Literary Geek Meme
Cover of Terry Pratchett
I found this on Facebook, then accidentally closed it, then found a slightly longer version, and I’m bored and insomniac, so . . .
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Terry Pratchett
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
This is an easy one. The Hobbit. I think we have a total of four copies.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, why would it? That’s not an actual rule. There was just some dude in the, I believe it was 18th, century who didn’t like it and pushed the idea that sentences shouldn’t end with prepositions.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
It’s not so much secretly as it just doesn’t come up in conversation very much, you know? Limiting myself to book characters: Aragorn, Gilbert Blythe, Verity Price, Conway Costigan, and Elminster. That’s a weird list. I worry about me sometimes.
4a) What fictional character would you most like to be?
I can’t think of one. Every one that comes to mind, the downsides to being them make them unappealing.
4b) What fictional character do you think most resembles you?
Hermione Granger, overbearing know-it-all, that’s me!
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Either Little Town on the Prairie or These Happy Golden Years.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Treasure Island, I think.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
One that was about how to make $14,000 a month as a Kindle author that advocated techniques that were just this side of plagiarism.
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Oath of the Brotherhood by C. E. Laureano. It’s a Christian fantasy, which is a sub-genre I’d never read before. I’ll be looking for more though because it was nice to have a fantasy that wasn’t trying to show how “mature” the genre could be through gratuitous and overdone fight and sex scenes.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Well, I’m not tagging anyone, but if I could I’d force everyone to read Jake’s Last Mission. Because I’m mercenary like that. 🙂
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Fucked if I know. Mira Grant deserves the Hugo for best novel though, I know that.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Discount Armageddon
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Q-Squared, because I don’t think the actors could convincingly play ST: TNG first season versions of themselves any more.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don’t remember the details, but after reading Game of Thrones for several hours one night, I checked Facebook and then fell asleep. Bits of stuff from my Facebook friends’ lives and what was going on in the book combined.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Uhmmm, errr . . . this goes no further, okay? I, uhmm, well, the thing is . . . IrereadsomeofmyfavoriteBabySitters’Clubb
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I tried to read Finnegan’s Wake once. The most difficult one that I’ve finished was one I was obligated to read for reasons I don’t feel like getting into that was so horribly edited it literally gave me a headache at times trying to figure out what was meant.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
Othello. I know, really obscure, huh?
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Never read either.
18) Roth or Updike?
Can’t recall having read either, thought I’m pretty sure I at least was supposed to read something by Updike once.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris seems overrated to me, never heard of the other guy.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Neither.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I’ve never read a whole novel by Asimov, Clarke, or Bradbury. Disgraceful for an sf author, isn’t it?
23) What is your favorite novel?
I’ll give you the top ten. Time Enough For Love, The Hobbit, Imzadi, Little Women, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, Anne of Green Gables, Discount Armageddon, Stolen Time (though it’s probably unfair to count this one since I DID GM the rpg sessions it was very loosely based on . . .), and Wyrd Sisters.
24) Play?
The Odd Couple
25) Poem?
Three way tie: “Female of the Species” by Kipling, “The Quitter” by Robert Service, and “The Men Who Don’t Fit In”, also by Service.
26) Essay?
The one in Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury that has this line: “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” If I pick up the book to find out what that one’s called, I’ll end up reading the book instead of finishing this.
27) Short story?
A tie between “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Elminster at the Mage Fair” by Ed Greenwood. Yes, weird combo, I know.
28) Work of non-fiction?
Delta Force by Col. Charles Beckwith, though this may be replaced by Lords of the Sky by Dan Hampton if it stays as good as it’s been so far.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
How about the top five? Heinlein, Pratchett, Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Ed Greenwood.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer
31) What is your desert island book?
I’m going to be pragmatic here and say a book on how to survive on a desert island. 🙂
32) And … what are you reading right now?
Experiment by Cyma Rizwaan Khan, The Remnant by Paul B. Spence, Flint by Louis L’Amour, Lords of the Sky by Dan Hampton, Evermeet by Elaine Cunningham, Blazon by Kenneth Bulmer, The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip, Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery, Star Rangers by Andre Norton, and Heroes of Zara Keep by Guy Gregory. I have a system now that keeps the number of books I’m reading at once limited to ten. Yes, it was really necessary for me to work one out. I don’t understand this “reading one book at a time” thing I’ve heard of people doing.
