Book meme
kortirion didn't single me out by name, but probably wants me to answer this, as everyone else has.
1) Total number of books owned?
You actually expect me to be able to answer that? No clue. Not a ridiculous number, but more than I'd care to count. Also, I can't count them, because at least half are still at my parents' house - I don't have enough bookshelf space for all of them here, so I've just gradually been bringing them down - grabbing a couple more each time I go up to see my parents. My book case here is rather over-full already, and there are many more back home. I guess if I had to put a number on it I'd say around 250-300. I used to pretty much live in the library, so I only started actually buying books a few years ago, when I started to collect - before that I always borrowed. I still don't actually own that many novels, because those I usually got from the library - about 3/4 of my collection are reference/non-fiction.
2) The last book I bought?
Hmm, good question. I've been trying not to buy any books lately, because I'm so behind on my reading as it is. I think the last I bought might have been 'The Art of the Two Towers' - I have many filmic books, and like really nice quality 'making of' and 'art of' books. The last novel I bought, though...actually, it might have been my deluxe LotR. I got a very good deal on it and couldn't resist, because I'd been lusting after it for months but couldn't justify the cost. It's the only book I've ever bought which I never intend to read - the paper is so fine it would just get damaged. It's a beautiful beautiful piece, though - all leather-bound and gilt-edged - the crowning glory of my Tolkien collection - at least until I get my hands on a first edition.
3) The last book I read?
Well, at the moment I'm reading Pride and Prejudice. It's the first time I've read any Austin, and usually when I try something of that period it gets too heavy and I give up, but I'm actually really liking it. Some day I might try to read Vanity Fair again - Thackary is rather heavy, and the book is rather thick, but if I can read Tolkien I should be able to read anything!
The last book I finished was 'I Sing the Body Electric', a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories. Ooh, that means I lied before! I bought a job lot of Bradbury, Phillip K Dick and HG Wells after buying the fancy LotR, so those are the last fiction I bought. I wanted to ease myself gently into Bradbury with the shorts before attempting one of the novels - probably Fahrenheit 451. I recommend the book (I Sing the Body Electric). The stories range from odd little tales set in 19th century Ireland to full-on bizarro SF with androids and alien worlds and inter-dimensional travel. And one rather interesting piece where the sea becomes conscious and seduces a beautiful man, but it ends badly, as you can imagine. Very mythic.
4) Book that mean a lot to me?
Well, of course the obvious answer here is Lord of the Rings, and indeed the Silmarillion, because that really fed into my love for mythology - it's filled with gods and heroes and great battles and mighty dragons, and of course Tolkien's beautifully imagined genesis story. I don't think I really need to say any more on the subject. Anyone here who doesn't know that I love Tolkien has clearly never read my journal. Yes, he can be overly verbose and the books tend to be very dense, but if you go beyond the writing style itself it's the stories and the characters that I love - Tolkien wove a new world which is almost as rich and diverse as the real one, filled with beauty and darkness and love and fear and everything else which makes a story great. Yes, the characters are no considered archetypes, but what people tend to forget is that they were the first - the characters upon whom the archetypes are based. It's like saying that 'let there be light' is cliched - maybe now it is, but when G-d first said it it was rather original.
Another book - or set of books - which will always be in my heart are the two Sparhawk sagas - the Elenium and The Tamuli - by David Eddings. They are by no means great. Eddings is good, but a bit of a one trick pony, to be honest, and having read and bought about 20 of his novels I've now stopped and haven't read any of his new stuff since he finished the Belgarath saga. But the reason I will always care about those books is that they were the first fantasy books I ever loved. I'd read the Hobbit when I was younger, and it was enjoyable, but I didn't love it. I didn't love the characters. I picked up The Diamond Thrown (the first Sparhawk novel) at the library when I was about 12, ans Sparhawk instantly became my hero. Well, a girl has to do something before she discovers Aragorn and Boromir. Sparhawk is a noble knight, a good man, a hero, but can also be a right bastard. He breaks fingers to extract information. You really don't want to get on his bad side. I guess I like my heroes to have an edge of darkness, and Sparhwk had a big edge. And a big sword, of course. And a great collection of friends, all of whom I loved and cared about and cried for when they died. No, Eddings is no great author, but I will always love Sparhawk. Even if he did turn out to be a bit of a skanky pederast.
Any others? Well, I guess there's my comfort book which reveals my true nerd colours. Some may know that I used to be quite the trekkie, and have even recently returned to the fold by joining a Trek rpg. Another book I borrowed from the library as a youngster was a Trek novel by the name of Imzadi. Anyone who knows TNG should be able to guess what it's about, even if they don't know the book. It's primarily a love story, but it's also an adventure, complete with evil aliens, time travel and characters meeting their future selves - and occasionally having to fight them. I've read quite a lot of Trek novels in my time - some very good, some truly terrible - but Imzadi is one of the few that I consider utterly canon - that's how things happened in the past, full stop. It's not a great book, sure, but it's well written, with lots of twists and turns and securely holds the position of 'comfort book' - when I just want to curl up with a book that's quick to read and I know I'll enjoy, I grab Imzadi. Also, there's one whole chapter that could be replaced with the words 'Heroic Riker. Grateful Deanna. Steamy jungle. Steamy sex'. Only without any porn. Because just...no. And I really didn't need to see them shag in Nemesis, either. Yes, they're one of my OTPs, but that doesn't mean I want to see them getting jiggy. Especially after he got fat.
Other people I'd like to see do this meme:
the_ladylark, and fileg and daegaer if they haven't already.
1) Total number of books owned?
You actually expect me to be able to answer that? No clue. Not a ridiculous number, but more than I'd care to count. Also, I can't count them, because at least half are still at my parents' house - I don't have enough bookshelf space for all of them here, so I've just gradually been bringing them down - grabbing a couple more each time I go up to see my parents. My book case here is rather over-full already, and there are many more back home. I guess if I had to put a number on it I'd say around 250-300. I used to pretty much live in the library, so I only started actually buying books a few years ago, when I started to collect - before that I always borrowed. I still don't actually own that many novels, because those I usually got from the library - about 3/4 of my collection are reference/non-fiction.
2) The last book I bought?
Hmm, good question. I've been trying not to buy any books lately, because I'm so behind on my reading as it is. I think the last I bought might have been 'The Art of the Two Towers' - I have many filmic books, and like really nice quality 'making of' and 'art of' books. The last novel I bought, though...actually, it might have been my deluxe LotR. I got a very good deal on it and couldn't resist, because I'd been lusting after it for months but couldn't justify the cost. It's the only book I've ever bought which I never intend to read - the paper is so fine it would just get damaged. It's a beautiful beautiful piece, though - all leather-bound and gilt-edged - the crowning glory of my Tolkien collection - at least until I get my hands on a first edition.
3) The last book I read?
Well, at the moment I'm reading Pride and Prejudice. It's the first time I've read any Austin, and usually when I try something of that period it gets too heavy and I give up, but I'm actually really liking it. Some day I might try to read Vanity Fair again - Thackary is rather heavy, and the book is rather thick, but if I can read Tolkien I should be able to read anything!
The last book I finished was 'I Sing the Body Electric', a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories. Ooh, that means I lied before! I bought a job lot of Bradbury, Phillip K Dick and HG Wells after buying the fancy LotR, so those are the last fiction I bought. I wanted to ease myself gently into Bradbury with the shorts before attempting one of the novels - probably Fahrenheit 451. I recommend the book (I Sing the Body Electric). The stories range from odd little tales set in 19th century Ireland to full-on bizarro SF with androids and alien worlds and inter-dimensional travel. And one rather interesting piece where the sea becomes conscious and seduces a beautiful man, but it ends badly, as you can imagine. Very mythic.
4) Book that mean a lot to me?
Well, of course the obvious answer here is Lord of the Rings, and indeed the Silmarillion, because that really fed into my love for mythology - it's filled with gods and heroes and great battles and mighty dragons, and of course Tolkien's beautifully imagined genesis story. I don't think I really need to say any more on the subject. Anyone here who doesn't know that I love Tolkien has clearly never read my journal. Yes, he can be overly verbose and the books tend to be very dense, but if you go beyond the writing style itself it's the stories and the characters that I love - Tolkien wove a new world which is almost as rich and diverse as the real one, filled with beauty and darkness and love and fear and everything else which makes a story great. Yes, the characters are no considered archetypes, but what people tend to forget is that they were the first - the characters upon whom the archetypes are based. It's like saying that 'let there be light' is cliched - maybe now it is, but when G-d first said it it was rather original.
Another book - or set of books - which will always be in my heart are the two Sparhawk sagas - the Elenium and The Tamuli - by David Eddings. They are by no means great. Eddings is good, but a bit of a one trick pony, to be honest, and having read and bought about 20 of his novels I've now stopped and haven't read any of his new stuff since he finished the Belgarath saga. But the reason I will always care about those books is that they were the first fantasy books I ever loved. I'd read the Hobbit when I was younger, and it was enjoyable, but I didn't love it. I didn't love the characters. I picked up The Diamond Thrown (the first Sparhawk novel) at the library when I was about 12, ans Sparhawk instantly became my hero. Well, a girl has to do something before she discovers Aragorn and Boromir. Sparhawk is a noble knight, a good man, a hero, but can also be a right bastard. He breaks fingers to extract information. You really don't want to get on his bad side. I guess I like my heroes to have an edge of darkness, and Sparhwk had a big edge. And a big sword, of course. And a great collection of friends, all of whom I loved and cared about and cried for when they died. No, Eddings is no great author, but I will always love Sparhawk. Even if he did turn out to be a bit of a skanky pederast.
Any others? Well, I guess there's my comfort book which reveals my true nerd colours. Some may know that I used to be quite the trekkie, and have even recently returned to the fold by joining a Trek rpg. Another book I borrowed from the library as a youngster was a Trek novel by the name of Imzadi. Anyone who knows TNG should be able to guess what it's about, even if they don't know the book. It's primarily a love story, but it's also an adventure, complete with evil aliens, time travel and characters meeting their future selves - and occasionally having to fight them. I've read quite a lot of Trek novels in my time - some very good, some truly terrible - but Imzadi is one of the few that I consider utterly canon - that's how things happened in the past, full stop. It's not a great book, sure, but it's well written, with lots of twists and turns and securely holds the position of 'comfort book' - when I just want to curl up with a book that's quick to read and I know I'll enjoy, I grab Imzadi. Also, there's one whole chapter that could be replaced with the words 'Heroic Riker. Grateful Deanna. Steamy jungle. Steamy sex'. Only without any porn. Because just...no. And I really didn't need to see them shag in Nemesis, either. Yes, they're one of my OTPs, but that doesn't mean I want to see them getting jiggy. Especially after he got fat.
Other people I'd like to see do this meme:
the_ladylark, and fileg and daegaer if they haven't already.