Five questions
Five questions stolen shamelessly from carmarthen :
1) Favourite book genre?
Fantasy, though I adore big Victorian blockbusters too. I love Diana Wynne Jones, Peter Dickinson (and his son, John. And his wife, Robyn McKinley)and I have certain "automatic buy" writers like Lindsey Davis and Jim Butcher. Oh, and Tolkien, of course - ought to go without saying.
2) Favourite moment in a book and why?
Good lord, too many to mention. Darcy finally asking Elizabeth to marry him, when she says yes? Or that gorgeous, messed-up proposal at the end of Emma? Jo's death in Bleak House - so painful and Dickens is so angry. Gollum falling into the fire. Maewen seeing Mitt at the end of The Crown of Dalemark. Why? Powerful, earned emotional climaxes, I suppose.
3) Favourite version of Les Mis?
It has to be the original London production I saw back in '85, still with most of the original cast (only six weeks after it transferred from the Barbican.) Alun Armstrong will always be Thénardier to me.
Second, the schools version I directed in 2006. (Links to two of about five posts on the topic - same tag. It kinda ate my brain.)
4) Do you have a braincrush on a fictional character? If so, who?
Apart from Spike, you mean? Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sévigny, because he is beautiful and damaged and witty
and very, very good in bed.
5) Do you prefer long epic books or short ones? and why.
I really love Victorian mega-books by Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot and pals, and Jane Austen, who didn't write at quite such length (boo, hiss!) but filled three volumes nicely.
I like books that fit their length without padding (JKR, I'm looking at you) or rushing. I hate it when quite a nice fantasy idea is dragged out into the obligatory three doorstops, published a year apart. It was annoying when Philip Pullman did it, and it's much more annoying when people without half his talent (Trudi Canavan, for ex) do it too. Short and perfectly formed can be good, but I really like something with lots of substance to get my teeth into. I have to say I've loved some of the stuff I've discovered this academic year, like Winifred Holtby. (V Woolf, not quite so much.) Currently I'm reading and enjoying a lot of plays.
1) Favourite book genre?
Fantasy, though I adore big Victorian blockbusters too. I love Diana Wynne Jones, Peter Dickinson (and his son, John. And his wife, Robyn McKinley)and I have certain "automatic buy" writers like Lindsey Davis and Jim Butcher. Oh, and Tolkien, of course - ought to go without saying.
2) Favourite moment in a book and why?
Good lord, too many to mention. Darcy finally asking Elizabeth to marry him, when she says yes? Or that gorgeous, messed-up proposal at the end of Emma? Jo's death in Bleak House - so painful and Dickens is so angry. Gollum falling into the fire. Maewen seeing Mitt at the end of The Crown of Dalemark. Why? Powerful, earned emotional climaxes, I suppose.
3) Favourite version of Les Mis?
It has to be the original London production I saw back in '85, still with most of the original cast (only six weeks after it transferred from the Barbican.) Alun Armstrong will always be Thénardier to me.
Second, the schools version I directed in 2006. (Links to two of about five posts on the topic - same tag. It kinda ate my brain.)
4) Do you have a braincrush on a fictional character? If so, who?
Apart from Spike, you mean? Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sévigny, because he is beautiful and damaged and witty
and very, very good in bed.
5) Do you prefer long epic books or short ones? and why.
I really love Victorian mega-books by Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot and pals, and Jane Austen, who didn't write at quite such length (boo, hiss!) but filled three volumes nicely.
I like books that fit their length without padding (JKR, I'm looking at you) or rushing. I hate it when quite a nice fantasy idea is dragged out into the obligatory three doorstops, published a year apart. It was annoying when Philip Pullman did it, and it's much more annoying when people without half his talent (Trudi Canavan, for ex) do it too. Short and perfectly formed can be good, but I really like something with lots of substance to get my teeth into. I have to say I've loved some of the stuff I've discovered this academic year, like Winifred Holtby. (V Woolf, not quite so much.) Currently I'm reading and enjoying a lot of plays.