2k14 and still in love with books
Let’s start the new year with this interesting book meme I found here. I wanted to answer all the questions so here goes:
A to Z SURVEY
Author You’ve Read The Most Books From
Best Sequel Ever
Currently Reading
Drink of Choice While Reading
E-reader or Physical Book?
Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School
Glad You Gave This Book A Chance
Hidden Gem Book
Important Moment in your Reading Life
Just Finished
Kinds of Books You Won’t Read
Longest Book You’ve Read
Major book hangover because of
Number of Bookcases You Own
One Book You Have Read Multiple Times
Preferred Place To Read
Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read
Reading Regret
Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series)
Three of your All-Time Favorite Books
Unapologetic Fangirl For
Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others
Worst Bookish Habit
X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book
Your latest book purchase
ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late)
Author you’ve read the most books from:
RL Stine. I have a bunch of Goosebumps leftover from my childhood that I’ve been meaning to give away to younger cousins. When that happens, it’s probably Rex Stout - I’ve read 13 of his 48 Nero Wolfe novels ever since I discovered him around 2 years ago and I don’t plan to stop!
Here's a pretty cool podcast interview with RL Stine, discussing his Goosebumps methods!
Best Sequel Ever:
Clouds of Witness, Dorothy L Sayers. I read the second Wimsey book before Whose Body? and promptly fell in love with the goofy, dashing Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur detective, and I haven’t stopped since. I’m having intense OTP feelings about Strong Poison which I read for the first time last month!
Currently Reading:
I’m in between books! After the theology-heavy The Name of the Rose, I want something lighter… and that usually means a nice, good detective story for me. I'm trying out Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon but it's kinda hard? His style is just not working with me, idk why since I liked his The Thin Man last year.
Drink of Choice While Reading:
Coffee, and then a lot of water, as I can only drink coffee once a day.
E-reader or Physical Book?
Nothing beats the weight of a beloved book in your hand, old or new, cracked spine and dog-eared pages with scribbled dedications, or pristine and pure and untouched. But e-readers are great too, for traveling and for out-of print books. /wise nod
Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:
That’s easy, seeing as I had a huge embarrassing teenage crush on Sirius Black, of all people, with his bad boy looks and long hair and a cool-ass motorcycle, are you kidding me? He’s like the stuff teenage dreams are made of. (I wrote really bad self-insert fanfiction, which I never posted online thank God)
Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. I was actually going to buy Never Let Me Go but it was out-of-stock, and the seller suggested his other books. I’m glad I chose this one, with its intimate look on a butler’s life in post-war England. It’s heart-breaking and the ending makes me want to cry again ugh.
Hidden Gem Book:
What is this, like Temple Run? Hmm, Diaspora Ad Astra, an anthology of Filipino science fiction, comes to mind. Not every story is good, some are like Dead Space fanfiction and others would benefit from more world-building and editing maybe, but The Cost of Living was pretty good, and Lucky and Space Enough and Time.
Important Moment in your Reading Life:
Sitting out of playing “football” for recess in fourth grade because I'd rather finish the Prisoner of Azkaban ('twas then that I realized that I would never have a life ever)
Hiding a copy of Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow that I got from the library as a fourteen year old who likes Japan from my mother, because although the cover won't suggest it, a few minutes of skimming through would lead to some scenes which she wouldn't deem appropriate for my age. She had previously seen a Jude Devereaux book my best friend lent me and asked me if I read it yet? ("I haven't", I lied) Would I please give it back to Monica, then? ("Ok", but I still read it at school)
Discovering Harry Potter fanfiction in high school, and dealing it out to classmates who wanted some
Finishing Oliver Twist while waiting out the notorious enrollment lines of UP Diliman, an endeavour that led me to bring a copy of Edgar Allan Poe the next time I lined up for an NBI clearance
Just Finished:
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco. It’s monks killing monks, and Sherlock Holmes if he was a monk in 1327, interspersed with long discussions on the theology of laughter and a great many Latin phrases my Catholic school years have not prepared me for. Eco strays far from the path of detection with pages of copious descriptions of magnificent door carvings (think the Sistine Chapel paintings) but surprisingly, I wasn’t bored. I… I loved it, actually. I feel like I missed a lot of the theological stuff, and I’m already planning on rereading it when I’m like 40 and wiser (hopefully). Also, Eco goes into the details of his research in the postscript, which is very informative, and he goes into a discussion on the Death of the Author, which I love!!
Kinds of Books You Won’t Read:
Not so much as won’t read, but I haven’t read YA titles in a long time. It’s just, the love triangles put me off from most, so.
Longest Book You’ve Read:
I'm not sure if it was really long but it felt that way while reading it: Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder. Up to now I can't believe I read that, as an impressionable teenage girl whose teachers give books to? I look at it and wonder, how? How did I finish this? How can I still remember Hellenism and Hilde and that part with Scrooge? I can't remember which teacher gave it to me but I kind of broke it while reading because apparently I really liked it? Wow. I was a very patient child. I won't be reading that again anytime soon.
Major book hangover because of:
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. I read it over the break for the first time, and I still like Emma better, and I prefer Mr Knightley to Mr Darcy, but it’s very enjoyable. I was laughing at parts because life at Regency England is just so bizarre. I was so embarrassed for Elizabeth and Darcy most of the time and I felt for Mary, because I am her and she is me. Anyway, I need to watch ALL the BBC miniseries, ok, the one from 1980 and the 1995 one with Colin Firth, plus the movie, and oh, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries! I watched a few and it was okay, I took a look at Emma Approved and LOVED it immediately. Maybe I just really prefer Emma? Super Late New Year’s Resolution: Read all of Jane Austen and possibly watch a lot.
Number of Bookcases You Own:
I don’t have a proper bookcase, so my books are stacked in a couple of cabinets and my study table at home, and a large plastic box in QC. My father’s been promising to build me one, but like all “dad fix-it ideas” he hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
Mythology, Edith Hamilton. It’s been used and abused and lent around since grade school and I know it by heart.
Preferred Place To Read:
Home, in my bedroom, on the bed, with a pillow at my back, with natural sunlight. I also love libraries - my favorite is still the UP Main Library, Social Sciences Section, with the tall ceiling and tall windows streaming actual sunlight and huge electric fans and the smell of the photocopying machine wafting towards you on a bad day and sharing a table with a cute boy on a good day.
Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:
I want to give you the quote from The Remains of the Day but would that be a spoiler ugh ugh I’m gonna do it!
After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?
Reading Regret:
That I didn’t read The Lord of the Rings in time to watch the movies as they happened. Well, that was 2001, I think? I was probably obsessed with Harry Potter. But at least I grew up with it?
AND THAT I DIDN’T BUY THOSE INSPECTOR MORSE OMNIBUS BOOKS WHEN THEY WERE ON SALE AND NOW I’M STUCK TRYING TO FIND THE INDIVIDUAL BOOKS IN VARIOUS BOOK SALES my life 2k14 (to be fair I haven’t seen Endeavour then and I didn’t know Inspector Morse)
Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series):
The Earthsea Cycle!!! I read the first two books and I have a copy of Tehanu but none of The Farthest Shore, so for the longest time, I’d been stuck in between books. I’ve already lost my first The Wizard of Earthsea book and I’ve recently found a new one but I’m still… stuck.
Also, The Abhorsen Trilogy. Great world-building, great female character, and I actually shipped the love story in Sabriel.
Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:
This is hard: (1) The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett - for, as a kid who believed that magic can only happen in fantasy worlds, it was a big deal to read that magic can exist here, in reality, in the simplest of things; (2) the whole of 20th Century Boys, Naoki Urasawa; (3) The Alienist, Caleb Carr
Unapologetic Fangirl For:
Detectives! Lord Peter Wimsey, Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, and yes, Sherlock Holmes. I even have some Inspector Morse and Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels that I haven’t touched, plus PD James, and Alexander McCall Smith. I love detectives so much. Even FH Batacan’s Jesuit priest Fr. Saenz, whom I’m very disappointed to read has done a 180 in Manila Noir. Ah.
Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:
JK Rowling’s next Cormoran Strike book because did I mention I like detectives?
Worst Bookish Habit:
Leaving a book in the middle and getting distracted by new shiny things. I’ve a number of unfinished tales. Also skipping ahead to read the end when I find a book too boring/predictable
X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Lemarque. Which I got for 90Php and I haven’t read yet and is a classic film that I obviously have to watch.
Your latest book purchase:
I recently got Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and I know what to do the next time I'm in an Arthurian mood.
ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):
World War Z, Max Brooks, because it was so fun to read and I couldn’t put it down.
A to Z SURVEY
Author You’ve Read The Most Books From
Best Sequel Ever
Currently Reading
Drink of Choice While Reading
E-reader or Physical Book?
Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School
Glad You Gave This Book A Chance
Hidden Gem Book
Important Moment in your Reading Life
Just Finished
Kinds of Books You Won’t Read
Longest Book You’ve Read
Major book hangover because of
Number of Bookcases You Own
One Book You Have Read Multiple Times
Preferred Place To Read
Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read
Reading Regret
Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series)
Three of your All-Time Favorite Books
Unapologetic Fangirl For
Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others
Worst Bookish Habit
X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book
Your latest book purchase
ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late)
Author you’ve read the most books from:
RL Stine. I have a bunch of Goosebumps leftover from my childhood that I’ve been meaning to give away to younger cousins. When that happens, it’s probably Rex Stout - I’ve read 13 of his 48 Nero Wolfe novels ever since I discovered him around 2 years ago and I don’t plan to stop!
Here's a pretty cool podcast interview with RL Stine, discussing his Goosebumps methods!
Best Sequel Ever:
Clouds of Witness, Dorothy L Sayers. I read the second Wimsey book before Whose Body? and promptly fell in love with the goofy, dashing Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur detective, and I haven’t stopped since. I’m having intense OTP feelings about Strong Poison which I read for the first time last month!
Currently Reading:
I’m in between books! After the theology-heavy The Name of the Rose, I want something lighter… and that usually means a nice, good detective story for me. I'm trying out Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon but it's kinda hard? His style is just not working with me, idk why since I liked his The Thin Man last year.
Drink of Choice While Reading:
Coffee, and then a lot of water, as I can only drink coffee once a day.
E-reader or Physical Book?
Nothing beats the weight of a beloved book in your hand, old or new, cracked spine and dog-eared pages with scribbled dedications, or pristine and pure and untouched. But e-readers are great too, for traveling and for out-of print books. /wise nod
Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:
That’s easy, seeing as I had a huge embarrassing teenage crush on Sirius Black, of all people, with his bad boy looks and long hair and a cool-ass motorcycle, are you kidding me? He’s like the stuff teenage dreams are made of. (I wrote really bad self-insert fanfiction, which I never posted online thank God)
Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. I was actually going to buy Never Let Me Go but it was out-of-stock, and the seller suggested his other books. I’m glad I chose this one, with its intimate look on a butler’s life in post-war England. It’s heart-breaking and the ending makes me want to cry again ugh.
Hidden Gem Book:
What is this, like Temple Run? Hmm, Diaspora Ad Astra, an anthology of Filipino science fiction, comes to mind. Not every story is good, some are like Dead Space fanfiction and others would benefit from more world-building and editing maybe, but The Cost of Living was pretty good, and Lucky and Space Enough and Time.
Important Moment in your Reading Life:
Sitting out of playing “football” for recess in fourth grade because I'd rather finish the Prisoner of Azkaban ('twas then that I realized that I would never have a life ever)
Hiding a copy of Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow that I got from the library as a fourteen year old who likes Japan from my mother, because although the cover won't suggest it, a few minutes of skimming through would lead to some scenes which she wouldn't deem appropriate for my age. She had previously seen a Jude Devereaux book my best friend lent me and asked me if I read it yet? ("I haven't", I lied) Would I please give it back to Monica, then? ("Ok", but I still read it at school)
Discovering Harry Potter fanfiction in high school, and dealing it out to classmates who wanted some
Finishing Oliver Twist while waiting out the notorious enrollment lines of UP Diliman, an endeavour that led me to bring a copy of Edgar Allan Poe the next time I lined up for an NBI clearance
Just Finished:
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco. It’s monks killing monks, and Sherlock Holmes if he was a monk in 1327, interspersed with long discussions on the theology of laughter and a great many Latin phrases my Catholic school years have not prepared me for. Eco strays far from the path of detection with pages of copious descriptions of magnificent door carvings (think the Sistine Chapel paintings) but surprisingly, I wasn’t bored. I… I loved it, actually. I feel like I missed a lot of the theological stuff, and I’m already planning on rereading it when I’m like 40 and wiser (hopefully). Also, Eco goes into the details of his research in the postscript, which is very informative, and he goes into a discussion on the Death of the Author, which I love!!
Kinds of Books You Won’t Read:
Not so much as won’t read, but I haven’t read YA titles in a long time. It’s just, the love triangles put me off from most, so.
Longest Book You’ve Read:
I'm not sure if it was really long but it felt that way while reading it: Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder. Up to now I can't believe I read that, as an impressionable teenage girl whose teachers give books to? I look at it and wonder, how? How did I finish this? How can I still remember Hellenism and Hilde and that part with Scrooge? I can't remember which teacher gave it to me but I kind of broke it while reading because apparently I really liked it? Wow. I was a very patient child. I won't be reading that again anytime soon.
Major book hangover because of:
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. I read it over the break for the first time, and I still like Emma better, and I prefer Mr Knightley to Mr Darcy, but it’s very enjoyable. I was laughing at parts because life at Regency England is just so bizarre. I was so embarrassed for Elizabeth and Darcy most of the time and I felt for Mary, because I am her and she is me. Anyway, I need to watch ALL the BBC miniseries, ok, the one from 1980 and the 1995 one with Colin Firth, plus the movie, and oh, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries! I watched a few and it was okay, I took a look at Emma Approved and LOVED it immediately. Maybe I just really prefer Emma? Super Late New Year’s Resolution: Read all of Jane Austen and possibly watch a lot.
Number of Bookcases You Own:
I don’t have a proper bookcase, so my books are stacked in a couple of cabinets and my study table at home, and a large plastic box in QC. My father’s been promising to build me one, but like all “dad fix-it ideas” he hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
Mythology, Edith Hamilton. It’s been used and abused and lent around since grade school and I know it by heart.
Preferred Place To Read:
Home, in my bedroom, on the bed, with a pillow at my back, with natural sunlight. I also love libraries - my favorite is still the UP Main Library, Social Sciences Section, with the tall ceiling and tall windows streaming actual sunlight and huge electric fans and the smell of the photocopying machine wafting towards you on a bad day and sharing a table with a cute boy on a good day.
Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:
I want to give you the quote from The Remains of the Day but would that be a spoiler ugh ugh I’m gonna do it!
After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?
Reading Regret:
That I didn’t read The Lord of the Rings in time to watch the movies as they happened. Well, that was 2001, I think? I was probably obsessed with Harry Potter. But at least I grew up with it?
AND THAT I DIDN’T BUY THOSE INSPECTOR MORSE OMNIBUS BOOKS WHEN THEY WERE ON SALE AND NOW I’M STUCK TRYING TO FIND THE INDIVIDUAL BOOKS IN VARIOUS BOOK SALES my life 2k14 (to be fair I haven’t seen Endeavour then and I didn’t know Inspector Morse)
Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series):
The Earthsea Cycle!!! I read the first two books and I have a copy of Tehanu but none of The Farthest Shore, so for the longest time, I’d been stuck in between books. I’ve already lost my first The Wizard of Earthsea book and I’ve recently found a new one but I’m still… stuck.
Also, The Abhorsen Trilogy. Great world-building, great female character, and I actually shipped the love story in Sabriel.
Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:
This is hard: (1) The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett - for, as a kid who believed that magic can only happen in fantasy worlds, it was a big deal to read that magic can exist here, in reality, in the simplest of things; (2) the whole of 20th Century Boys, Naoki Urasawa; (3) The Alienist, Caleb Carr
Unapologetic Fangirl For:
Detectives! Lord Peter Wimsey, Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, and yes, Sherlock Holmes. I even have some Inspector Morse and Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels that I haven’t touched, plus PD James, and Alexander McCall Smith. I love detectives so much. Even FH Batacan’s Jesuit priest Fr. Saenz, whom I’m very disappointed to read has done a 180 in Manila Noir. Ah.
Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:
JK Rowling’s next Cormoran Strike book because did I mention I like detectives?
Worst Bookish Habit:
Leaving a book in the middle and getting distracted by new shiny things. I’ve a number of unfinished tales. Also skipping ahead to read the end when I find a book too boring/predictable
X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Lemarque. Which I got for 90Php and I haven’t read yet and is a classic film that I obviously have to watch.
Your latest book purchase:
I recently got Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and I know what to do the next time I'm in an Arthurian mood.
ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):
World War Z, Max Brooks, because it was so fun to read and I couldn’t put it down.