Reading Survey from willow_cabin
1) What author do you own the most books by?
J. R. R. Tolkien, by a long shot.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
The Odyssey.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, it would be pretty stilted and circumlocutious to zealously adhere to that.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Merry Brandybuck and Elphaba.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Worst is not the word I'd use, but the biggest disappointment so far has been The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The story itself was desultory and the conclusion was incomprehensible for incomprehension's sake. His two big novels are bildungsromans and this one deals more heavily with isolation. While this one seemed more cosmic, the world felt much smaller.
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I agree with Humboldt, the whole thing seems rather overrated.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay, but I'd be pleased with any GGK book adaptation. (Hopefully The Lions of Al-Rassan-if it ever sees the light of day-will be good.)
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. While I'm aware there is a (stalled?) tentative adaptation of this in the works and I've mentally cast Sir Ian Holm as Gilbert Norrell, I have serious doubts about how this would get translated. There are so many expository elements, like the good-humored narrator and the copious footnotes, that the story just isn't the same without them.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Interesting. I remember one in which I walked through a wardrobe during some vacation and ended up in a Mont Saint-Michel-esque location with an Edwardian ball and a most impressive library. I could apparently read in Finnish.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
The da Vinci Code?
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
The Canterbury Tales. While Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is more difficult to decipher, the task is strangely more satisfying there.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
Pericles.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The French by default, as I haven't yet gotten around to sampling Russian literature. Ironically, I know more about the latter.
18) Roth or Updike?
N/A
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
N/A
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Victorian literature.
23) What is your favorite novel?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
24) Play?
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
25) Poem?
Sonnet XXVII
(Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.)
26) Essay?
I'm not much of an essay person, so I suppose I'll name one I read for fun: "On Fairy Stories" by J. R. R. Tolkien.
27) Short story?
"Castle Othello" by Nancy Farmer. Syncretism of Shakespeare and fairy tales is so delightful.
28) Work of nonfiction?
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Guy Gavriel Kay, J. R. R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, China Miéville…
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Oh, Christopher Paolini, how fun you are to snark.
31) What is your desert island book?
The Lord of the Rings
32) And… what are you reading right now?
Son of a Witch and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
J. R. R. Tolkien, by a long shot.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
The Odyssey.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, it would be pretty stilted and circumlocutious to zealously adhere to that.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Merry Brandybuck and Elphaba.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Worst is not the word I'd use, but the biggest disappointment so far has been The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The story itself was desultory and the conclusion was incomprehensible for incomprehension's sake. His two big novels are bildungsromans and this one deals more heavily with isolation. While this one seemed more cosmic, the world felt much smaller.
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I agree with Humboldt, the whole thing seems rather overrated.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay, but I'd be pleased with any GGK book adaptation. (Hopefully The Lions of Al-Rassan-if it ever sees the light of day-will be good.)
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. While I'm aware there is a (stalled?) tentative adaptation of this in the works and I've mentally cast Sir Ian Holm as Gilbert Norrell, I have serious doubts about how this would get translated. There are so many expository elements, like the good-humored narrator and the copious footnotes, that the story just isn't the same without them.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Interesting. I remember one in which I walked through a wardrobe during some vacation and ended up in a Mont Saint-Michel-esque location with an Edwardian ball and a most impressive library. I could apparently read in Finnish.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
The da Vinci Code?
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
The Canterbury Tales. While Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is more difficult to decipher, the task is strangely more satisfying there.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
Pericles.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The French by default, as I haven't yet gotten around to sampling Russian literature. Ironically, I know more about the latter.
18) Roth or Updike?
N/A
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
N/A
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Victorian literature.
23) What is your favorite novel?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
24) Play?
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
25) Poem?
Sonnet XXVII
(Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.)
26) Essay?
I'm not much of an essay person, so I suppose I'll name one I read for fun: "On Fairy Stories" by J. R. R. Tolkien.
27) Short story?
"Castle Othello" by Nancy Farmer. Syncretism of Shakespeare and fairy tales is so delightful.
28) Work of nonfiction?
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter.
29) Who is your favorite writer?
Guy Gavriel Kay, J. R. R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, China Miéville…
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Oh, Christopher Paolini, how fun you are to snark.
31) What is your desert island book?
The Lord of the Rings
32) And… what are you reading right now?
Son of a Witch and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.