books books and more books
Mar. 20th, 2009 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maribou"A meme that does not stink" stolen from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
randomdreams who got it from korvac
0) When you say "best", "most", "favorite," etc, do you mean it?
Not usually. At least not in a durable way. I change my mind very frequently about the relative values of books.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Walter Kaufmann. I bought almost his complete oeuvre forbirdmojo as a birthday present one year.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
The various parts of Lord of the Rings. SO many copies in so many formats. I am a home for unwanted volumes of this trilogy. I'd have even more but I managed to give some of them away when the movies came out and people were curious.
3) Did it bother you that the last two questions ended in prepositions?
If I weren't sick, maybe it would of. (*snickers evilly*)
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
If I told you, would it be a secret? Duh. I don't think I'm in love with any fictional characters although there are plenty I suspect I would instantly swoon over should I happen to meet them in some more parity-based version of reality than reader and read-about. In fact, I started to make a list of those but it's REALLY LONG and appears basically irreducible.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; ie, Goodnight Moon does not count)?
The Two Towers, I think. The Horse and His Boy is a very close second. Photo finish sort of thing. I reread compulsively as a child.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
TH Whyte, The Sword in the Stone. I really loved that book from pretty much age 6 to age 13. I haven't reread it in a long time though. I think it has so much resonance for me that I'm afraid a reread might lessen it somehow. Which is silly.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Philip Smith, Walking Through Walls. Ugh. (I disliked it so much I actually blocked it out, and originally wrote another answer to this question.)
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road.
9) If you could force everyone you knew to read one book, what would it be?
This giant blue compendium of children's literature that I pored over as a kid. It would make my life simpler if everyone had the same kids' book storehouse in their head that I do.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Is it bad that I don't really care? Thoughrandomdreams and korvac's claim to Murakami does as well for me as anyone else I could think of off the top of my head. I like it better when people I've never heard of win that one.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The rest of the Narnia series. And also, can Voyage PLEASE not get budget-cut. I know there are old Beeb ones but they don't have enough of the magic in them. For all Prince Caspian's flaws, there were magic bits. Or if Narnia's excluded, then The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins would be easy and interesting.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Cerulean Sins, by Laurell K Hamilton.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I've had some really ODD dreams about hobbits. I will leave the details to the reader's imagination.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Um. I'm not very good at evaluating that. And I've read some damn lowbrow books. Dunno, honestly.
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Intellectually: I've still never made it all the way through my organic chem text from college with anything approaching comprehension, although I'm pretty sure I read every word at some point in my frantic effort to grasp the subject.
Emotionally: I don't remember, though I'm sure I would recognize it if I saw it - that's how my "blocking out" function works. Probably VALIS or something similar, where I wanted SO BADLY to make things ok for the writer and knew it was impossible.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Based on my limited exposure to either, the Russians. Though if I ever get back into de Beauvoir, that may change.
18) Roth or Updike?
Updike. His nonfiction is good. Roth makes me extremely displeased and surly.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris, but only because I have some weird reason why I think I don't like Dave Eggers. Whenever I actually READ things by him (to date, only essay-type things) I do like him, A LOT... it's weird.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen, though I'm rather spectacularly ignorant of both, having only read, as an adult, P&P. I read the Mill on the Floss as a young child but I don't remember it much at all.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
"Classics". I've read lots *about* them but haven't read many of them. Tolstoy, Racine, Herodotus etc etc etc etc etc
23) What is your favorite novel?
Leaving aside the childhood stuff, Changer by Jane Lindskold.
24) Play?
King Lear. Modernwise, I am kind of ignorant but I really liked Copenhagen.
25) Poem?
Yeat's Leda and the Swan. Don't particularly think it SHOULD be my favorite, but at the moment it appears to be.
26) Essay?
Reg Saner wrote one that was collected in a Best American Essays volume that is AWESOME. But I can't remember the title of it right now.
27) Short story?
I'm sure there is an answer to this question but I cannot currently dredge it out of my brain.
28) Work of nonfiction?
One River, by Wade Davis. Or An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Rudyard Kipling.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
My kneejerk answer is someone I haven't actually read. So I will pass.
31) What is your desert island book?
Yeat's Complete Poems, today. Probably the OED if you asked me when I wasn't sick.
32) And... what are you reading right now?
My "currently reading" list on weRead has 27 books on it, and it might be missing a couple. Most likely to finish next is Wolf's Head Wolf's Heart by Jane Lindskold, but i'm in the middle of a LOT of things. And that's just the stuff I really do intend to finish eventually.
randomdreams who got it from korvac0) When you say "best", "most", "favorite," etc, do you mean it?
Not usually. At least not in a durable way. I change my mind very frequently about the relative values of books.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Walter Kaufmann. I bought almost his complete oeuvre for
birdmojo as a birthday present one year.2) What book do you own the most copies of?
The various parts of Lord of the Rings. SO many copies in so many formats. I am a home for unwanted volumes of this trilogy. I'd have even more but I managed to give some of them away when the movies came out and people were curious.
3) Did it bother you that the last two questions ended in prepositions?
If I weren't sick, maybe it would of. (*snickers evilly*)
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
If I told you, would it be a secret? Duh. I don't think I'm in love with any fictional characters although there are plenty I suspect I would instantly swoon over should I happen to meet them in some more parity-based version of reality than reader and read-about. In fact, I started to make a list of those but it's REALLY LONG and appears basically irreducible.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; ie, Goodnight Moon does not count)?
The Two Towers, I think. The Horse and His Boy is a very close second. Photo finish sort of thing. I reread compulsively as a child.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
TH Whyte, The Sword in the Stone. I really loved that book from pretty much age 6 to age 13. I haven't reread it in a long time though. I think it has so much resonance for me that I'm afraid a reread might lessen it somehow. Which is silly.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Philip Smith, Walking Through Walls. Ugh. (I disliked it so much I actually blocked it out, and originally wrote another answer to this question.)
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road.
9) If you could force everyone you knew to read one book, what would it be?
This giant blue compendium of children's literature that I pored over as a kid. It would make my life simpler if everyone had the same kids' book storehouse in their head that I do.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Is it bad that I don't really care? Though
randomdreams and korvac's claim to Murakami does as well for me as anyone else I could think of off the top of my head. I like it better when people I've never heard of win that one.11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The rest of the Narnia series. And also, can Voyage PLEASE not get budget-cut. I know there are old Beeb ones but they don't have enough of the magic in them. For all Prince Caspian's flaws, there were magic bits. Or if Narnia's excluded, then The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins would be easy and interesting.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Cerulean Sins, by Laurell K Hamilton.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I've had some really ODD dreams about hobbits. I will leave the details to the reader's imagination.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Um. I'm not very good at evaluating that. And I've read some damn lowbrow books. Dunno, honestly.
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Intellectually: I've still never made it all the way through my organic chem text from college with anything approaching comprehension, although I'm pretty sure I read every word at some point in my frantic effort to grasp the subject.
Emotionally: I don't remember, though I'm sure I would recognize it if I saw it - that's how my "blocking out" function works. Probably VALIS or something similar, where I wanted SO BADLY to make things ok for the writer and knew it was impossible.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Based on my limited exposure to either, the Russians. Though if I ever get back into de Beauvoir, that may change.
18) Roth or Updike?
Updike. His nonfiction is good. Roth makes me extremely displeased and surly.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris, but only because I have some weird reason why I think I don't like Dave Eggers. Whenever I actually READ things by him (to date, only essay-type things) I do like him, A LOT... it's weird.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen, though I'm rather spectacularly ignorant of both, having only read, as an adult, P&P. I read the Mill on the Floss as a young child but I don't remember it much at all.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
"Classics". I've read lots *about* them but haven't read many of them. Tolstoy, Racine, Herodotus etc etc etc etc etc
23) What is your favorite novel?
Leaving aside the childhood stuff, Changer by Jane Lindskold.
24) Play?
King Lear. Modernwise, I am kind of ignorant but I really liked Copenhagen.
25) Poem?
Yeat's Leda and the Swan. Don't particularly think it SHOULD be my favorite, but at the moment it appears to be.
26) Essay?
Reg Saner wrote one that was collected in a Best American Essays volume that is AWESOME. But I can't remember the title of it right now.
27) Short story?
I'm sure there is an answer to this question but I cannot currently dredge it out of my brain.
28) Work of nonfiction?
One River, by Wade Davis. Or An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Rudyard Kipling.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
My kneejerk answer is someone I haven't actually read. So I will pass.
31) What is your desert island book?
Yeat's Complete Poems, today. Probably the OED if you asked me when I wasn't sick.
32) And... what are you reading right now?
My "currently reading" list on weRead has 27 books on it, and it might be missing a couple. Most likely to finish next is Wolf's Head Wolf's Heart by Jane Lindskold, but i'm in the middle of a LOT of things. And that's just the stuff I really do intend to finish eventually.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 10:15 pm (UTC)But I've heard too many raves about A Heartbreaking Work to entirely trust any opinion on Eggers. I think perhaps I would have liked that book more if it had actually been fiction. It still would have had a main character I disliked and found completely un-self-aware, but at least then I might not have detested the author so much.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-21 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-21 02:57 am (UTC)I think he's a very engaging person, charming, and I like his short fiction a *lot*. But I'm awfully charitable and tend to only see the good in people.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-21 02:57 am (UTC)(badoom boom)