a room without books is a body without soul
sonneta posted this meme first, and you know I can't resist talking about books. She was answering a few questions a day, but I don't have the patience for that, so here they all are.
01. A fictional character you identify with and why.
Anne Shirley, not because she was orphaned or longed for puffed sleeves, but because for so much of her life she escaped what she didn't like around her by creating something different and more beautiful in her own mind.
02. Your earliest memory of reading or being read to.
My grandmother used to pick me up from preschool and take me back home to her house. We would lie on her bed and she would hold the Golden book Cinderella above her head and read it to me. Every single day. I used to wonder how she could hold her arms straight out the whole time, and then later I wondered if she ever got sick of reading that book over and over again. My guess is, probably so.
03. Your favourite book aged 9 ½, or 13 ¾, whichever you remember best.
I don't remember 9 ½ at all, but at 13 ¾, it was totally The Vampire Diaries. I love, loved those books.
04. The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.
The aforementioned Vampire Diaries, I think. Or her Hidden Powers trilogy, which I think I read first. I don't know for sure. I didn't actually keep any of my children's books, since they weren't just my books, I had to share them with my siblings.
05. A book you acquired in some interesting way
Define . . . interesting. I once liberated a book from the library. I was 16, the book was Starcrossed by Susan Krinard. I LOVED that book so much I couldn't handle it, and I didn't want to give it back, so I kept it. I kept it and I paid both the late fees and the cost of replacing the book, which I think totaled fifteen dollars, which is more than twice what it would have been if I'd just gone to B&N like a normal person and bought my own copy. But I wanted THAT copy, and that was that.
06. A book with a story for you, that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).
The Golden book Cinderella reminds me of my grandmother and nap time. The Vampire Diaries reminds me of the train ride from Virginia to California. Jurassic Park reminds me of staying up all night in my little pink bed with the hearts on the head board, staring at my door and expecting a raptor to appear in it. Lord of the Rings reminds me of college, Whits, Starbucks, and sitting up all night in my little pink bed with the hearts on the head board, sobbing my poor little heart out.
07. What fictional character are you (secretly) in love with
So very, very many. Jared from The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn. Samwise Gamgee. Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife. Laurie from Little Women. GILBERT.
08. The last book you acquired, and how (begged, bought, borrowed?)
A few hours ago I bought Insatiable by Meg Cabot. But that's only one of the six books I purchased in the last two days. I also bought Deadline by Mira Grant (sequel to Feed, which just might be my favorite zombie book ever), Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, Doc by Mary Doria Russell, Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn and a random YA book whose name and author I've already forgotten, but it looked really good.
09. Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.
I am currently rereading Feed, because I forgot who the bad guy was and I want to read Deadline a lot. I just finished After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn, which was good but should have been longer so it could have been better developed. Next will probably be Deadline, but I've purchased six books recently, so I make no promises.
10. What author do you own the most books by and why?
Anne McCaffrey, definitely. I'm pretty sure I have every single thing she's ever written. Following close behind her is either probably Tolkien, although I have more books ABOUT LotR than I do BY Tolkien.
11. Do you own multiple copies of any book? What are they? Why do you have multiple copies?
Oh god, yes. So many. Lord of the Rings, for sure. I have so many copies because they all look different and pretty and awesome. Also, one of them is in German. I have multiple copies of The Sparrow, because I like to have copies to hand out to friends. I have two copies of Old Man's War because one of them is signed by John Scalzi. I think I have two copies of The Time Traveler's Wife because I wanted a hardback and a reading copy. Anyway, I like to have a hardback of the books I really love as well as a paperback, so I can have a nice one that will last a while and one that I can read in bed.
12. Book borrowing - do you use the library? Do you prefer to try before you buy? What about lending your books to friends? Are you a good borrower, do you remember to return books?
I hardly ever use the library, because I use my store as a library. I go back and forth on the try before I buy. I am weak around books, and if I have the money and it looks interesting, I'll go ahead and purchase it, especially if it's from my store where it is really cheap. I am fine with lending books to friends, but I am really, really bad about remembering to read and return books that people lend to me. It's an issue. My personal library has absorbed a lot of books from friends that I never got around to reading or returning.
13. Do you reread a lot? Why (not)? Name a book you have reread many times.
Yes, alllllll the time. I've reread Lord of the Rings a crap ton of times. Also Summers and Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. And everything that Julia Quinn has ever written. Some of them because I love the story and want to relive it, but I also read SO MANY books that I forget plot lines a lot, come across a book while cleaning, and can't remember what the big plot reveal at the end of the book was, so I'll have to reread it and find out. Or when new volumes in a series come out, sometimes I'll go back and read all of them. I like to relive the moments.
14. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It was awesome on many, many levels.
15. Do you recommend books to other people? If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
Alllllll the time. I work at a bookstore, and people are always asking what I've been reading. And I tell my friends what they should read a lot too. I would never in a million years FORCE a book, especially not ONE BOOK on EVERYONE. Everyone is different, what speaks to me and writes itself on my soul would probably mean nothing to even my best friends.
16. Adaptation: What book would you most like to see made into a film? Do you like to read the book first or see the film? Any books you have read after seeing the film version?
I'd dearly love to see any of the Dragonriders of Pern as a movie. They've got the technology to make it look awesome. ORRRR the Naomi Novik books, which are SUPPOSED to be movies, hopefully. I like to see the movie first, so if I like the movie, I like the movie for itself. But if I read the book first and I love it I see pictures in my head of how the movie should go, and I have my own ideas of what is awesome and important, and then the movie always let me down.
Books I've read after watching the film: Lord of the Rings, Eragon, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the movie was better, oddly enough), Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Last Unicorn, Ella Enchanted, Big Fish, Practical Magic, The Children of Men, Howl's Moving Castle, The Thin Man, and Starship Troopers. That's just off the top of my head.
17. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I've read the Bible cover to cover four times. That's probably the most difficult. Other than that, probably Gael Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. Not even kidding, I had to buy the Cliff's Notes (it made me very sad) so I could keep track of the family tree.
18. Your favourite book series & your favourite book out of that series
Oh sweet Jesus, I can't pick a favorite series. That's so mean! Uh . . . off the top of my head, All the Weyrs of Pern in the Dragonriders of Pern series.
19. Your favourite picture, junior fiction and Young Adult books
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, and the Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle.
20. Least favourite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
First person narration. A lot of dislike. Not actually a plot device though. I'm going to go with infidelity.
21. A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It's such an old lady book club book and I was expecting it to be something that only old lady book clubs would like, but I was wrong and it was SO GOOD.
22. Your "comfort" book
Summers at Castle Auburn or anything by Julia Quinn.
23. Favourite book cover including a picture!
Okay, see. I notice book covers, because it turns out that you actually CAN judge a book by it's cover, but I don't have a FAVORITE, per se. I like pretty covers, the end. It's not the same cover every time, but there's something about all of them that intrigues me, and I can tell books I'm not going to like just by the font and the graphics. BUT. There is one book that I purchased within the last couple of months that I purchased solely because the cover was RIDICULOUS and I had to find out what the story was like:
WINGED VAMPIRES. WHAT. Also I love the text and the fact that someone felt the need to italicize LOVER.
24. Favourite fictional relationship (romantic, friendship, familial)
The first that comes to mind is Sam and Frodo, predictably. Even looking at it without my slash goggles on, it's a beautiful story of friendship, loyalty, and devotion.
25. Most annoying character ever
Holden Caulfield. OR both of those boys from A Separate Peace. OR Umbridge.
26. Most quotable novel or 5 of your favourite quotes from any books.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. - JRR Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
A good bookshop is just a genteel black hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett in Guards! Guards!
No one knows as well as I how much nonsense is printed in books. - Julia Quinn in Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities. - JK Rowling in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Madeleine L'Engle in A Wrinkle in Time
And because I couldn't stop picking them..............
The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand up on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne's are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up his answers, perhaps one day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God. - Mary Doria Russell in The Sparrow
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. - Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird
27. Any five books from your "to be read" stack. What makes you select a book for your “to be read” stack?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
Uh, they look intriguing and I buy them from the store without reading them first? What kind of question is that? I want to read them, that's what makes me select them.
28. Some firsts: First book you remember loving/being obsessed with. First book that made you cry. First book you gave to someone else as a gift.
I don't remember any of these, honestly. I've been reading for a really, really long time and the beginning parts are pretty freaking fuzzy.
29. Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
It's a toss up between Enzo in The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein or Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife or FREAKING EVERYONE in Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. (SPOILERS . . . )
30. The End: do you prefer everything tied up or to be able to 'make up your own mind'? What is the worst ending to a book you have read? And the best? (careful, spoiler tags!)
I always and forever want everything wrapped up for me. Seriously. There is absolutely nothing I hate more than a botched ending, and I really hate it when shit is left up to chance. I do not want to make up my own mind, because my own mind cannot choose between the happiest possible ending or the most depressing possible ending. My own mind is torn. Give me what you want me to think, and I will think that, and all will be good.
Worst ending: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. Such a disappointing follow up to her awesome first novel.
Best: there are way, way too many, but here are two that I love for different reasons: The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn, because of how poetic and beautiful the last line is and The Sparrow, because of where Emilio's spiritual journey is brought to.
01. A fictional character you identify with and why.
Anne Shirley, not because she was orphaned or longed for puffed sleeves, but because for so much of her life she escaped what she didn't like around her by creating something different and more beautiful in her own mind.
02. Your earliest memory of reading or being read to.
My grandmother used to pick me up from preschool and take me back home to her house. We would lie on her bed and she would hold the Golden book Cinderella above her head and read it to me. Every single day. I used to wonder how she could hold her arms straight out the whole time, and then later I wondered if she ever got sick of reading that book over and over again. My guess is, probably so.
03. Your favourite book aged 9 ½, or 13 ¾, whichever you remember best.
I don't remember 9 ½ at all, but at 13 ¾, it was totally The Vampire Diaries. I love, loved those books.
04. The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.
The aforementioned Vampire Diaries, I think. Or her Hidden Powers trilogy, which I think I read first. I don't know for sure. I didn't actually keep any of my children's books, since they weren't just my books, I had to share them with my siblings.
05. A book you acquired in some interesting way
Define . . . interesting. I once liberated a book from the library. I was 16, the book was Starcrossed by Susan Krinard. I LOVED that book so much I couldn't handle it, and I didn't want to give it back, so I kept it. I kept it and I paid both the late fees and the cost of replacing the book, which I think totaled fifteen dollars, which is more than twice what it would have been if I'd just gone to B&N like a normal person and bought my own copy. But I wanted THAT copy, and that was that.
06. A book with a story for you, that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).
The Golden book Cinderella reminds me of my grandmother and nap time. The Vampire Diaries reminds me of the train ride from Virginia to California. Jurassic Park reminds me of staying up all night in my little pink bed with the hearts on the head board, staring at my door and expecting a raptor to appear in it. Lord of the Rings reminds me of college, Whits, Starbucks, and sitting up all night in my little pink bed with the hearts on the head board, sobbing my poor little heart out.
07. What fictional character are you (secretly) in love with
So very, very many. Jared from The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn. Samwise Gamgee. Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife. Laurie from Little Women. GILBERT.
08. The last book you acquired, and how (begged, bought, borrowed?)
A few hours ago I bought Insatiable by Meg Cabot. But that's only one of the six books I purchased in the last two days. I also bought Deadline by Mira Grant (sequel to Feed, which just might be my favorite zombie book ever), Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, Doc by Mary Doria Russell, Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn and a random YA book whose name and author I've already forgotten, but it looked really good.
09. Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.
I am currently rereading Feed, because I forgot who the bad guy was and I want to read Deadline a lot. I just finished After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn, which was good but should have been longer so it could have been better developed. Next will probably be Deadline, but I've purchased six books recently, so I make no promises.
10. What author do you own the most books by and why?
Anne McCaffrey, definitely. I'm pretty sure I have every single thing she's ever written. Following close behind her is either probably Tolkien, although I have more books ABOUT LotR than I do BY Tolkien.
11. Do you own multiple copies of any book? What are they? Why do you have multiple copies?
Oh god, yes. So many. Lord of the Rings, for sure. I have so many copies because they all look different and pretty and awesome. Also, one of them is in German. I have multiple copies of The Sparrow, because I like to have copies to hand out to friends. I have two copies of Old Man's War because one of them is signed by John Scalzi. I think I have two copies of The Time Traveler's Wife because I wanted a hardback and a reading copy. Anyway, I like to have a hardback of the books I really love as well as a paperback, so I can have a nice one that will last a while and one that I can read in bed.
12. Book borrowing - do you use the library? Do you prefer to try before you buy? What about lending your books to friends? Are you a good borrower, do you remember to return books?
I hardly ever use the library, because I use my store as a library. I go back and forth on the try before I buy. I am weak around books, and if I have the money and it looks interesting, I'll go ahead and purchase it, especially if it's from my store where it is really cheap. I am fine with lending books to friends, but I am really, really bad about remembering to read and return books that people lend to me. It's an issue. My personal library has absorbed a lot of books from friends that I never got around to reading or returning.
13. Do you reread a lot? Why (not)? Name a book you have reread many times.
Yes, alllllll the time. I've reread Lord of the Rings a crap ton of times. Also Summers and Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. And everything that Julia Quinn has ever written. Some of them because I love the story and want to relive it, but I also read SO MANY books that I forget plot lines a lot, come across a book while cleaning, and can't remember what the big plot reveal at the end of the book was, so I'll have to reread it and find out. Or when new volumes in a series come out, sometimes I'll go back and read all of them. I like to relive the moments.
14. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It was awesome on many, many levels.
15. Do you recommend books to other people? If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
Alllllll the time. I work at a bookstore, and people are always asking what I've been reading. And I tell my friends what they should read a lot too. I would never in a million years FORCE a book, especially not ONE BOOK on EVERYONE. Everyone is different, what speaks to me and writes itself on my soul would probably mean nothing to even my best friends.
16. Adaptation: What book would you most like to see made into a film? Do you like to read the book first or see the film? Any books you have read after seeing the film version?
I'd dearly love to see any of the Dragonriders of Pern as a movie. They've got the technology to make it look awesome. ORRRR the Naomi Novik books, which are SUPPOSED to be movies, hopefully. I like to see the movie first, so if I like the movie, I like the movie for itself. But if I read the book first and I love it I see pictures in my head of how the movie should go, and I have my own ideas of what is awesome and important, and then the movie always let me down.
Books I've read after watching the film: Lord of the Rings, Eragon, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the movie was better, oddly enough), Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Last Unicorn, Ella Enchanted, Big Fish, Practical Magic, The Children of Men, Howl's Moving Castle, The Thin Man, and Starship Troopers. That's just off the top of my head.
17. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I've read the Bible cover to cover four times. That's probably the most difficult. Other than that, probably Gael Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. Not even kidding, I had to buy the Cliff's Notes (it made me very sad) so I could keep track of the family tree.
18. Your favourite book series & your favourite book out of that series
Oh sweet Jesus, I can't pick a favorite series. That's so mean! Uh . . . off the top of my head, All the Weyrs of Pern in the Dragonriders of Pern series.
19. Your favourite picture, junior fiction and Young Adult books
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, and the Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle.
20. Least favourite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
First person narration. A lot of dislike. Not actually a plot device though. I'm going to go with infidelity.
21. A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It's such an old lady book club book and I was expecting it to be something that only old lady book clubs would like, but I was wrong and it was SO GOOD.
22. Your "comfort" book
Summers at Castle Auburn or anything by Julia Quinn.
23. Favourite book cover including a picture!
Okay, see. I notice book covers, because it turns out that you actually CAN judge a book by it's cover, but I don't have a FAVORITE, per se. I like pretty covers, the end. It's not the same cover every time, but there's something about all of them that intrigues me, and I can tell books I'm not going to like just by the font and the graphics. BUT. There is one book that I purchased within the last couple of months that I purchased solely because the cover was RIDICULOUS and I had to find out what the story was like:
WINGED VAMPIRES. WHAT. Also I love the text and the fact that someone felt the need to italicize LOVER.
24. Favourite fictional relationship (romantic, friendship, familial)
The first that comes to mind is Sam and Frodo, predictably. Even looking at it without my slash goggles on, it's a beautiful story of friendship, loyalty, and devotion.
25. Most annoying character ever
Holden Caulfield. OR both of those boys from A Separate Peace. OR Umbridge.
26. Most quotable novel or 5 of your favourite quotes from any books.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. - JRR Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
A good bookshop is just a genteel black hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett in Guards! Guards!
No one knows as well as I how much nonsense is printed in books. - Julia Quinn in Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities. - JK Rowling in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Madeleine L'Engle in A Wrinkle in Time
And because I couldn't stop picking them..............
The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand up on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne's are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up his answers, perhaps one day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God. - Mary Doria Russell in The Sparrow
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. - Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird
27. Any five books from your "to be read" stack. What makes you select a book for your “to be read” stack?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
Uh, they look intriguing and I buy them from the store without reading them first? What kind of question is that? I want to read them, that's what makes me select them.
28. Some firsts: First book you remember loving/being obsessed with. First book that made you cry. First book you gave to someone else as a gift.
I don't remember any of these, honestly. I've been reading for a really, really long time and the beginning parts are pretty freaking fuzzy.
29. Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
It's a toss up between Enzo in The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein or Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife or FREAKING EVERYONE in Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. (SPOILERS . . . )
30. The End: do you prefer everything tied up or to be able to 'make up your own mind'? What is the worst ending to a book you have read? And the best? (careful, spoiler tags!)
I always and forever want everything wrapped up for me. Seriously. There is absolutely nothing I hate more than a botched ending, and I really hate it when shit is left up to chance. I do not want to make up my own mind, because my own mind cannot choose between the happiest possible ending or the most depressing possible ending. My own mind is torn. Give me what you want me to think, and I will think that, and all will be good.
Worst ending: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. Such a disappointing follow up to her awesome first novel.
Best: there are way, way too many, but here are two that I love for different reasons: The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn, because of how poetic and beautiful the last line is and The Sparrow, because of where Emilio's spiritual journey is brought to.