(Stolen from Sophie’s World)
Well, here’s another literary meme. No other introductions necessary. Here goes:
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Probably Poul Anderson. It’s possible I own more of someone else’s books, but I doubt it.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Either 1984 by George Orwell or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Not sure why the last one, as that’s not really one of my favorites, but I have this thing for collecting multiple versions of the same classic. Or I did, anyway.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really. I tend to not let things bother me much anymore. It makes life easier. Except for annoying people and the Republican Party (right now, anyway).
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
I do quite like Pepper from Tobias Buckell’s work (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose), though, but there’s no love there.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
1984 by George Orwell. I think I’ve read it five times. I can’t remember, though. I used to read it once a year, but I stopped that.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I have no clue. I don’t remember being ten years old. I have terrible memory.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
It would have to be The First Mother’s Fire by W. L. Hoffman. Could get past the first chapter, to be honest. The cover art was impressive though…
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Since this doesn’t designate publishing date, I can actually point to books that were written before 2008 that I read last year and loved. The best one? I think Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery takes the cake, although there were a lot of amazing books last year that I read, including Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell, The Golden Cord by Paul Genesse, Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale, and much more!
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I’m not sure. I don’t like forcing people to read books. I’m fond of The House of the Stag by Kage Baker right now, so I’d probably implore people to check that out.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Not someone who wrote a bunch of boring books that nobody read. I don’t know who should win, though. Whoever it is, it should be an American, because the bastards at the Nobel committee are openly biased. Maybe Thomas Pynchon?
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
If you could turn a Tobias S. Buckell book into a movie, I’d be happy with that. I think Ragamuffin or Sly Mongoose would translate best, to be honest. Crystal Rain is good, but I don’t think Hollywood movie-goers are smart enough to figure out that it’s actually a science fiction book set in a fantasy-ish setting.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Anything by some author who has been dead for over a hundred years unless it’s Homer, or the folks who wrote Gilgamesh. I’m sick and tired of Jane Austen and yadda yadda. It’s old and overdone.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
The weirdest dream I can remember involved zombies, but that has nothing to do with a writer, book, or literary character, since I get most of my zombie inspiration from the movies. Still, the dreams are usually vivid right up until I wake up, and I always wake sweating and terrified, because it’s pretty intense in those zombie dreams. Oh, and I always end up leading mankind against the zombie armies and I assume we win…
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Although, to be fair, that’s not really a lowbrow book, per se.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I’m assuming this means a book that I liked enough to finish it. I’m not sure, to be honest. Looking back, I have to say A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess was one of the most difficult books I have ever read. It was interesting, but difficult.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I’ve never seen a Shakespeare play.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The Russians. Sorry to anyone who is French, but croissants aren’t enough to make you better than the French.
18) Roth or Updike?
Haven’t read either, so I’m going to stay out of it.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Same as above.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Milton. I can’t understand Chaucer and Shakespeare is way overdone.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Eliot, but I’m kind of tired of Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I don’t know if I have an embarrassing gap. I don’t read romance novels, mostly, particularly Harlequin romance. I guess the biggest gap that might be construed as embarrassing, or that I should be embarrassed about, is that I am not well read in the classics. That’s mostly because I really don’t like most of the classics. This has a lot to do with having the stuff crammed down my throat in high school.
23) What is your favorite novel?
1984 by George Orwell
24) Play?
Andorra by Max Frisch
25) Poem?
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
26) Essay?
Right now I’m really fond of “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race” by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.
27) Short story?
Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson
28) Work of nonfiction?
I have no idea.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
This implies that I’ve read multiple novels by the same author. Right now it’s Tobias S. Buckell, but I am also fond of Karen Miller and Richard A. Knaak, among others.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Salman Rushdie. He’s not that good. Sorry. He has no idea how to edit himself. He just rambles on and on and on on crap that really doesn’t matter.
31) What is your desert island book?
What’s the biggest book ever written that is technically a fantasy or science fiction book that also happens to be good? Because if I’m going to be stuck on a desert island I’m going to want to have something that is actually big enough to keep me entertained for a long time.
32) And… what are you reading right now?
House of the Stag by Kage Baker, The Book of Secrets by M. G. Vassanji, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Encountering the Other by multiple authors, and a heck of a lot of others.
And there you go. Anyone who wants to do this is welcome to steal it!
