Book meme
Drank too much tea when I met with my statistics study group tonight. Borders does tea service! Yum, but I wasn't expecting the caffeine to affect me so much. ^^;;
Stolen from all over the internet, I'm sure, but most recently from the lovely nicocoer.
Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- list the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes. Don't take too long to think about it. Tag 15 friends (& while it is easy to tag more, part of the challenge is to think about which 15 friends would have the weirdest or most interesting book list), including me. If you don't want to play, no sweat. Feel free to go about your business. Here are mine, in no particular order (and these are just the 15 for today, at this moment):
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love the story, the battle of wits, and Elizabeth Bennett is a character I really enjoy, though her family drives me batty. I have three versions, one of which in Chinese I bought while I was studying abroad. The five-hour A&E movie version owns my soul, haha.
2. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. The link is to the audiobook, but that is the cover that I discovered it under. In the seventh grade, we had Sustained Silent Reading, and I didn't bring a book one day, and had to pick one. This opened up the world of science fiction and fantasy to me, because before I only read mysteries and children's books. Menolly's triumphs and tribulations, her hard work and growing up attitude, and of course dragons and harpers! :D
3. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. LeGuin. I got my copy from a little used bookstore a year or two ago, and I've read and re-read it so many times it's ridiculous, and even more falling apart than when I bought it. It's a bunch of her short stories, and she excels in the medium. Sci-fi and fantasy, but they're really...people and politics stories, ways of getting at things sideways. Her stuff always makes me think, and she likes to make people uncomfortable. :D
4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Her writing is beautiful and so approachable. I gave it a try at the library because I'd heard her name tossed around, and the premise seemed interesting. Post-apocalyptic, story of a young woman traveling north in California to try to survive, and becoming a sort of preacher because she realizes/learns these very human truths. I'm not religious and hardly spiritual, but what she writes really appealed to me. Also, yay sci-fi with non-white characters! \o/ She wrote a couple of books that go after this one as well.
5. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, the first book of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Cimorene is my hero. She's smart and spunky and takes a very common sensical approach to idiot knights and so forth. Also I'm in love with the chapter titles such as "In Which Cimorene Discovers the Value of a Classical Education and Has Some Unwelcome Visitors." XDDD
6. Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex by Olivia Judson. erjika had this on her bookshelf and graciously lent it to me. It is hilarious and highly educational. Nature is weird and gloriously so. :D Some of her language sometimes bothers me, because she's writing in that advice column style, but it's still a good read.
7. The Ballad of Mulan by Song Nan Zhang. Before Disney came around and did some...interesting...things to it, this was one of my favorite childhood books. My maternal grandmother taught me part of the tune of the folksong. Did you know that Mulan had a little brother? And she was never discovered while she served, surviving the war long enough to become a trusted general? Mulan is awesome. :D And the illustrations of this book are gorgeous.
8. So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Can you kind of see a theme in my book choices? :D I live in the YA Fantasy section, really, because coming-of-age stories are my kink, if you will. Character growth, hardship and change, with only the slightest sprinkling of romance. Adventure and new worlds! The first of series, Nita and Kit are the partners of my heart, haha. Also the Tom and Carl household is hilarious, though they don't show up more than a couple times each volume. She wrote this *before I was born*. So who she chooses to be characters really struck a chord with me, when most of fantasy tends towards boys, and if girls, they are entirely too...blond and blue-eyed for me anymore. Yay to the misfits!
9. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. My big weakness is retelling of legends and fairy tales. I reread this one about once a year. I don't really like her newer stuff, but this one, this one is beautiful. A Beauty and the Beast retelling, the style is just this side of...soft, you get the feel of being in fairy tale while also being part of Beauty's daily life.
10. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Also borrowed from erjika, this book makes my stickler heart dance with glee. ^_^ Not that I don't break a lot of the rules from time to time, but even so. :P Yes, I am this geeky. :D
11. First Test: Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce. I've read everything she's published, because her characters really speak to me. My favorite's gotta be Kel though, because she's a girl who's one of the first who wants to take the opportunity a previous woman opened the door to, to be a knight. She doesn't have any special powers, she just has her common sense, ability to work hard, a keen sense of justice, and her fear of heights. Mmm, coming of age, but with swordfighting, haha.
12. The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. First of a trilogy. Her writing style is gorgeous, I love the feeling of a legend/tale in the making. I totally couldn't predict where it was going, and all three together...it kind of blew me away. I cannot recommend this trilogy enough. Aeriel's cool. I like her attitude. And her gargoyles are awesome, though that's in the second book. :D
13. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. The novels of Discworld are, hands down, my favorite series ever. A flat world of magic and trolls and tourists and suspicious meat pies, that manages to spoof and gently (or not so gently) mock anything and everything in our world. Monstrous Regiment is about Polly, who disguises herself as a boy to enlist in the army and search for her brother. Adventures ensue. The ending is AWESOME. I kind of shrieked in a whole lot of glee. :D I dunno if that's spoilers, but oh well. :P
14. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Not for the faint of stomach, but a really fascinating read about the uses, through history and today, for human cadavers and body parts and what people do with them, decomposition, etc. etc. I liked it a lot, so I guess that tells you something about me. ^_~
15. The Sandman - Volume 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman. The Sandman comics series is mindset-changing. The storytelling, the art, the way this so different from the superheroes comics. I have this volume of short stories, so if you're not ready to dive into the world of Sandman, this is par to the universe without having to worry about continuity. There's ten collected volumes with a bunch of related side stories, about Dream of the Endless, an anthropomorphic personification of life's essentials. He's kind of Byron-esquely emo. His older sister Death rocks my socks and I've been her for Halloween twice because she's that awesome.
Haha if you made it to the end of that congratulations! I wanna see what other people's lists are, I could use some more nonfiction, or good reading in other genres. Geez, it's late now, I took so long to write that out. ^^;;
Stolen from all over the internet, I'm sure, but most recently from the lovely nicocoer.
Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- list the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes. Don't take too long to think about it. Tag 15 friends (& while it is easy to tag more, part of the challenge is to think about which 15 friends would have the weirdest or most interesting book list), including me. If you don't want to play, no sweat. Feel free to go about your business. Here are mine, in no particular order (and these are just the 15 for today, at this moment):
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love the story, the battle of wits, and Elizabeth Bennett is a character I really enjoy, though her family drives me batty. I have three versions, one of which in Chinese I bought while I was studying abroad. The five-hour A&E movie version owns my soul, haha.
2. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. The link is to the audiobook, but that is the cover that I discovered it under. In the seventh grade, we had Sustained Silent Reading, and I didn't bring a book one day, and had to pick one. This opened up the world of science fiction and fantasy to me, because before I only read mysteries and children's books. Menolly's triumphs and tribulations, her hard work and growing up attitude, and of course dragons and harpers! :D
3. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. LeGuin. I got my copy from a little used bookstore a year or two ago, and I've read and re-read it so many times it's ridiculous, and even more falling apart than when I bought it. It's a bunch of her short stories, and she excels in the medium. Sci-fi and fantasy, but they're really...people and politics stories, ways of getting at things sideways. Her stuff always makes me think, and she likes to make people uncomfortable. :D
4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Her writing is beautiful and so approachable. I gave it a try at the library because I'd heard her name tossed around, and the premise seemed interesting. Post-apocalyptic, story of a young woman traveling north in California to try to survive, and becoming a sort of preacher because she realizes/learns these very human truths. I'm not religious and hardly spiritual, but what she writes really appealed to me. Also, yay sci-fi with non-white characters! \o/ She wrote a couple of books that go after this one as well.
5. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, the first book of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Cimorene is my hero. She's smart and spunky and takes a very common sensical approach to idiot knights and so forth. Also I'm in love with the chapter titles such as "In Which Cimorene Discovers the Value of a Classical Education and Has Some Unwelcome Visitors." XDDD
6. Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex by Olivia Judson. erjika had this on her bookshelf and graciously lent it to me. It is hilarious and highly educational. Nature is weird and gloriously so. :D Some of her language sometimes bothers me, because she's writing in that advice column style, but it's still a good read.
7. The Ballad of Mulan by Song Nan Zhang. Before Disney came around and did some...interesting...things to it, this was one of my favorite childhood books. My maternal grandmother taught me part of the tune of the folksong. Did you know that Mulan had a little brother? And she was never discovered while she served, surviving the war long enough to become a trusted general? Mulan is awesome. :D And the illustrations of this book are gorgeous.
8. So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Can you kind of see a theme in my book choices? :D I live in the YA Fantasy section, really, because coming-of-age stories are my kink, if you will. Character growth, hardship and change, with only the slightest sprinkling of romance. Adventure and new worlds! The first of series, Nita and Kit are the partners of my heart, haha. Also the Tom and Carl household is hilarious, though they don't show up more than a couple times each volume. She wrote this *before I was born*. So who she chooses to be characters really struck a chord with me, when most of fantasy tends towards boys, and if girls, they are entirely too...blond and blue-eyed for me anymore. Yay to the misfits!
9. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. My big weakness is retelling of legends and fairy tales. I reread this one about once a year. I don't really like her newer stuff, but this one, this one is beautiful. A Beauty and the Beast retelling, the style is just this side of...soft, you get the feel of being in fairy tale while also being part of Beauty's daily life.
10. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Also borrowed from erjika, this book makes my stickler heart dance with glee. ^_^ Not that I don't break a lot of the rules from time to time, but even so. :P Yes, I am this geeky. :D
11. First Test: Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce. I've read everything she's published, because her characters really speak to me. My favorite's gotta be Kel though, because she's a girl who's one of the first who wants to take the opportunity a previous woman opened the door to, to be a knight. She doesn't have any special powers, she just has her common sense, ability to work hard, a keen sense of justice, and her fear of heights. Mmm, coming of age, but with swordfighting, haha.
12. The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. First of a trilogy. Her writing style is gorgeous, I love the feeling of a legend/tale in the making. I totally couldn't predict where it was going, and all three together...it kind of blew me away. I cannot recommend this trilogy enough. Aeriel's cool. I like her attitude. And her gargoyles are awesome, though that's in the second book. :D
13. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. The novels of Discworld are, hands down, my favorite series ever. A flat world of magic and trolls and tourists and suspicious meat pies, that manages to spoof and gently (or not so gently) mock anything and everything in our world. Monstrous Regiment is about Polly, who disguises herself as a boy to enlist in the army and search for her brother. Adventures ensue. The ending is AWESOME. I kind of shrieked in a whole lot of glee. :D I dunno if that's spoilers, but oh well. :P
14. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Not for the faint of stomach, but a really fascinating read about the uses, through history and today, for human cadavers and body parts and what people do with them, decomposition, etc. etc. I liked it a lot, so I guess that tells you something about me. ^_~
15. The Sandman - Volume 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman. The Sandman comics series is mindset-changing. The storytelling, the art, the way this so different from the superheroes comics. I have this volume of short stories, so if you're not ready to dive into the world of Sandman, this is par to the universe without having to worry about continuity. There's ten collected volumes with a bunch of related side stories, about Dream of the Endless, an anthropomorphic personification of life's essentials. He's kind of Byron-esquely emo. His older sister Death rocks my socks and I've been her for Halloween twice because she's that awesome.
Haha if you made it to the end of that congratulations! I wanna see what other people's lists are, I could use some more nonfiction, or good reading in other genres. Geez, it's late now, I took so long to write that out. ^^;;