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Book meme
I started this months ago but am only now getting around to posting. I think this was from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thistleingrey but I'm not sure.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Tolkien edges out both Brust and Bujold, to both D's and my surprise.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Um, Lord of the Rings. Although the Divine Comedy is the other one I own more than two editions of. Though not more than one version of each translation!
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No. But it might have in more formal writing.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Which one am I not in love with? Let's see, the first ones I can think of chronologically were Sherlock Holmes and Spock. I started to write down Calvin O'Keefe from the L'Engle books and then decided it wasn't so much a crush as it was a semi-unconscious imprinting of "Yeah, that's what I want my love to look like." (And eventually it turned out like that, more or less, without the wacky transdimensional adventures.) The latest major ones are both Costis and Gen from the Turner books, and I have a minor crush on Haymitch from the Hunger Games books because I feel his awesomeness is not nearly appreciated enough by either the in-book characters or the reviews I've read.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Probably The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper), which I haven't read for possibly ten years but which I basically had continually out of the library as a kid.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
uh, The Dark is Rising.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
I'm going to pass on this since I usually do this at the end of the year.
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
I think To Kill a Mockingbird. Ha! You were expecting Tolkien? But there are a lot of people who for various reasons don't get Tolkien and who maybe are better off not reading it (if only because I hate people harshing on my Hero!), and even if you don't get Mockingbird, though you should because it is AWESOME, you should read it.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no idea. I don't do book awards. Sometimes I read them aftewards.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I want to see the Ring Cycle as a movie in English, a real movie, not a stage production. (I realize that's not a book, but it's a work of literature, kind of, and I can't think of a good book.) Oh! Maybe The Chosen and The Promise by Chaim Potok. I think those could potentially make pretty cool movies with the right director (or really awful ones with the wrong one).
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Can I retroactively nominate Dark is Rising? There are a lot of books that are too plot-filled, like the Vorkosigan books, the Attolia books, Bridge of Birds... and some, like Hero and the Crown, where the mood of the book is so important that I would be guaranteed not to like the result.
I would like to see Dark is Rising made the right way. I would love to see what a really good director could do with the Book of Gramarye sequence, for example.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Oh, I have great dreams, none of which I can remember now. There was one where I was Will Stanton, and another one where I was in some Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy slash fic that turned into a Diana Wynne Jones book.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Judith Krantz! Yay red-haired Mary Sues!
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Being and Nothingness (Sartre), which I "had" to read for college (the quotation marks because honestly I would have faked my way fine without reading it, which was what everyone else was doing), and which I really enjoyed reading but also thought was a lot of horse poop.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
uh. Twelfth Night. Which isn't obscure at all, of course.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French, of course. Victor Hugo! Saint-Exupery! Russians... Tolstoy? Dostoevsky? Eh.
18) Roth or Updike?
er?
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
ugh. Neither, thank you.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare. Milton I keep petering out after about thirty pages of Paradise Lost, and Chaucer doesn't at all do it for me.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen by all means, if we're talking about George Eliot, none of which I have actually read. T.S. Eliot I am fascinated by (uh, cue the complex references and so on), so he'd win over Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
The Greeks and Romans, both history and literature. Thanks toricardienne my awful lapse in not reading the Aeneid is about to be rectified.
23) What is your favorite novel?
Didn't I already answer this one being LOTR?
24) Play?
Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, Charles Williams. Which I have never seen, but love anyway. Of things I've actually seen... A Man for All Seasons (Bolt), which I've seen the movie version of, anyway.
25) Poem?
Gerard Manley Hopkins is my favorite poet, followed by Charles Williams. Haven't got a real favorite poem though, unless you count The Divine Comedy.
26) Essay?
"The Monsters and the Critics," J.R.R. Tolkien. Required to be one's favorite if one has spent any time in Anglo-Saxon studies, as I once did long ago.
27) Short story?
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," Cordwainer Smith. Actually I'm not sure that's my favorite, but Cordwainer Smith is my favorite short story writer.
28) Work of nonfiction?
The Figure of Beatrice, Charles Williams.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Depends what of. See above. Tolkien and Charles Williams and Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dante.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
No idea.
31) What is your desert island book?
Only one?? I think it might have to be the Bible, in that case. King James, of course. Might as well get as many words in as possible :) If that's not allowed (which I suppose it shouldn't be, as it's really an anthology) then I suppose it would have to be LOTR (which should count for one book if KJV doesn't). I have a top 10 desert island list somewhere, though.
32) And . . . what are you reading right now?
Mockingjay. It's slow going.
thistleingrey but I'm not sure.1) What author do you own the most books by?
Tolkien edges out both Brust and Bujold, to both D's and my surprise.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Um, Lord of the Rings. Although the Divine Comedy is the other one I own more than two editions of. Though not more than one version of each translation!
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No. But it might have in more formal writing.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Which one am I not in love with? Let's see, the first ones I can think of chronologically were Sherlock Holmes and Spock. I started to write down Calvin O'Keefe from the L'Engle books and then decided it wasn't so much a crush as it was a semi-unconscious imprinting of "Yeah, that's what I want my love to look like." (And eventually it turned out like that, more or less, without the wacky transdimensional adventures.) The latest major ones are both Costis and Gen from the Turner books, and I have a minor crush on Haymitch from the Hunger Games books because I feel his awesomeness is not nearly appreciated enough by either the in-book characters or the reviews I've read.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Probably The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper), which I haven't read for possibly ten years but which I basically had continually out of the library as a kid.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
uh, The Dark is Rising.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
I'm going to pass on this since I usually do this at the end of the year.
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
I think To Kill a Mockingbird. Ha! You were expecting Tolkien? But there are a lot of people who for various reasons don't get Tolkien and who maybe are better off not reading it (if only because I hate people harshing on my Hero!), and even if you don't get Mockingbird, though you should because it is AWESOME, you should read it.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no idea. I don't do book awards. Sometimes I read them aftewards.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I want to see the Ring Cycle as a movie in English, a real movie, not a stage production. (I realize that's not a book, but it's a work of literature, kind of, and I can't think of a good book.) Oh! Maybe The Chosen and The Promise by Chaim Potok. I think those could potentially make pretty cool movies with the right director (or really awful ones with the wrong one).
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Can I retroactively nominate Dark is Rising? There are a lot of books that are too plot-filled, like the Vorkosigan books, the Attolia books, Bridge of Birds... and some, like Hero and the Crown, where the mood of the book is so important that I would be guaranteed not to like the result.
I would like to see Dark is Rising made the right way. I would love to see what a really good director could do with the Book of Gramarye sequence, for example.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Oh, I have great dreams, none of which I can remember now. There was one where I was Will Stanton, and another one where I was in some Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy slash fic that turned into a Diana Wynne Jones book.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Judith Krantz! Yay red-haired Mary Sues!
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Being and Nothingness (Sartre), which I "had" to read for college (the quotation marks because honestly I would have faked my way fine without reading it, which was what everyone else was doing), and which I really enjoyed reading but also thought was a lot of horse poop.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
uh. Twelfth Night. Which isn't obscure at all, of course.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French, of course. Victor Hugo! Saint-Exupery! Russians... Tolstoy? Dostoevsky? Eh.
18) Roth or Updike?
er?
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
ugh. Neither, thank you.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare. Milton I keep petering out after about thirty pages of Paradise Lost, and Chaucer doesn't at all do it for me.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen by all means, if we're talking about George Eliot, none of which I have actually read. T.S. Eliot I am fascinated by (uh, cue the complex references and so on), so he'd win over Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
The Greeks and Romans, both history and literature. Thanks to
ricardienne my awful lapse in not reading the Aeneid is about to be rectified.23) What is your favorite novel?
Didn't I already answer this one being LOTR?
24) Play?
Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, Charles Williams. Which I have never seen, but love anyway. Of things I've actually seen... A Man for All Seasons (Bolt), which I've seen the movie version of, anyway.
25) Poem?
Gerard Manley Hopkins is my favorite poet, followed by Charles Williams. Haven't got a real favorite poem though, unless you count The Divine Comedy.
26) Essay?
"The Monsters and the Critics," J.R.R. Tolkien. Required to be one's favorite if one has spent any time in Anglo-Saxon studies, as I once did long ago.
27) Short story?
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," Cordwainer Smith. Actually I'm not sure that's my favorite, but Cordwainer Smith is my favorite short story writer.
28) Work of nonfiction?
The Figure of Beatrice, Charles Williams.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Depends what of. See above. Tolkien and Charles Williams and Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dante.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
No idea.
31) What is your desert island book?
Only one?? I think it might have to be the Bible, in that case. King James, of course. Might as well get as many words in as possible :) If that's not allowed (which I suppose it shouldn't be, as it's really an anthology) then I suppose it would have to be LOTR (which should count for one book if KJV doesn't). I have a top 10 desert island list somewhere, though.
32) And . . . what are you reading right now?
Mockingjay. It's slow going.
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Curious - you say the best SF short story, and one of the best short stories ever. What non-SF stories would you put on that list, then? (I can't even think of non-SF stories I love, off-hand.)
Great topic :)
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