I can read books but I can't read you
borrowed from viorica8957
1) What author do you own the most books by?
C J Cherryh. Shelves of it.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
If I do have multiple copies it's because I haven't noticed. Although there are two copies of LotR in the house- the one for reading and the astoundingly posh leather bound one which was a present to Spouse from his parents.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
There is real grammar and there are outdated rules. Placement of prepositions comes under the latter heading.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Robin Hobb's Fool.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
I've read all sorts of stuff a lot- I am an avid re-reader. Lord of the Rings I return to every couple of years. I have read C P Snow's Strangers and Brothers series more often than you would think possible.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell. I'm still hugely attached to the series and reread them fairly often.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I no longer feel any obligation to finish books I'm not enjoying. I read a couple of chapters of one of the Twilight books and was astounded by the badness. And Son lent me a Warhammer novel when I ran out of reading on holiday- that was pure infodump, namechecking everything in the system.
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson. It's not actually one of his best but the series is so brilliant overall.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Mine. But only after the current rewrite.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Give it to Rushdie. He doesn't always hit the mark but he is one of a kind.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Cyteen by Cherryh. Political SF at it's best.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Any of John Norman's Gor books. Although Wikipedia tells me there have already been two films and a Second Life MMORPG with 15,000 players, which is a rather disturbing thought!
14) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Can't remember any.
15) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I've read all the Harry Potters, if they count. And a lot of that endless Redwall series aloud to Son when he was younger (I wasn't very impressed but he loved them).
16) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu- Proust (in translation, naturally. I don't do languages). It was something of an effort of will at times but hugely worth it; there's so much in there that makes you rethink how you see the world. I have every intention of reading it again- sometime!
17) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
Timon of Athens
18) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I had a phase of really liking the French existentialist- Sartre and Camus, although I wouldn't pretend to be anything like well read in French or Russian authors and I haven't read anything of either for years.
19) Roth or Updike?
I could give you first names but no more.
20) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Haven't read either but anyone who titles his book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" has to get my vote.
21) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
I've read bits of Milton and Chaucer but Shakespeare has to win.
22) Austen or Eliot?
Austen. Eliot is interesting but I never got emotionally attached to Middlemarch.
23) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I've barely touched modern literary fiction, except to pick out the magic realism bits.
24) What is your favorite novel?
Possibly Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It's full of hugely good writing, ideas and plot, and it despises the same sort of thing that I despise!
25) Play?
Hamlet
26) Poem?
The Second Coming by Yeats. The Wasteland mesmerises me but I don't pretend to even start to understand it. Ditto a lot of Dylan Thomas.
27) Essay?
I don't read essays, I don't think.
28) Short story?
Don't read much of them either. I'd have to go way back to Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
29) Work of nonfiction?
I'm loving Magna Carta by Turner. But generally I don't read much nonfiction at all.
30) Who is your favorite writer?
Toss up between Cherryh, Mary Gentle and Steven Erikson. I'm heavily into intelligent, political and dense character driven fantasy.
31) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Ken Follett. Detailed descriptions of medieval stonecarving do not make up for paralysingly dull characters.
32) What is your desert island book?
Lord of the Rings.
33) And… what are you reading right now?
The correct answer is probably nothing; too medicated to read properly. But under my computer desk are books that I've started;
The Medusa Frequency- Russell Hoban
Capetian France- Hallam
Magna Carta- Turner
Anathem- Neil Stephenson
Oceanic- Greg Egan
Keeping Bees - Peacock
Where Dawkins Went Wrong and other theological blockbusters- Andrew Rilstone
All of which is very unlike me- I seldom start another book until I've finished the first, but reading is such an effort right now that I keep trying new things in an attempt to get myself hooked.