Book survey meme
Jan. 30th, 2003 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantHey! I can breathe through both nostrils tonight! Thank the deity of your choice for antibiotics. If I'd been born before the age of antibiotics, my life would certainly have been phlegmy, brutish, and short, and then I would have carved up my own face with a grapefruit spoon.
Here's the other book survey:
Book you keep meaning to read that always gets bumped to second place by new purchases:
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I can't tell you how many times I've checked out Tigana plus something else, read the something else, opened Tigana and gotten through the prologue and two pages of the first chapter, and then had to return both books to the library.
Book you put down halfway through and never got back to: That second book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
Book you love and can never convince anyone else to read: Moby Dick. Everybody hates this book but me. It's, like, shorthand for "that famous book which we all agree is unreadable, right?" But I loved it.
Book you'll never read no matter how many people tell you you should: I've read all kinds of crap because people told me I should. I'd probably give just about anything a try. But I have absolutely no qualms about dropping it after ten pages if it bores me.
Children's book that no one else remembers except you: Does anyone else remember, there was a series about a family of kids named Melendy? I don't remember any of the titles, though. Also, Joan Aiken's Arabel's Raven.
Children's book everyone seems to have read that you've never read / heard of: The Wind in the Willows.
Terrific book, terrible movie: Isn't that pretty much of a "duh" proposition? I do have to say, though, that Jurassic Park was a surprisingly entertaining book.
Book you loved on first reading which on subsequent readings wow, not so much: Can't think of any adult books. I adored the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books as a child, but I think they're lame as hell now that I'm reading them repeatedly to my daughter.
Most Overrated / Overhyped Book or Author, in your opinion: I hate William Faulkner. Is the purpose of language to communicate, or what?
Non-English Major/author answer: I don't get why everybody likes Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy so much. The ideas are interesting, sure, but the actual story reads like an outline. Tell, tell, tell. I remember encountering a line that quite literally said something like, "She now realized that she loved and trusted him deeply."
I also hated The Mists of Avalon.
Most Underrated / Misunderstood Book or Author, in your opinion: Stephen King isn't underrated, god knows, but I think he's under-respected. Even a book like The Tommyknockers, which is a failure in many ways, has moments of human understanding that just take my breath away.
Here's the other book survey:
Book you keep meaning to read that always gets bumped to second place by new purchases:
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I can't tell you how many times I've checked out Tigana plus something else, read the something else, opened Tigana and gotten through the prologue and two pages of the first chapter, and then had to return both books to the library.
Book you put down halfway through and never got back to: That second book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
Book you love and can never convince anyone else to read: Moby Dick. Everybody hates this book but me. It's, like, shorthand for "that famous book which we all agree is unreadable, right?" But I loved it.
Book you'll never read no matter how many people tell you you should: I've read all kinds of crap because people told me I should. I'd probably give just about anything a try. But I have absolutely no qualms about dropping it after ten pages if it bores me.
Children's book that no one else remembers except you: Does anyone else remember, there was a series about a family of kids named Melendy? I don't remember any of the titles, though. Also, Joan Aiken's Arabel's Raven.
Children's book everyone seems to have read that you've never read / heard of: The Wind in the Willows.
Terrific book, terrible movie: Isn't that pretty much of a "duh" proposition? I do have to say, though, that Jurassic Park was a surprisingly entertaining book.
Book you loved on first reading which on subsequent readings wow, not so much: Can't think of any adult books. I adored the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books as a child, but I think they're lame as hell now that I'm reading them repeatedly to my daughter.
Most Overrated / Overhyped Book or Author, in your opinion: I hate William Faulkner. Is the purpose of language to communicate, or what?
Non-English Major/author answer: I don't get why everybody likes Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy so much. The ideas are interesting, sure, but the actual story reads like an outline. Tell, tell, tell. I remember encountering a line that quite literally said something like, "She now realized that she loved and trusted him deeply."
I also hated The Mists of Avalon.
Most Underrated / Misunderstood Book or Author, in your opinion: Stephen King isn't underrated, god knows, but I think he's under-respected. Even a book like The Tommyknockers, which is a failure in many ways, has moments of human understanding that just take my breath away.
Oooh! Oooh!
Date: 1/31/03 06:24 am (UTC)Joan Aiken rocks. Plus, both the one I mentioned and the one Tzikeh mentioned are increadibly slashy. Femslashy, even.
(yes, I know I'm probably going to hell for slashing, what, thirteen year old girls? Still. Just wait for them to grow up, that's all I have to say.)
Re: Oooh! Oooh!
Date: 1/31/03 08:00 am (UTC)