Book meme!

[salinea]

1) What author do you own the most books by?

Tough to say. Either Bujold or Cherryh, I'd say. Unless you count graphic novels and count by volumes thereof in which case it would be CLAMP.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?

There's a few of books I have twice. Tanith Lee's Death's Master and Night's Sorceries I have both in French and English, Martin's A Storm of Sword i have twice because one copy is very used. I have all the volumes of X and a couple of random volumes of other manga in Japanese as well as French. I have one copy and a half of Gentle's Ilario because it had one release as one volume, and one as two volumes; and the fact that it's the same book wasn't made clear on Amazon. Stuff like that.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

Nope. I always found ending a sentence with a preposition makes a sentence look more elegant and idiomatic. As a non native learning English that's what I learned was the proper way.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

My first literary crush was Corwin of Amber, my second was Haplo in the Death Gate. Nowadays I don't count them anymore... i think some of the most recent ones are Tremaine in Martha Well's Ile Rien series and Valens in KJ Parker's Engineer Trilogy.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?

Probably Zelazny's Amber cycle. Also possibly Bujold's Vor Game or Memory.

What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?

Ten year old? I think maybe the Book of the Unicorn by Joles Sennell. Or Daniel Pennac's Malaussène series.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?

Glen Cook's Old Tin Sorrow.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?

Powers by Leguin.

9) If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?

Forcing people to read is against my principles. It destroys the pleasure of reading.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?

How should I know and why should I care?

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

I don't know but the Coldfire trilogy should be made into a Roleplaying game.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

Yet another K Dick movie. I want to see other genres of SFF adapted into movies.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

Nothing comes to mind right now

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?

I'm not sure. What counts as low brow there? Would the Anita Blake books count? Tie-in RPG books (I read a shadowrun once which was goddawful, plus the Lancedragon ones)?

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?

I had some trouble with O'Brien because it's a very elliptic style. Dorothy Dunnett didn't shine by its readability either and I've at least studied most of the languages she used in the text without footnotes. Hal Duncan's very experimental in style, but actually easy to read.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?

I'm not sure I've seen any obscure plays by Shakespeare (if there's such a thing), but the least well known one I've seen is 12th Night.

18) Roth or Updike?

I think I've seen a book by Roth once?

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

Bless you.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

I haven't read any of the three, but at least I've seen a few Shakespeare plays, so that one.

21) Austen or Eliot?

Eliot as in the poet? Why would I compare him to Austen? This question is weird. Both.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

I can tell you what's yours. You apparently only aknowledge the existence of English speaking writers.

23) What is your favourite novel?

I dunno, Left Hand of Darkness by Leguin.

25) Poem?

Nuit Rhenane by Appolinaire :

Mon verre est plein d'un vin trembleur comme un flamme
Ecoutez la chanson lente d'un batelier
Qui raconte avoir vu sous la lune sept femmes
Tordre leur cheveux verts et longs jusqu'à leur pieds...

26) Essay?

I'm gonna say Plato's Symposium, because that's one of the several sources I can name for my liking for slash :p Alcibiade, baby!

27) Short story?

Snow, Glass, Apples by Gaiman maybe.

29) Who is your favorite writer?

Can't really name just one now can I?

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

I don't really pay attention to who's rated high, so...

31) What is your desert island book?

Can I have the Vorkosigan series? Otherwise Gaiman's Smoke and Mirror

32) And... what are you reading right now?

Peadar O Guilìn 's The Inferior
.

Comments

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

I can tell you what's yours.

First thing in a long time to make me think "ooh, ouch," and snicker in a mean-spirited way. :D

I wonder if they meant George Eliot for the Austen/Eliot question? It'd at least mean it was asking about two somewhat similar authors--female, writing fiction that focused on society and publishing anonymously or under a pseudonym--but given the rest of the questions I don't know if I should assume the meme-writer is that well-read.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

hehe :)

Oh, yeah George Eliot would make more sense. Of course I never read anything by her... >_>;

[the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com]

I think they meant George Eliot.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

That actually suddenly makes sense!

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Merci bien.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

For reading? ^^

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Of course! What else could it be?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

you should at least wait until I finish reading it to thank me ;)

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Oh no! You have no control over whether you like it or not. The only choice you can make is to read or overlook it. I thank you for giving it a go and that's all.

[werthead.livejournal.com]

The appropriate Abercrombianism in this case would be, "Whether you like it or not is up to you, the important thing is you bought a copy" :-)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Would Abercrombie even doubt people would fail to see the genius of his novels? :)

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Ah! I'd love to hate him, but Best Served Cold was far too good :)

[twistedsheets10.livejournal.com]

Ganked this. WAT.

Your reply to 22 made me go, "oooh, buuurn." XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I alway love bashing anglocentrism :)

[solesakuma]

You had to be French, hadn't you?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

LOL for this at least :)

[solesakuma]

Wow. It is really English-focused. :s Not even mention of French writers and I've given up hope on seeing the Siglo de Oro guys in these memes, but really. Not even German. Or Dante.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, usually you have at least Dante or Goethe, maybe.

[solesakuma]

Or Cervantes or Racine or Tolstoi. :S You know, the Token Rest-of-Europe Guys.

[chisakami.livejournal.com]

I can tell you what's yours. You apparently only aknowledge the existence of English speaking writers.

Bwahahaha! Oh snap!

...Hm, everyone else's commented on that as well. Oh well. XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

my ego feels flattered everytime someone does! :)

[scriva.livejournal.com]

You've read Pennac at ten? I like them very much, but I found them pretty violent and bloody as an adult.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I think I did yes. Maybe eleven? Definitely around that age. I don't remember being disturbed by the violence, but I read a few Murakami Ryu books not very long after, and those were wayyyyy trashy and I still loved them ^^ ETA: not to mention Stephen King.

[scriva.livejournal.com]

Haha, well, they are violent in a weird sense, almost absurd, I guess. The first one, I read of them was "La fée carabine" which starts with the description of a shot person and at the same time, the description is really beautiful and somewhat weird. That shocked me a bit.

[beniowa79.livejournal.com]

I can tell you what's yours. You apparently only aknowledge the existence of English speaking writers.

Zing!

Not only that, but only English speaking "literature" authors.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

^_^


Yeah, it seems to have a thing for high brow mainstream >_>; whatever.