Reading meme
Mar. 30th, 2009 12:58 pmVia![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_marquise_de_
1. Which author do you own the most books by? Andre Norton - I've been collecting them for more than thirty years - and there are so many.
2. What book do you own the most copies of? I've ended up with duplicates of things accidentally, but I don't have more than two of anything - oh, yes, I do. I once spent ages looking for a Robert Gilman Rhada book to finish off a trilogy (the first two of which were published in the UK in the 70s and the third one never appeared). I told several people and ended up with three... now which was it? Errr... Warlock of Rhada, I think. Still haven't ever found Star Kahn of Rhada, which seems to be the fourth in the Rhada trilogy....
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Did they? Oh, so they did. Obviously not, then.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Cazaril - and it's no secret. (Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold)
5. What book have you read the most times in your life? Probably CS Lewis: The Horse and His Boy or maybe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, having started reading them at the age of 8 or 9... though... oh, no, I know... Tikki Tikki Tembo or the Very Hungry Caterpillar. had to read them endlessly to my kids at bedtime. Does that count?
6. What was your favorite book when you were 10 years old? The Horse and His Boy - CS Lewis
7. What is the worst book you have read in the past year? Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, or maybe Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing, for very different reasons. One had me shouting at it, the other was really boring. You guess which.
8. What is the best book you have read in the past year. Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaign, though I also loved her Sharing Knife quartet - all read within the past year. I've also enjoyed reading a lot of Patricia Briggs back catalogue this year including her Hurog books Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood and her last two Mercy Thompsons, Iron Kissed and Bone Crossed.
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be? Right now? Cory Doctorow: Little Brother
10. Who deserves the next Nobel Prize for literature? I'm probably no great judge of literature. i read fiction. It's rarely literature! :-)
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Liz Williams: The Snake Agent. Any Miles Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold, but I just don't know how they'd cast the part of Miles and if they got it wrong it would be a complete disaster.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie? Any Miles Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold, because I just don't know how they'd cast the part of Miles and when they got it wrong it would be a complete disaster.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book or literary character. I'm sure I do dream, but I can never remember them when I wale up.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you have read as an adult? I rarely read much above middlebrow at best. I once read a Mills and Boon. It was set in a library not unlike the one I worked in (hence got passed round the staff). It was called His Serene Miss Smith. She cut off all her long red hair to spite him and they lived happily ever after.
15. What is the most difficult book you have read? Difficult as in hard to understand or difficult as in psychologically gruelling? If the latter then i think it's China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I felt like I'd been through a wringer when I finished that one.
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? I don't think I've seen any of the really obscure ones. The most recent was Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. I did once see Othello (at Nottingham Playhouse circa 1969) with American film actor Robert Ryan playing the Moor and John Neville as Iago. Robert Ryan was pretty obscure. When Ronald Reagan was elected to the US presidency it took me a while to sort out Robert Ryan from Ronald Reagan in my mind. They were both pretty crappy actors in poor westerns.
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians? Neither. Both. Either. In what context? As writers? I don't know. As people? I haven't a clue.
18. Roth or Updike? Neither.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Who?
20. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer. Chaucer probably if I can have a translation handy. Otherwise Shakespeare if I have to read it all under my own steam.
21. Austen or Elliot? Austen.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? I've got too many embarrassing gaps to count. I've hardly read any American literature - but on the other hand I have little desire to, so the gap isn't really all that embarrassing - just big. In genre I feel I should have read a lot more of the classics such as Arthur C Clarke and Asimov. I probably did read a lot of these as a teen, when I read Gollancz yellow jacketed stuff avidly but with much less comprehension that I should have done. I honestly can't recall most of what I read then, though I know I read everything I could get from the local library.
23. What is your favorite novel? Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
24. Play? Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard). Bloody hell, that man can write a script!
25. Poem? I really love the traditional ballad form and my favourite book of anything approaching poetry is 'English and Scottish Ballads' by FJ Childe. All of the contents anonymous and old and containing the brilliant Tam Lin. Other than that, I'm not really into much poetry - though I'm quite fond of some Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, particularly 'Let Love Die Bravely' and I love Dalesman's Litany by FW Moorman - but possibly only because it was turned into such a spectacular song.
26. Essay? I might have read one once... The collection in 'Reading the Vampire Slayer' edited by Roz Kaveney is pretty interesting
27. Short story? Karen Traviss 'Suitable for the Orient'
28. Work of nonfiction? It depends why I'm reading. Non-fiction tends to be mostly for research before/during writing. I'm very fond of any of the Katharine Briggs books about fairies and folklore. Favourite how-to is Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King. Though I haven't consulted it much lately it was massively helpful in my early writing days. There's also 'The Medieval Traveller' by Ohler and 'By the Sword' by Cohen... not to mention my most recent non-fiction acquisition: Sun Tzu 'The Art of War'.
29. Who is your favorite writer? Lois McMaster Bujold - at the moment.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? God.
31. What is your desert island book? Oh, bloody-hell, how could I choose? Can I take the complete Vorkosigan series? If I can't, I suppose Lord of the Rings would keep me occupied for longest and I have to admit to only ever having read it once, so it can probably stand reading again and possibly even again until I become a Tolkien bore, ready to give chapter and verse on why the Scouring of the Shire should not have been omitted from the movie. My favourite book, Curse of Chalion, is too short for a desert island and there are only so many times you can re-read a favourite novel.
32. And...what are you reading right now? Kari Sperring: Living With Ghosts.
la_marquise_de_1. Which author do you own the most books by? Andre Norton - I've been collecting them for more than thirty years - and there are so many.
2. What book do you own the most copies of? I've ended up with duplicates of things accidentally, but I don't have more than two of anything - oh, yes, I do. I once spent ages looking for a Robert Gilman Rhada book to finish off a trilogy (the first two of which were published in the UK in the 70s and the third one never appeared). I told several people and ended up with three... now which was it? Errr... Warlock of Rhada, I think. Still haven't ever found Star Kahn of Rhada, which seems to be the fourth in the Rhada trilogy....
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Did they? Oh, so they did. Obviously not, then.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Cazaril - and it's no secret. (Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold)
5. What book have you read the most times in your life? Probably CS Lewis: The Horse and His Boy or maybe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, having started reading them at the age of 8 or 9... though... oh, no, I know... Tikki Tikki Tembo or the Very Hungry Caterpillar. had to read them endlessly to my kids at bedtime. Does that count?
6. What was your favorite book when you were 10 years old? The Horse and His Boy - CS Lewis
7. What is the worst book you have read in the past year? Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, or maybe Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing, for very different reasons. One had me shouting at it, the other was really boring. You guess which.
8. What is the best book you have read in the past year. Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaign, though I also loved her Sharing Knife quartet - all read within the past year. I've also enjoyed reading a lot of Patricia Briggs back catalogue this year including her Hurog books Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood and her last two Mercy Thompsons, Iron Kissed and Bone Crossed.
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be? Right now? Cory Doctorow: Little Brother
10. Who deserves the next Nobel Prize for literature? I'm probably no great judge of literature. i read fiction. It's rarely literature! :-)
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Liz Williams: The Snake Agent. Any Miles Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold, but I just don't know how they'd cast the part of Miles and if they got it wrong it would be a complete disaster.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie? Any Miles Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold, because I just don't know how they'd cast the part of Miles and when they got it wrong it would be a complete disaster.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book or literary character. I'm sure I do dream, but I can never remember them when I wale up.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you have read as an adult? I rarely read much above middlebrow at best. I once read a Mills and Boon. It was set in a library not unlike the one I worked in (hence got passed round the staff). It was called His Serene Miss Smith. She cut off all her long red hair to spite him and they lived happily ever after.
15. What is the most difficult book you have read? Difficult as in hard to understand or difficult as in psychologically gruelling? If the latter then i think it's China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I felt like I'd been through a wringer when I finished that one.
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? I don't think I've seen any of the really obscure ones. The most recent was Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. I did once see Othello (at Nottingham Playhouse circa 1969) with American film actor Robert Ryan playing the Moor and John Neville as Iago. Robert Ryan was pretty obscure. When Ronald Reagan was elected to the US presidency it took me a while to sort out Robert Ryan from Ronald Reagan in my mind. They were both pretty crappy actors in poor westerns.
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians? Neither. Both. Either. In what context? As writers? I don't know. As people? I haven't a clue.
18. Roth or Updike? Neither.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Who?
20. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer. Chaucer probably if I can have a translation handy. Otherwise Shakespeare if I have to read it all under my own steam.
21. Austen or Elliot? Austen.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? I've got too many embarrassing gaps to count. I've hardly read any American literature - but on the other hand I have little desire to, so the gap isn't really all that embarrassing - just big. In genre I feel I should have read a lot more of the classics such as Arthur C Clarke and Asimov. I probably did read a lot of these as a teen, when I read Gollancz yellow jacketed stuff avidly but with much less comprehension that I should have done. I honestly can't recall most of what I read then, though I know I read everything I could get from the local library.
23. What is your favorite novel? Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
24. Play? Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard). Bloody hell, that man can write a script!
25. Poem? I really love the traditional ballad form and my favourite book of anything approaching poetry is 'English and Scottish Ballads' by FJ Childe. All of the contents anonymous and old and containing the brilliant Tam Lin. Other than that, I'm not really into much poetry - though I'm quite fond of some Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, particularly 'Let Love Die Bravely' and I love Dalesman's Litany by FW Moorman - but possibly only because it was turned into such a spectacular song.
26. Essay? I might have read one once... The collection in 'Reading the Vampire Slayer' edited by Roz Kaveney is pretty interesting
27. Short story? Karen Traviss 'Suitable for the Orient'
28. Work of nonfiction? It depends why I'm reading. Non-fiction tends to be mostly for research before/during writing. I'm very fond of any of the Katharine Briggs books about fairies and folklore. Favourite how-to is Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King. Though I haven't consulted it much lately it was massively helpful in my early writing days. There's also 'The Medieval Traveller' by Ohler and 'By the Sword' by Cohen... not to mention my most recent non-fiction acquisition: Sun Tzu 'The Art of War'.
29. Who is your favorite writer? Lois McMaster Bujold - at the moment.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? God.
31. What is your desert island book? Oh, bloody-hell, how could I choose? Can I take the complete Vorkosigan series? If I can't, I suppose Lord of the Rings would keep me occupied for longest and I have to admit to only ever having read it once, so it can probably stand reading again and possibly even again until I become a Tolkien bore, ready to give chapter and verse on why the Scouring of the Shire should not have been omitted from the movie. My favourite book, Curse of Chalion, is too short for a desert island and there are only so many times you can re-read a favourite novel.
32. And...what are you reading right now? Kari Sperring: Living With Ghosts.
