Friday 19 November 2010

I read therefore I meme

Library in Wimpole Hall
Donna over at Misfit in Paradise has sort of nominated me for joining a meme about reading. And of course I can't resist a challenge, so I will try to do my best on this one! Join if you like, but no hard feelings if you don't!

1. What author do you own the most books by?
That would be Mr van Wijckmade, although it's a bit tricky. He wrote books for children in Dutch, but one day he decided to stop. The publisher thought that was a shame and hired another writer, who took over his last name and added his initial to the original author's name. This happened several times. I've got about 30 books by his (their) hand.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Two of Persuasion, two Pride and Prejudice and two Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Although that last isn't really correct. I actually own one book and one book-on-tape

3. Does it bother you that those questions finished with a preposition?
Yes it does actually. As soon as I look the word preposition up that is. Okay, I've looked it up and I change my answer: no it doesn't!

Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester, what's not to love?
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret anymore! But if you really want to know: Mr Darcy and Mr Rochester are top of the list. And Landon Park-Laine sounds good as well.

5. What book have you read the most times?
Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Billy London's girls.

6. What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?
Enid Blyton's series about Mallory Towers. I wanted to go to boarding school as well, but my parents wouldn't let me (spoilsports).

7. What is the worst book you've read in the last year?
Why would I want to read a book I don't like?

8. What is the best book you've read in the last year?
City of Thieves by David Benioff

9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
If you have to force someone to read, they will not enjoy it in the first place, so no forcing anything on anyone!

10. Who deserves the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I think the Brothers Grimm should get one posthumously. They have doublehandedly put children's stories in the public's eye!

11. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I started it in 1993 and have yet to finish. It is so teeeeeeeedious!

12. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Eehm, do you want me to sound very cultured or very honest? Going with the first, it's a toss-up. Going with the second: I don't think I've ever read a French writer. I've never read a Russian either, but I have read an Estonian which is the next best thing in that case. Ooh, and David Benioff (question 8) is of Russian descent.

13. Roth or Updike?
Well, unless David Lee Roth has suddenly started writing books, I don't know either of them.

14. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Again, who?

15. What is the most embarrassing gap in your reading?
By the sound of the previous two questions it might have to be Roth, Updike, Sedaris and Egger. (Cringe)

16. What is your favourite novel?
Yeah, right, one? Who are you kidding? Here's a list with all my favourites!

17. What is your favourite play?
'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde. It's funny and it's romantic! What more do you want?

18. What is your favourite short story?
Short stories annoy the *** out of me! But there is one story by Roald Dahl that sticks in my mind: Birth and Fate, which is about the birth of Adolf Hitler to a loving mother who is worried about her new baby boy.

19. What is your favourite work of non-fiction?
Cookbooks, especially about desserts. Yum!

22. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I would like to say Charles Dickens, but he's not alive anymore. So, I don't know...

21. What is your desert island book?
Surviving on a Desert Island for Dummies

22. What are you reading now?
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum and Thief of Time by John Boyne.

And if you want my guilty pleasure: Mills and Boon, especially the Christmas stories!

5 comments:

  1. You're a good sport to do a meme like this. I would probably tell the perpetrator to go pound salt. :)

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  2. The Thief of Time is on my reading list! What a great meme...although like you I'd better study numbers 12-14!

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  3. Wow, Mara, this is very weird. I've never finished David Copperfield, either, and was just thinking about that fact yesterday.
    I also love Persuasion, and Pride and Prejudice. I read Pride and Prejudice every year or two for fun.
    I tried to read Tolstoy (in English) and couldn't. I've read some Jean Paul Sartre, but only because I had to.
    I don't particularly care for John Updike and I don't know Roth. Phillip Roth, maybe?
    Never heard of Sedaris or Eggers, either.
    And I love "The Importance of being Earnest" (or "Ernest" -- I can never remember which spelling).
    Don't like short stories, either. People are always sending me compendiums of short stories by my favorite mystery novelists, so I read them, because they are gifts, but I wouldn't buy them.
    SO many things in common. That's probably why you said you thought you'd known me longer than a year. LOL
    Luv, K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  4. I enjoyed reading your answers. I couldn't have answered any of them!
    I don't read often and they are always romance novels. (clean ones)

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  5. AC - I just asked that people play along if they wanted to!
    Mara - Thanks for doing it. And I'm thrilled to see that I am not the only one who doesn't like short stories.

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!