So, I got tagged like three months ago to do this. I have wanted to, but haven't had the time. You may want to skip over this post if you are anything but a huge nerd.
1. What is one of your favorite genres? Historical fiction (going to copy Kiersten)
2. What is your least favorite genre? Romance (again copying Kiersten)
3. What is your all-time favorite book? Benito Cereno
4. What is the first book you remember reading? The Enchanted Forest series, The Redwall Series
5. Do you prefer books or audio books? Books.
6. Who are your favorite authors? I love Herman Meleville, Pablo Neruda, Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Stoppard, and Nathaniel Hawthorne...to name just a few.
7. How many books do you read in a year? Um. About that. I definitely fall way behind Kiersten here (she said 75!!!!) I would go with maybe. ahem. six or so.... I have kids, OK?!
8. Do you buy books or borrow them from the library? I do go to the Library, but there is nothing better than cracking open that beautiful untouched binding in a new book. Delicious.
9. How many books do you own? LOTS. As a lit major I had to buy a ton, and I don't like to sell them back. I also have quite a few anthologies that I love.
10. What is your most prized book? Most of my books are pretty trashed, but I have the complete collection on "The Far Side," which I LOVE, and have read cover to cover. Not exactly literature, but those books weigh more than Reid!
11. What are the worst books you have ever read (or tried to read)? Beloved by Toni Morrison. She is a great writer, but it was really difficult for me to get through. Snow Falling on Cedars was also a hard one for me. Again, great writer and a great story, but there was a LOT of unnecessary sex in it. I also read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown which I hated because although he is a good story teller his writing is frustratingly unremerkable. I know there are a ton more I was forced to read in college, but they escape me at the moment...
12. Have you read any modern day sequels you liked? I don't know if this is what the question is asking, but there is an amazing play I read by Tom Stoppard called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead which is kind of a shoot off from Hamlet.
13. What is your favorite quote from a book? I love this question, but I don't know if I can pick my very favorite. There is an entire chapter in Moby Dick that almost made me cry because the writing was unbelievable (I know, I know), but that would take up 4,000 pages of blog space so I am going to go with; "I'm your enemy; I'm also your friend. I'm a danger to mankind; I'm also your guest. I'm a particle; I'm also a wave. We have one set of obligations to the world in general, and we have other sets, never to be reconciled, to our fellow-countymen, to our neighbours, to our friends, to our family, to our children. We have to go through not two slits at a time but twenty-two. All we can do is to look afterwards, and see what happened." From Copenhagen by Michale Frayn. This is actually a play that I read, and there is a great stage version of it that stars none other than a young Daniel Craig. It's excellent.
14. Who is your all-time favorite male character? Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities. ( I have to agree with Kiersten)
15. Who is your all-time favorite female character? Sara from The French Lieutenant's Woman
16. What highly recommended book have you not liked? Again, Angels and Demons came highly recommended, and it stunk.
17. A character you love to hate? Heathcliff from Wuthuring Heights.
18. Do you belong to a book club? No, sadly.
19. What was the last book you purchased? A biography about George Washington
20. What are you reading now? Elizabeth: the fight for the Throne, by David Starkey and Satanic verses by Salman Rushdie.
21. What book made you cry the hardest? I'm not really a crier, but I cried quite a bit in a play I read called Master Harold...and the boys.
22. What book made you laugh the most? Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
23. What is your favorite children's book (one you would choose to read to your kids)? Anything by C.S. Lewis. Charolett's web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
24. If you were to choose a book to give as a gift, what would it be? The Complete works of William Shakespeare, but only to a dorky English major. Maybe this would be a great gift to myself. Are you reading this, Nate?
25. List 5 books you have read more than once: A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby, Copenhagen (technically a play, but I read it like a book), Hamlet (also a play, but I have read Hamlet maybe 12 times. Seriously.), Benito Cereno, The Faerie Queene (I guess this is actually a really, really long poem, but it's absolutely beautiful).
26. What is your favorite book made into a movie? I can't really think of one....
27. Did you like the book or movie better? ...but definitely the book.
28. What book would you like to see made into a movie? What to expect when you're expecting. It would be an Oscar winner for sure.
29. Do you prefer hardcover or softcopy? I like softcopies because I like to read on my back and hold my book up in the air, and hardcopies are just too heavy for that.
30. Do you leave the dustcover on while you are reading a book? Never. They drive me nuts.
31. Where do you usually read? On the couch.
32. When do you usually read? At night when both boys are in bed, or on vaccation when I have lots of family to entertain my kiddos!
33. Do you keep a TBR (to-be-read) list? Just in my head. There are so many classics, and so little time!
34. Do you usually have more than one book that you are reading at a time? I do right now, but not usually because I get so involved with a book that I have to know what happens as soon as possible. When Reid used to take naps, and I didn't have Link, I remember I read 1984 in like 2 days.
35. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? I went to a school that liked to develop your natural talents, and I loved to read, so they let me do a lot of that. Also, my grandpa andI used to read books together all the time. We would each take a turn reading a chapter.
36. Who do you tag? This tag isn't for everyone, so I will say anyone that wants to do it!
2 comments:
From one English major nerd to another: I believe question 12 is specifically referring to Twilight.
I just added about 15 books to my "To read" list on Goodreads. You have such amazing, sophisticated taste in books! I'm even going to give Herman Melville another try, since he's one of your favorites. Hopefully I've grown up a bit since I had to read Billy Budd in 11th grade English! Also, What to Expect When You're Expecting...brilliant.
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