Stolen from Fatcat (on vox) and first posted on the Miao Brothers' Vox.
1.) Which author do you have the most books by? Marion Zimmer Bradley. My mother gave her entire MZB collection to me. Otherwise maybe P.G. Wodehouse or Rex Stout, but those books are technically my father's though I borrow them often.
2.) What book do you have the most copies of? One of each, more or less.
3.) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? What comes to mind first is Professor Radcliffe Emerson of Elizabeth Peters' Egypt series.
4.) What book have you read more than any other? Hard to say. Probably any of the Ramona books. I read those a lot when I was little.
5.) What was your favorite book when you were ten? Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. I re-read that one a lot too. I loved and still love A Little Princess and Secret Garden. The Little House on the Prairie and all the other Laura Ingalls Wilder books were/are some of my absolute favorites.
6.) What is the worst book you've read in the past year? A couple disappointing young adult novels that I won't bother to mention. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon on audio book (another case where I chose the book because of its length and not much else - maybe I should have read reviews).
7.) What is the best book you've read in the past year? Like Fatcat, I'm having a hard time picking one. I began reading Sandman this year and I love it immensely. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett was marvelous. I just finished Upon the Head of the Goat by Aranka Siegal - I'll call it a haunting memoir of ww2 Hungary because it has haunted me ever since I finished it.
8.) If you could tell everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Another hard question. I feel guilty if I recommend a book to someone and they don't like it. And I'm not quite sure there's a single book everyone should read. Except maybe this one:
9.) What is the most difficult book you've ever read? Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian. I read it in Chinese. He got the Nobel prize in literature a few years ago and I made the mistake of thinking that made it worthwhile. Maybe I ought to re-read it and give it another chance. It was difficult because it was pointlessly and deliberately frustrating.
10.) Do you prefer the French or the Russians? No preference, really. But I guess I read more French authors than Russian ones. Russian books are so daunting in length...
11.) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare
12.) Austen or Eliot? Austen
13.) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? I claim to love Shakespeare but I still haven't read all of his plays or sonnets. I haven't read much poetry. I should read more Chinese language literature - I haven't read much for at least a couple years now. I don't have much of a selection available, and I'm just not in the habit any more.
14.) What is your favorite novel? Impossible to answer, but for now let's say Little Sister by Kara Dalkey. And always, Dream of the Red Chambers by Cao Xueqin.
15.) Play? I would be lying if I said that I liked Hamlet more than A Midsummer Night's Dream, but it wouldn't be a very big lie.
16.) Poem? Like I mentioned, I don't read much poetry. This is something I'm working to remedy.
17.) Essay? Um, "Of cannibals" by Montaigne? Maybe.
18.) Short story? Not sure. I'm reading and sort of enjoying Saki's short stories right now, but I wouldn't call any of them favorites. Lu Xun, perhaps the greatest Chinese writer of the 20th century, wrote many short stories. It has been a few years since I read any, but "A Madman's Diary" stuck with me (it has a cannibalistic theme).
19.) Non-fiction? Walden.
20.) Graphic novel? I just began Sandman. In fact, I've spent most of the day reading Vol. 4 rather than studying.
21.) Science Fiction? Not sure. I do read sci-fi, though sometimes I'm unclear on the line between sci-fi and fantasy. And my italics won't unitalicize themselves.
22.) Who is your favorite writer? Shakespeare.
23.) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Not sure.
24.) What are you reading right now? Saki's short stories. Sandman Vol 4. How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, which I began months ago but can't stand. I still intend to finish it, though. I'm also reading Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings.
25.) Best memoir? I just finished Upon the Head of the Goat by Aranka Siegal, a memoir of her childhood as a Jewish girl in wartime Hungary. Very haunting.
26.) Best history? The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling the Smallpox Epidemic by Jennifer Lee Carrell. Very thoroughly reasearched, but written like a medical thriller. Anything by Jonathan Spence. esp., The Death of Woman Wang.
27.) Best mystery or noir? Nero Wolfe.
28.) Best romance? I don't usually read or like romances, or maybe my idea of a romance is too restrictive.
No comments:
Post a Comment