Book meme!
Feb. 14th, 2021 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberdreamsIt's been a while so I thought I'd snaffle this meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dizzojay.
1. Which book would you consider the best book you’ve ever read and why?
Best is an interesting criteria - best in what sense? Literary merit, readability, excitement factor? I'll just go for my all time favourite and still my most read book - Lord of the Rings. My uncle lent me his copy when I was eleven, I read it almost non stop for a few days, finished it and immediately started over. I bought my own copy as soon as I could and carried on reading it several times a year for many years until that copy fell apart.
Why do I love it so much? I think it's because it has everything I want from a story. It's epic, it has relatable, believable characters. It has tortured heroes and acheivement via much suffering. It's got poetry and maps, heroic death and sacrifice. I was in love with Aragorn and wept buckets when Theoden died. When I got older I started to appreciate the underlying Old English and links to the real Middle Earth. I should know it off by heart but it still has the ability to feel new and fresh when I re-read it. I haven't read it now for a few years, but I coul happily pick it up tomorrow and not want to put it down again until I was done.
2. Are you an Austen person or a Bronte person?
I've only read 2 or 3 Austens but I did enjoy their sharpness and wit. Of the Brontes I think I've only ead Jane Eyre, which I did like but it's so long ago since I read it, I don't know if I'd enjoy it now. I did love a novel I read about Branwell Bronte and the imaginary worlds he created but I can't remember what that one was called.
3. Are there any genres you will not read?
Non fiction, mainly. Barbara Cartland bodice rippers and the like (unless they're J2 versions). True crime.
4. Are you a fast or slow reader?
Nowadays, I don't really know. Slowish/fastish, depends. Concentration is my problem now.
5. What was your relationship with books like as a child?
Books were my life, I'd have been happy being a hermit in a library. My best friend used to have to drag me out of the house to play because I'd always be reading. I'd got to our local libraries every Saturday with my own 4 library tickets, plus my parents' and regularly get out 12 books (it's a mystery how I managed to carry them all home). Usually I'd have finished them all by the middle of the week.
6. Are you the type of person who will read a book to the end whether you like it or not, or will you put it down straight away if you’re not feeling into it?
I used to feel obliged to finish everything I started then I realised life's too short to waste time on something that doesn't appeal to me. Now I'll give a story a few pages to grip me and if it doesn't, it's on the reject pile.
7. Have you ever despised something you have read?
Not that I remember. Despised is very strong - disliked, yes.
8. Do you prefer to read first person or third person?
I used to refuse to read what I called "I" books, with a few notable exceptions, like Gerald Durrell. Now I'll give them a go, though I prefer 3rd person.
9. Are you for or against multiple narrators in the same book?
It can be done if the writer is a) good and b) organised.
10. Bookmarks, dog ears or leaving the novel open and face down to keep your spot?
Bookmarks now, but when I wasn't memorising the page I was on, I used to break the spines and lay books face down. Makes me cringe to think about it now! 😁
11. Do you prefer to read at a certain time of day?
I read whenever.
12. Do you need to finish a book before you can move on to the next one, or will you have multiple books going at once?
Mulitples.
13. How do you choose which book to read next?
It's a while since I read an actual book but I do still buy them...based on the cover design, the genre, sometimes the author, sometimes the blurb will sell it to me.
14. What is your favorite childrens’ book?
I don't have one favourite book but anything by Rosemary Sutcliff would be on my list, along with Henry Treece and Ronald welch. I loved me some historical novels. Oh and Violet Needham's The Black Riders. Antony Buckeridge's Jennings books used to have me in hysterics, as did Paddington, going farther back.
15. Do you agree that Jane Eyre should be considered a feminist novel?
I don't remember enough about it to say yay or nay to that.
16. What’s your favourite of Shakespeare’s plays?
Hmm, Richard II and Julius Caesar have some cracking speeches, Twelfth Night, maybe, from the comedies?
17. Do you know any poetry by heart?
Not really. I used to know one or two but I can only remember a handful of lines now. Rage, rage against the dying of my brain.
18. Did you enjoy the Hunger Games?
I read the first two books but wasn't enthused enough to bother finding out what happened in the last one. It's a rare occasion where I enjoyed the film more than the book, and it was mainly because i found Katniss incredibly irritating and just wanted to give her a slap. Which is one of the problems with books written in the first person. If the narrator isn't appealing, it can throw you right out of the story.
19. E-reader or traditional book?
Both.
20. Do you read in the bathroom?
If I have a bath, I have to have a read.
21. Ideal reading position?
Sitting is good.
22. Hardcover or paperback?
I don't really care.
33. Nicest edition or cheapest edition?
As long as it doesn't smell of smoke or mildew, I don't mind. I do have the luxury edition of LOTR but I've only read it twice because the paper is so fine I'm scared of tearing it.
24. Do you prefer happy endings or sad endings?
Both.
25. Do you enjoy concepts in books to be concrete or abstract?
I don't even know what this means. Any story can address both of these.
26. A book you studied in school and ended up loving?
Anya Seton's Green Darkness.
7. Classics or modern literature?
I've tried to be intellectual and read 'the Classics' but to be honest I didn't get far. Dostoyevski and co are not really for me. Austen is an exception. Of course, there are also less modern but non classics that I love - like Dorothy L Sayers and P G Wodehouse.
28. Thoughts on adults reading YA?
Why not? Just because you are this age or that age doesn't mean you have to restrict your reading to one thing or another. Read whatever you like. I love a bunch of kids' authors (or are they YA, I don't know or care) like Garth Nix and Philip Pullman, Melvin Burgess and Malorie Blackman.
29. Have you ever read a book in another language?
We had to read an Inspector Maigret for O level French, and I used to read my Mum's French friend's Asterix, Tin Tin and Lucky Luke. Not sure any of those really count though.
30. Have you ever written your own book?
Yes. And about 50k of a sequel but it's all languishing in need of a massive re-write.
dizzojay.1. Which book would you consider the best book you’ve ever read and why?
Best is an interesting criteria - best in what sense? Literary merit, readability, excitement factor? I'll just go for my all time favourite and still my most read book - Lord of the Rings. My uncle lent me his copy when I was eleven, I read it almost non stop for a few days, finished it and immediately started over. I bought my own copy as soon as I could and carried on reading it several times a year for many years until that copy fell apart.
Why do I love it so much? I think it's because it has everything I want from a story. It's epic, it has relatable, believable characters. It has tortured heroes and acheivement via much suffering. It's got poetry and maps, heroic death and sacrifice. I was in love with Aragorn and wept buckets when Theoden died. When I got older I started to appreciate the underlying Old English and links to the real Middle Earth. I should know it off by heart but it still has the ability to feel new and fresh when I re-read it. I haven't read it now for a few years, but I coul happily pick it up tomorrow and not want to put it down again until I was done.
2. Are you an Austen person or a Bronte person?
I've only read 2 or 3 Austens but I did enjoy their sharpness and wit. Of the Brontes I think I've only ead Jane Eyre, which I did like but it's so long ago since I read it, I don't know if I'd enjoy it now. I did love a novel I read about Branwell Bronte and the imaginary worlds he created but I can't remember what that one was called.
3. Are there any genres you will not read?
Non fiction, mainly. Barbara Cartland bodice rippers and the like (unless they're J2 versions). True crime.
4. Are you a fast or slow reader?
Nowadays, I don't really know. Slowish/fastish, depends. Concentration is my problem now.
5. What was your relationship with books like as a child?
Books were my life, I'd have been happy being a hermit in a library. My best friend used to have to drag me out of the house to play because I'd always be reading. I'd got to our local libraries every Saturday with my own 4 library tickets, plus my parents' and regularly get out 12 books (it's a mystery how I managed to carry them all home). Usually I'd have finished them all by the middle of the week.
6. Are you the type of person who will read a book to the end whether you like it or not, or will you put it down straight away if you’re not feeling into it?
I used to feel obliged to finish everything I started then I realised life's too short to waste time on something that doesn't appeal to me. Now I'll give a story a few pages to grip me and if it doesn't, it's on the reject pile.
7. Have you ever despised something you have read?
Not that I remember. Despised is very strong - disliked, yes.
8. Do you prefer to read first person or third person?
I used to refuse to read what I called "I" books, with a few notable exceptions, like Gerald Durrell. Now I'll give them a go, though I prefer 3rd person.
9. Are you for or against multiple narrators in the same book?
It can be done if the writer is a) good and b) organised.
10. Bookmarks, dog ears or leaving the novel open and face down to keep your spot?
Bookmarks now, but when I wasn't memorising the page I was on, I used to break the spines and lay books face down. Makes me cringe to think about it now! 😁
11. Do you prefer to read at a certain time of day?
I read whenever.
12. Do you need to finish a book before you can move on to the next one, or will you have multiple books going at once?
Mulitples.
13. How do you choose which book to read next?
It's a while since I read an actual book but I do still buy them...based on the cover design, the genre, sometimes the author, sometimes the blurb will sell it to me.
14. What is your favorite childrens’ book?
I don't have one favourite book but anything by Rosemary Sutcliff would be on my list, along with Henry Treece and Ronald welch. I loved me some historical novels. Oh and Violet Needham's The Black Riders. Antony Buckeridge's Jennings books used to have me in hysterics, as did Paddington, going farther back.
15. Do you agree that Jane Eyre should be considered a feminist novel?
I don't remember enough about it to say yay or nay to that.
16. What’s your favourite of Shakespeare’s plays?
Hmm, Richard II and Julius Caesar have some cracking speeches, Twelfth Night, maybe, from the comedies?
17. Do you know any poetry by heart?
Not really. I used to know one or two but I can only remember a handful of lines now. Rage, rage against the dying of my brain.
18. Did you enjoy the Hunger Games?
I read the first two books but wasn't enthused enough to bother finding out what happened in the last one. It's a rare occasion where I enjoyed the film more than the book, and it was mainly because i found Katniss incredibly irritating and just wanted to give her a slap. Which is one of the problems with books written in the first person. If the narrator isn't appealing, it can throw you right out of the story.
19. E-reader or traditional book?
Both.
20. Do you read in the bathroom?
If I have a bath, I have to have a read.
21. Ideal reading position?
Sitting is good.
22. Hardcover or paperback?
I don't really care.
33. Nicest edition or cheapest edition?
As long as it doesn't smell of smoke or mildew, I don't mind. I do have the luxury edition of LOTR but I've only read it twice because the paper is so fine I'm scared of tearing it.
24. Do you prefer happy endings or sad endings?
Both.
25. Do you enjoy concepts in books to be concrete or abstract?
I don't even know what this means. Any story can address both of these.
26. A book you studied in school and ended up loving?
Anya Seton's Green Darkness.
7. Classics or modern literature?
I've tried to be intellectual and read 'the Classics' but to be honest I didn't get far. Dostoyevski and co are not really for me. Austen is an exception. Of course, there are also less modern but non classics that I love - like Dorothy L Sayers and P G Wodehouse.
28. Thoughts on adults reading YA?
Why not? Just because you are this age or that age doesn't mean you have to restrict your reading to one thing or another. Read whatever you like. I love a bunch of kids' authors (or are they YA, I don't know or care) like Garth Nix and Philip Pullman, Melvin Burgess and Malorie Blackman.
29. Have you ever read a book in another language?
We had to read an Inspector Maigret for O level French, and I used to read my Mum's French friend's Asterix, Tin Tin and Lucky Luke. Not sure any of those really count though.
30. Have you ever written your own book?
Yes. And about 50k of a sequel but it's all languishing in need of a massive re-write.
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no subject
Date: 2021-02-14 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-15 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-15 01:49 pm (UTC)The fondest memory I have ofTwelfth Night is having a discussion afterwards with our teacher, about the scene where Malvolio appears in his yellow stockings, and how the theatre-goers back in those days would have found that absolutely roll-em-in-the-aisles, knicker-wettingly funny. And all us stroppy teenagers were sitting there thinking, 'oh, OK!'
XD
no subject
Date: 2021-02-15 05:04 pm (UTC)Yep, some of the humour hasn't stood the test of time, while other bits have — it's strange how our senses of humour have changed so much sometimes.