1) What author do you own the most books by? Probably either David Baldacci or Tom Clancy... I'm at work so I can't count them.
2) What book do you own the most copies of? I used to own 2 copies of Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone and 2 copies of Twilight, but I think I gave the paperbacks away...
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Unfortunately, yes.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Currently, Dide the Jongleur from the Witches of Eileanan series... That is subject to change by whatever I read next.
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)? Probably Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? I didn't really much like books when I was younger... I don't know if I was 10, but the first chapter book that I connected with was Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year? Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn (She was compared to Jane Austin on the back cover, but she actually writes historical romance novels... which I figured out later. Officially NOT recommended.)
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year? Brisingr by Christopher Paolini is very high on my list.
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? I don't think I would ever want to force anyone to read anything... but I can say that A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of the few books I've read where I was a different person when I finished. Great book! You will need this if you read it.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature? Paolo Cuehlo, author of The Alchemist, another book that everyone should read.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie? A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson would make a great movie I think, but honestly books don't really need to be movies...
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie? A lot of books should never be movies. Just how it is...
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character. I really have too many to describe just one. If I'm really involved in a book or series, everything about my life kind of revolves around what I'm reading. Harry Potter, Eileanan, Twilight... I think I've had at least one dream about every fiction book I've ever read.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult? See #7.
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read? All for different reasons, but probably a close tie between Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser which I hated, Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis which I didn't finish, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou which I liked the second time.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? I can't say I've seen any that fall into the category of obscure... but I have seen a lot.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians? They both have amazing accents...
18) Roth or Updike? I've never read Philip Roth nor John Updike, but I know about their works and am not really jazzed about reading either of them.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Not read either, but want to read some of Eggers' stuff.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare a solid first, then Milton. Chauser if I'm in the mood to laugh and/or get disgusted.
21) Austen or Eliot? I've never read Jane Austen (*GASP*) but I love Jane Austen's works. I found T.S. Eliot's Wasteland really depressing, and have never read George Eliot's (Mary Anne Evans) works.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but they're next on my list.
23) What is your favorite novel? This is an impossible question to answer for anyone really. It depends on the genre, the day, the mood, the weather, where I'm living, what I'm eating, what I've read most recently... so many factors. Dumb question (same with #24-29). If I was, however, to pick one that will always be a favorite that I could read over and over, the Harry Potter books take the prize.
24) Play? Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing or Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
25) Poem? Wilfred Owen's war poems
26) Essay? Emerson's Nature
27) Short story? Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (technically a novella... but meh...)
28) Work of nonfiction? Elie Wiesel's Night
29) Who is your favorite writer? The bulk of #23 applies to this question as well.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Uh, frankly, almost every celebrity-turned-author and many others.
31) What is your desert island book? Singular - not gonna happen. I don't think I could survive with only one book...
32) Who is your favorite critic or scholar? Myself or close friends and family. I rarely trust the judgement of people who get paid to determine the quality of a book. Quality is greatly determined by the reader as an individual. One person cannot determine by themselves how good a book is for all people.
33) Who is your favorite philosopher? I love the classical philosophers, but I also love Emerson and C.S. Lewis.
34) Who is your favorite public intellectual? Meh... smart people are smart, celebrities or otherwise.
35) And... what are you reading right now? I just finished the Wiches of Eileanan series by Kate Forsyth and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. I'm taking a short break before I plow into Tolkien!
8 hours ago
