh water? And aren't islands without fresh water deathtraps? Nothing against literature or anything, but I'd rather take a saltwater filtration system, thanks. I'll catch up on my reading once me and my bloody volleyball build a raft and get home.

4. One book that made you laugh: Literaticat said "King Dork" by Frank Portman, and I agree.

5. One book that made you cry: Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief," which made me cry for 11 straight days. More recently, I teared up while reading "Story of a Girl" by Sara Zarr.

6. One book you wish had been written: I wish that in like 1986, someone had published an illustrated book entitled "John Green, You Should Not Date the Following 11 Girls." JGYSNDTF11G would be a novel written by my future self and then transported back in time with the help of a flux capacitator, and basically it would tell my 9-year-old self 11 names I ought to avoid.

7. One book you wish had never been written: I don't much like "The Gossip Girls" or books of their ilk, which I realize is unfashionable, but I stand by my opinion. But if I could pick one book to have never been written, I would obviously pick "Ethan Frome," because it has inflicted so much pain on so many.

8. One book you are currently reading: F. X. Toole's posthumously published "Pound for Pound."

9. One book you have been meaning to read: "The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between," by Sally Nemeth, which I have been meaning to read for several months, but books I have to review keep getting in the way.

10. Tag five people: Instead of tagging five individual people, I am just going to go ahead and tag the entire Internet.

p.s. Scott Westerfeld's rant re. the planethood of Pluto is brilliant. I am with him. We must end the planetary charade that is Pluto. As Stephen Colbert put it last night, the new mnemonic device should be, "My Very Educated Mother Just Said, 'Uh-oh, No Pluto!'"