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seawasp
1) What author do you own the most books by? Andre Norton because I've been collecting them for nearly 40 years and because there are so many. I have complete or almost complete sets of other authors' works such as Lois McMaster Bujold. Terry Pratchett, Charles de Lint, Bernard Cornwell, Monica Edwards...
2) What book do you own the most copies of? Discounting any anthologies I've actually been published in... which I have four or five copies of... for some weird reason I ended up with three copies of Robert Gilman's 'Warlock of Rhada' because it was the third part of a trilogy of which only the first two were published in the UK. It took me 25 years and the internet to finally get it and then I found it in a couple of bookshops in the US and in the heat of the moment 'forgot' I'd already got it. (Actually it turned out that there were four Rhada books andI finally got Star Kahn of Rhada, too.) I've got double-copies of some of Norton's Witch World books, my original tatty paperbacks and some hardbacks, too.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? No. I didn't even notice.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Cazaril from Bujold's Curse of Chalion.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life? Probably the Narnia books because I read them so often as a child. These days I'm too busy reading to re-read, though I always promise myself I will.
6) What was your favourite book when you were ten years old? 'Wish for a Pony' by Monica Edwards - or maybe 'The Horse and His Boy' by CS Lewis (see a theme here?)
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas. It tried to be everything Joe Abercrombie's trilogy was and failed. (That's Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. Very gritty, but brilliantly intriguing.)
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? Either the above mentioned Joe Abercrombie trilogy (really one book) or maybe Brent Weeks' trilogy – The Way of Shadows, Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows, though I also adored Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight, a fictionalised tale of the real-life 'William Marshall' who lived through the turbulent reign of four fractious Plantaganet kings and managed to survive with his integrity intact. I'm a bit behind. Many of the books I intended to read in the last year (like the latest Jaine Fenn novel) are still in my 'strategic book reserve
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Some of the people i know don't actually read much, but for those who read SF in its widest sense I'd like to encourage them to try something by Lois McMaster Bujold. Either Curse of Chalion (fantasy) or Warrior's Apprentice (science fiction).
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature? I know nothing about 'literature. I just read books. How about Terry Pratchett? Has he committed Literature yet? I'd argue that he has.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Terry Pratchett's Night Watch - though they could ruin everything if they didn't get the casting of Vimes exactly right. Or Karen Traviss' Star Wars Republic Commando books because they are so much better than Lucas' Clone Wars movie. That will never happen, of course, because Lucas used a kernel of Karen's idea (that the white-armoured Star Wars republic troopers were individuals with individual concerns despite being clones bred for military service) and made a terrible movie from it (which even Karen's better-than-the-movie novelisation couldn't really rescue). I haven't seen the Clone Wars TV series but...
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie? I dunno. A good director/producer team can make decent movies from bad books. Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix was a better movie than a book, for instance, because a lot of what was not good about the book got ditched. I suspect Deathly Hallows will be the same - though I'm not sure how they'll slice it in two for two movies. Hopefully they'll miss out the endless camping trip. Even Twilight was a better movie than a book.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character. I know I dream, but I tend not to remember them clearly when I wake.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult? I once read a Jon Norman Gor book. Blech.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? James Joyce, Ulysses. I just couldn't get my head round it.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen? Most of the ones I've seen are the popular ones: Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream etc. I guess the least performed one I've seen would be Othello, but it's not exactly obscure.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians? No preference
18) Roth or Updike? Neither
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Who?
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare probably, but Chaucer (in translation) is pretty neat.
21) Austen or Eliot? Austen, by a mile.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? Biggest gap? Apart from school required reading of Dickens (mostly boring), Hardy (hated with a passion), Austen (OK) and Bronte (Jane Eyre and that's my limit) I've hardly read any pre 20th century literature. Most embarrassing? Classic Golden age SF. I read a lot as a teen but didn't retain much of it, so I can barely recall Clarke or Asimov's work and I have huge gaps in my knowledge.
23) What is your favourite novel? Currently: Lois McMaster Bujold 'Curse of Chalion'
24) Play? Rosencrantz and Guilenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
25) Poem? Difficult to say. It used to be 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, but I've moved on since then. Since I live with a songwriter whose lyrics are more like poetry it might have to be one of his. Or maybe Tam Lin from 'English and Scottish Ballads' collected by FJ Child.
26) Essay? I enjoyed some of the essays in the 'Finding Serenity' critique of Joss Whedon's 'Firefly', but I can't recall the specifics.
27) Short story? Karen Traviss 'Suitable for the Orient'
28) Work of non-fiction? One of my most used ones - for research purposes - A Dictionary of Fairies by Katharine Briggs, though I recently bought 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England' by Ian Mortimer, which is neat.
29) Who is your favourite writer? Lois McMaster Bujold, though Terry Pratchett comes a close second.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Stephenie Meyer
31) What is your desert island book? A blank notebook (and a pen, please) - though perhaps it should be one of John Seymour's self-sufficiency books
32) And… what are you reading right now? 'Graceling' - a YA book by Kristin Cashore. I just finished Chaz Brenchley's 'Dead of Light' - (an ebook download from from Book View Cafe') which was totally gripping.
seawasp 1) What author do you own the most books by? Andre Norton because I've been collecting them for nearly 40 years and because there are so many. I have complete or almost complete sets of other authors' works such as Lois McMaster Bujold. Terry Pratchett, Charles de Lint, Bernard Cornwell, Monica Edwards...
2) What book do you own the most copies of? Discounting any anthologies I've actually been published in... which I have four or five copies of... for some weird reason I ended up with three copies of Robert Gilman's 'Warlock of Rhada' because it was the third part of a trilogy of which only the first two were published in the UK. It took me 25 years and the internet to finally get it and then I found it in a couple of bookshops in the US and in the heat of the moment 'forgot' I'd already got it. (Actually it turned out that there were four Rhada books andI finally got Star Kahn of Rhada, too.) I've got double-copies of some of Norton's Witch World books, my original tatty paperbacks and some hardbacks, too.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? No. I didn't even notice.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Cazaril from Bujold's Curse of Chalion.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life? Probably the Narnia books because I read them so often as a child. These days I'm too busy reading to re-read, though I always promise myself I will.
6) What was your favourite book when you were ten years old? 'Wish for a Pony' by Monica Edwards - or maybe 'The Horse and His Boy' by CS Lewis (see a theme here?)
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas. It tried to be everything Joe Abercrombie's trilogy was and failed. (That's Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. Very gritty, but brilliantly intriguing.)
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? Either the above mentioned Joe Abercrombie trilogy (really one book) or maybe Brent Weeks' trilogy – The Way of Shadows, Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows, though I also adored Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight, a fictionalised tale of the real-life 'William Marshall' who lived through the turbulent reign of four fractious Plantaganet kings and managed to survive with his integrity intact. I'm a bit behind. Many of the books I intended to read in the last year (like the latest Jaine Fenn novel) are still in my 'strategic book reserve
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Some of the people i know don't actually read much, but for those who read SF in its widest sense I'd like to encourage them to try something by Lois McMaster Bujold. Either Curse of Chalion (fantasy) or Warrior's Apprentice (science fiction).
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature? I know nothing about 'literature. I just read books. How about Terry Pratchett? Has he committed Literature yet? I'd argue that he has.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Terry Pratchett's Night Watch - though they could ruin everything if they didn't get the casting of Vimes exactly right. Or Karen Traviss' Star Wars Republic Commando books because they are so much better than Lucas' Clone Wars movie. That will never happen, of course, because Lucas used a kernel of Karen's idea (that the white-armoured Star Wars republic troopers were individuals with individual concerns despite being clones bred for military service) and made a terrible movie from it (which even Karen's better-than-the-movie novelisation couldn't really rescue). I haven't seen the Clone Wars TV series but...
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie? I dunno. A good director/producer team can make decent movies from bad books. Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix was a better movie than a book, for instance, because a lot of what was not good about the book got ditched. I suspect Deathly Hallows will be the same - though I'm not sure how they'll slice it in two for two movies. Hopefully they'll miss out the endless camping trip. Even Twilight was a better movie than a book.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character. I know I dream, but I tend not to remember them clearly when I wake.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult? I once read a Jon Norman Gor book. Blech.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? James Joyce, Ulysses. I just couldn't get my head round it.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen? Most of the ones I've seen are the popular ones: Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream etc. I guess the least performed one I've seen would be Othello, but it's not exactly obscure.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians? No preference
18) Roth or Updike? Neither
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Who?
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare probably, but Chaucer (in translation) is pretty neat.
21) Austen or Eliot? Austen, by a mile.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? Biggest gap? Apart from school required reading of Dickens (mostly boring), Hardy (hated with a passion), Austen (OK) and Bronte (Jane Eyre and that's my limit) I've hardly read any pre 20th century literature. Most embarrassing? Classic Golden age SF. I read a lot as a teen but didn't retain much of it, so I can barely recall Clarke or Asimov's work and I have huge gaps in my knowledge.
23) What is your favourite novel? Currently: Lois McMaster Bujold 'Curse of Chalion'
24) Play? Rosencrantz and Guilenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
25) Poem? Difficult to say. It used to be 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, but I've moved on since then. Since I live with a songwriter whose lyrics are more like poetry it might have to be one of his. Or maybe Tam Lin from 'English and Scottish Ballads' collected by FJ Child.
26) Essay? I enjoyed some of the essays in the 'Finding Serenity' critique of Joss Whedon's 'Firefly', but I can't recall the specifics.
27) Short story? Karen Traviss 'Suitable for the Orient'
28) Work of non-fiction? One of my most used ones - for research purposes - A Dictionary of Fairies by Katharine Briggs, though I recently bought 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England' by Ian Mortimer, which is neat.
29) Who is your favourite writer? Lois McMaster Bujold, though Terry Pratchett comes a close second.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Stephenie Meyer
31) What is your desert island book? A blank notebook (and a pen, please) - though perhaps it should be one of John Seymour's self-sufficiency books
32) And… what are you reading right now? 'Graceling' - a YA book by Kristin Cashore. I just finished Chaz Brenchley's 'Dead of Light' - (an ebook download from from Book View Cafe') which was totally gripping.
