Another book meme

[dolorosa_12]

This one I stole from cherith.


1. Which author do you own the most books by? Philip Pullman, Sara Douglass, John Marsden or Steven Saylor. I read a lot of genre fiction, which means I read a lot of series, which means that to answer this question I simply need to figure out which authors have written the longest (or most) series.

2. Which book do you own the most copies of? None. I don't like doubling up with books.

3. Which fictional character are you secretly in love with? It's no secret that I am desperately in love with Pagan from Catherine Jinks's Pagan Chronicles series.

4. Which book have you read more than any other? A toss up between Pagan's Vows (the third and, in my opinion, best, book in the Pagan Chronicles) and Northern Lights or The Tiger In The Well by Philip Pullman.

5. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? Of Nightingales That Weep by Katherine Paterson.

6. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? Probably Iron Angel by Alan Campbell.

7. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? If comics count, Watchmen by Alan Moore. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman has been the best novel.

8. If you could tell everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be? Either The Beast of Heaven by Victor Kelleher, or, if series are allowed, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

9. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? In terms how difficult I found it to read at the time of reading, probably Olive Schreiner's The Story of An African Farm. Mainly because I was reading it for a pre-Honours literature class in second-year uni, and knew that I had to write an essay about how the book's characters embodied different ways of looking at the concept of a literary canon, which to my 19-year-old brain was an incredibly difficult task.

10. Do you prefer the French or the Russians? I assume this means 19th-century literature, and since I've not read any of the French authors, I'll have to say the Russians.

11. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer? I could never choose here. I adore all three of these authors, but Shakespeare probably has a special place in my heart, since it was in a Year 10 English essay on Macbeth that I first felt, 'wow, so this is how you write a literature essay.' Then again, the medievalists on my f-list will probably shoot me for not saying Chaucer, and I feel guilty about not saying Milton, since my beloved Pullman draws many of his themes from Paradise Lost. Oh well.

12. Austen or Eliot? I'm not making any choice here.

13. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? Modern and postmodern literary fiction.

14. What is your favorite novel? Northern Lights. Closely followed by The Beast of Heaven, American Gods and Pagan's Vows.

15. Play? I feel stupid listing only Shakespeare or Shakespeare-related plays, but my favourites are Macbeth, The Tempest (as performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company) and Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

16. Poem? papersky's poem "Nine Things About Oracles" and the poetry in Buile Shuibhne.

17. Essay?I'm quite partial to John Carey's essay "The Baptism of the Gods".

18. Short Story? Neil Gaiman's story "How To Talk To Girls At Parties", and some of Cory Doctorow's short fiction.

19. Non Fiction? The Wisdom of the Outlaw by Joseph Falaky Nagy and the works of Norman Davies and Alison Weir.

20. Graphic Novel? I've only read two and a bit graphic novels, and they're all my favourite: Watchmen by Alan Moore, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, and Maus by Art Spiegelman.

21. Science Fiction? Anything by Victor Kelleher. I'm quite partial to The Beast of Heaven, Parkland, Earthsong and Fire Dancer. I find them chilling.

22. Who is your favorite writer? In terms of having a profound effect on me and my life, Philip Pullman. In terms of being a human being worthy of my undying love and respect, Neil Gaiman.

23. Who is the most over rated writer alive today? If this were about a living or dead author, I'd say John Steinbeck or Mark Twain. I don't read a lot of contemporary literary fiction, so I'm going to have to think of a genre fiction writer who is respected whose work I dislike...Stephenie Meyer, Christopher Paolini and Cassandra Clare struck me as being fish in a barrel, and in any case, 'popular but disliked by me' is not the same as 'overrated'. The same thing applies to Candace Bushnell. The problem is that I very rarely read books I don't like, except as part of my job as a book reviewer, and usually the disliked review books are not by well-known authors. I'm a cautious reader, and will tend to read about books before trying them, to make sure that they're something I'll like. Thus, I know I dislike epic fantasy, so, for the most part I avoid it.

24. What are you reading right now? I just finished Terry Pratchett's Death trilogy (Mort, Reaper Man and Soul Music and am about to start The Millstone by Margaret Drabble.

25. Best Memoir? I don't read many memoirs, but I remember enjoying Amos Oz's memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness.

26. Best History? I assume this means historical fiction, which for me is anything by Sharon Penman.

27. Best mystery or Noir? My favourite mystery author (the only mystery author whose books I read) is Steven Saylor, author of the Roma Sub Rosa series.

Comments

[catherine-clare.livejournal.com]

I might steal this from you!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Go for it!

[catpuccino.livejournal.com]

In response to #23, hands down Dan Brown. If you can call him a writer at all. He is in that words of his got published, he is not in that it is all spew spew spew.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking Dan Brown, but I rate him as a 'writer' along the lines of Meyer or Paolini. That is, someone who is popular but untalented. What I was trying to think of was an author who is considered talented, but whose works I can't stand. No living author occurred to me.