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Jul. 20th, 2003 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelFound this list of books on
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Found this list of books on <lj-user = "slightlyjillian"> and I'm leaving all the questions together so they're easier to copy if you want to have a bash.
<b>1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress!
2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
4. What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never get around to reading?
5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
6. What's the oddest book you've ever read?
7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
9. What's your favorite short story...or do you even have one?
10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want Lord of the Rings it'll cost you all three slots). Go:</b>
<lj-cut text = "My books">
<b>1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress!</b>
Farmer Giles of Ham - just love Pauline Baynes illustrations, and, if I'm really miserable, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman...I want to take Aziraphale home and mother him but Crowley....gggrrrrr. I also enjoy the Brother Cadfael books and Lindsey Davis's Falco stories - the literary equivalent of chocolate.
<b>2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why? </b>
I didn't so much have favourite books as favourite authors - even as a kid I read so fast that one book wasn't quite enough. I loved Enid Blyton's 'Adventure' series also her 'Mystery' series but her Secret Seven books and Famous five ones left me cold. I also adored Westerns and would sneak them off my parents bookshelves - luckily in those days they tended to be very PG. I also remember reading and enjoying From Russia with Love when I was about 7 though there were some bits that puzzled me mightily.
<b>3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why? </b>
Tolkein - I discovered Lord of the Rings when I was 15 and read it continuously for the next ten years.(I read other things as well but LotR always had my bookmark somewhere in it and I didn't travel without it). I suppose the reason I loved it so much is that it was a world I could lose myself in. Fan fiction didn't exist in those days - not in the same way - so I only wrote stuff inspired by it and did copious numbers of illustration.
<b>4. What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never get around to reading? </b>
Works of reference. I have masses of books on historical subjects most of which I have bought to address one particular problem and somehow, once you've read the relevant chapters and looked up the interesting bits you don't get round to reading the whole work. Otherwise, if I buy a book it's because I want to read it and if someone loans me one I'll give it a fair go even if I find I'm not enjoying it.
<b>5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do? </b>
Contemporay novels - the sort of stuff most of my friends read is aggressively intellectual and I can't cope with it. Whether it's because I'm not suffiiently intellegent or because I find that the stories just aren't sufficiently interesting - all those people angsting - eeewwww.
<b>6. What's the oddest book you've ever read?</b>
Ullysses.
<b>7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?</b>
Crime and Punishment - great novel but yawn. Also Sir Walter Scott writes marellous yarns but awful novels - why use one word when 28 will do? For pity's sake, Walt, cut to the chase! Also War and Peace but that was purely because of the size of it - I had to stop reading it to read something for work and when I went back to it after a few weeks I'd forgotten who everybody was - it's no help that everyone in it has at least three different names.
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
Again not one book but an author. Terry Pratchett. I read The Colour of Mgic when it first came out and thought 'yeah, ok, whatever' and made no effort to read any of the others until Dad gave me 'Mort'. Since then I've been devoted.
<b>9. What's your favorite short story...or do you even have one? </b>
I don't usually read short stories but I adore Anita Desai's. There's one about hide and seek while waiting for the monsoon that's just gut-wrenching. Wish I could remember the title of the book because it was like a string of baroque pearls, each one a little different, each perfect and totally satisfying in its own way.
<b>10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want Lord of the Rings it'll cost you all three slots). Go:</b>
This is just so unfair - only 3 books isn't enough for a compulsive reader! Right let's bite the bullet...Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, obviously, to cheer myself up. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett in order to be stimulated on a number of levels (word play, sword play and Francis Crawford of Lymond - phwooaarr). Ummm the third book ought to be something spiritually improving. I could go for Jonathan Livingston Seagull.... No, dammit, assuming he ever finishes it I'll take Snitch! by Al.
</lj-cut>
Right now I've completed that little intellectual exercise I've got to make the armature for a life size model of a 13th century knight - never say museum work isn't varied!
<b>1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress!
2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
4. What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never get around to reading?
5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
6. What's the oddest book you've ever read?
7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
9. What's your favorite short story...or do you even have one?
10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want Lord of the Rings it'll cost you all three slots). Go:</b>
<lj-cut text = "My books">
<b>1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress!</b>
Farmer Giles of Ham - just love Pauline Baynes illustrations, and, if I'm really miserable, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman...I want to take Aziraphale home and mother him but Crowley....gggrrrrr. I also enjoy the Brother Cadfael books and Lindsey Davis's Falco stories - the literary equivalent of chocolate.
<b>2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why? </b>
I didn't so much have favourite books as favourite authors - even as a kid I read so fast that one book wasn't quite enough. I loved Enid Blyton's 'Adventure' series also her 'Mystery' series but her Secret Seven books and Famous five ones left me cold. I also adored Westerns and would sneak them off my parents bookshelves - luckily in those days they tended to be very PG. I also remember reading and enjoying From Russia with Love when I was about 7 though there were some bits that puzzled me mightily.
<b>3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why? </b>
Tolkein - I discovered Lord of the Rings when I was 15 and read it continuously for the next ten years.(I read other things as well but LotR always had my bookmark somewhere in it and I didn't travel without it). I suppose the reason I loved it so much is that it was a world I could lose myself in. Fan fiction didn't exist in those days - not in the same way - so I only wrote stuff inspired by it and did copious numbers of illustration.
<b>4. What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never get around to reading? </b>
Works of reference. I have masses of books on historical subjects most of which I have bought to address one particular problem and somehow, once you've read the relevant chapters and looked up the interesting bits you don't get round to reading the whole work. Otherwise, if I buy a book it's because I want to read it and if someone loans me one I'll give it a fair go even if I find I'm not enjoying it.
<b>5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do? </b>
Contemporay novels - the sort of stuff most of my friends read is aggressively intellectual and I can't cope with it. Whether it's because I'm not suffiiently intellegent or because I find that the stories just aren't sufficiently interesting - all those people angsting - eeewwww.
<b>6. What's the oddest book you've ever read?</b>
Ullysses.
<b>7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?</b>
Crime and Punishment - great novel but yawn. Also Sir Walter Scott writes marellous yarns but awful novels - why use one word when 28 will do? For pity's sake, Walt, cut to the chase! Also War and Peace but that was purely because of the size of it - I had to stop reading it to read something for work and when I went back to it after a few weeks I'd forgotten who everybody was - it's no help that everyone in it has at least three different names.
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
Again not one book but an author. Terry Pratchett. I read The Colour of Mgic when it first came out and thought 'yeah, ok, whatever' and made no effort to read any of the others until Dad gave me 'Mort'. Since then I've been devoted.
<b>9. What's your favorite short story...or do you even have one? </b>
I don't usually read short stories but I adore Anita Desai's. There's one about hide and seek while waiting for the monsoon that's just gut-wrenching. Wish I could remember the title of the book because it was like a string of baroque pearls, each one a little different, each perfect and totally satisfying in its own way.
<b>10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want Lord of the Rings it'll cost you all three slots). Go:</b>
This is just so unfair - only 3 books isn't enough for a compulsive reader! Right let's bite the bullet...Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, obviously, to cheer myself up. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett in order to be stimulated on a number of levels (word play, sword play and Francis Crawford of Lymond - phwooaarr). Ummm the third book ought to be something spiritually improving. I could go for Jonathan Livingston Seagull.... No, dammit, assuming he ever finishes it I'll take Snitch! by Al.
</lj-cut>
Right now I've completed that little intellectual exercise I've got to make the armature for a life size model of a 13th century knight - never say museum work isn't varied!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-20 09:51 am (UTC)Oh, poor C&P. Although, my affection for Russian authors only blossomed after I found a decent translating team (Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). Some of the other editions of C&P around are rotten.
I used to sneak my dad's old paperback westerns as well. Go Max Brand!
Re:
Date: 2003-07-20 03:36 pm (UTC)I did try that nifty thing that makes your name light up and forms a link to your LJ but I must've done it wrong because nothing came out at all!