A different book meme...
Feb. 22nd, 2009 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatBook meme (caught from
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Book meme (caught from <lj-user="petzipellepingo"):
...
<lj-cut text="19 Question Book Meme...why 19 questions, no idea.">
1) Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
Hard to say. So many are in Hilton Head. If I count Hilton Head and the books from my childhood which my mother kept? I'd say the Laura Ingells Wilder and EB White Childrens books.
In my own house?? I honestly don't know.
2) What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
Last read: Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. current read : Telling Lies by Jennifer Crusie (horrid book, I keep wanting to slap the heroine, so don't recommend) and the book you'll read next will be either : The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Nifeenegger or Gods Behaving Badly - which Wales is reading and promised to loan to me.
3) What book did everyone like and you hated?
Atonement by Ian McEwan
4) Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
Canupos in Argus by Doris Lessing
5) Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
See above
6) Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I do both. Actually I will often read the last page, first page, and the middle before purchasing a book. If the last page makes it clear what the story is about and I can figure everything out, and spoils it all - I don't get the book. A bad writer is one who writes a last page that makes it unnecessary to read the entire book first. A great writer is one who writes a last page that either intrigues you to know how they got there or doesn't reveal a thing.
7) Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
Waste of ink. I really could care less. I only read them for books that clearly had research involved - such as Andromeda Strain by Michael Crighton or Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
8) Which book character would you switch places with?
I tend to read books that have lots of painful events in them, so really no one. I'm trying to think of one, but mind is drawing a blank.
9) Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Not really.
10) Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
Drawing a blank.
11) Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Not really.
12) Which book has been with you to the most places?
Uhhh....again drawing a blank. I tend to travel with books most of the time, but there are too many to count.
13) Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
The Great Gatsby - hated in high school, can't forget it now and it resonates.
14) What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
Tend to buy new ones, so not an issue.
15) Used or brand new?
Brand new. Allergic to mold spores and dust = enuf said.
16) Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Probably a bit of both, some of his work is fabulous but others... not so much.
Depends on the era. Early King - Carrie, Misery, Salems Lot, Different Seasons - was great stuff. Late King is in desperate need of a good editor.
17) Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
The 1992 version of The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper's book is largely unreadable IMO. (stold from petzi - who is right about that. I've read Cooper's book and while it's readable, it requires massive degrees of effort. I have no idea how Lauren Groff read so much of Fenimore Cooper for Monsters of Templeton. I could barely make it through Last of the Mohicans. I remember having a funky discussion with my brother - who hated Last of the Mohicans - the film version - because he found it to be racist. I told him, uh, it's actually pretty tame in comparison to the book. LOL!)
The other films include: Atonement, most of Shakespear's plays (which work better performed than read anyhow), The Godfather (haven't been able to get into the book), Gone With the Wind (another book I couldn't make it through). The Big Sleep. The Maltese Falcon...
18) Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Too many to count, I'm certain. Off the top of my head? I'd say maybe the Golden Compass by Philip K. Pullman - which was a bit too complicated for film to reproduce well. Complicated books are hard to translate to cinema. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milun Kundera is another example of this problem.
19) Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
I often trust my parents - silly as it sounds - because we share similar tastes. And they both have training in book analysis. And to a degree my lj correspondence list. Keeping in mind my taste will differ. Also to a degree get suggestions from Wales. I'm a moody reader though - so more often than not the book someone else recommends will leave me cold. My parents thrust Da Vinci Code on me one Xmas so my trust in their taste has wavered. </lj-cut>
...
<lj-cut text="19 Question Book Meme...why 19 questions, no idea.">
1) Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
Hard to say. So many are in Hilton Head. If I count Hilton Head and the books from my childhood which my mother kept? I'd say the Laura Ingells Wilder and EB White Childrens books.
In my own house?? I honestly don't know.
2) What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
Last read: Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. current read : Telling Lies by Jennifer Crusie (horrid book, I keep wanting to slap the heroine, so don't recommend) and the book you'll read next will be either : The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Nifeenegger or Gods Behaving Badly - which Wales is reading and promised to loan to me.
3) What book did everyone like and you hated?
Atonement by Ian McEwan
4) Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
Canupos in Argus by Doris Lessing
5) Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
See above
6) Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I do both. Actually I will often read the last page, first page, and the middle before purchasing a book. If the last page makes it clear what the story is about and I can figure everything out, and spoils it all - I don't get the book. A bad writer is one who writes a last page that makes it unnecessary to read the entire book first. A great writer is one who writes a last page that either intrigues you to know how they got there or doesn't reveal a thing.
7) Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
Waste of ink. I really could care less. I only read them for books that clearly had research involved - such as Andromeda Strain by Michael Crighton or Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
8) Which book character would you switch places with?
I tend to read books that have lots of painful events in them, so really no one. I'm trying to think of one, but mind is drawing a blank.
9) Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Not really.
10) Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
Drawing a blank.
11) Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Not really.
12) Which book has been with you to the most places?
Uhhh....again drawing a blank. I tend to travel with books most of the time, but there are too many to count.
13) Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
The Great Gatsby - hated in high school, can't forget it now and it resonates.
14) What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
Tend to buy new ones, so not an issue.
15) Used or brand new?
Brand new. Allergic to mold spores and dust = enuf said.
16) Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Probably a bit of both, some of his work is fabulous but others... not so much.
Depends on the era. Early King - Carrie, Misery, Salems Lot, Different Seasons - was great stuff. Late King is in desperate need of a good editor.
17) Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
The 1992 version of The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper's book is largely unreadable IMO. (stold from petzi - who is right about that. I've read Cooper's book and while it's readable, it requires massive degrees of effort. I have no idea how Lauren Groff read so much of Fenimore Cooper for Monsters of Templeton. I could barely make it through Last of the Mohicans. I remember having a funky discussion with my brother - who hated Last of the Mohicans - the film version - because he found it to be racist. I told him, uh, it's actually pretty tame in comparison to the book. LOL!)
The other films include: Atonement, most of Shakespear's plays (which work better performed than read anyhow), The Godfather (haven't been able to get into the book), Gone With the Wind (another book I couldn't make it through). The Big Sleep. The Maltese Falcon...
18) Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Too many to count, I'm certain. Off the top of my head? I'd say maybe the Golden Compass by Philip K. Pullman - which was a bit too complicated for film to reproduce well. Complicated books are hard to translate to cinema. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milun Kundera is another example of this problem.
19) Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
I often trust my parents - silly as it sounds - because we share similar tastes. And they both have training in book analysis. And to a degree my lj correspondence list. Keeping in mind my taste will differ. Also to a degree get suggestions from Wales. I'm a moody reader though - so more often than not the book someone else recommends will leave me cold. My parents thrust Da Vinci Code on me one Xmas so my trust in their taste has wavered. </lj-cut>
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 10:03 pm (UTC)Not only is it racist, which it would be considering when it was written, but it's so turgid. Which is why Mark Twain (http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html) made famous fun of Cooper.
I have no idea how Lauren Groff read so much of Fenimore Cooper for Monsters of Templeton.
And Sara Donati used Cooper's The Pioneers as the basis of her Wilderness series which also amazes me.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 03:15 am (UTC)Sometimes I think, Art really is just a matter of subjective taste.