All about books-a meme
The wonderful Kate at Mothers Who Write tagged me for this meme, and it's a good thing too, as my imagination is as dry as a worried old bone this week!
1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? I love hardcovers for their durability, but nothing beats a paperback for slipping into a diaper bag without causing too much extra weight.
2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it...Words to Live By. Or else Green Gables. I'm a dork for that series.
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is...this is a hard one for me, but I'd have to say it's this one from On The Road:
4. The author (alive or diseased) I would love to have lunch with would be...since I have been on a bit of Virginia Woolf kick lately, I would have to say her. Although I would also LOVE to meet Anne Tyler. She's one of my idols and she gives so few interviews.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…I am going to cheat a little bit here and say the collected works of Jane Austen. They're published as ONE book, and I think I would be happy spending all of that tropical time with Darcy, Elizabeth, Marianne and Elinor (but not Fanny, she's a bit of a drip).
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…emanated light from within the book itself, so I could read in the dark without necessarily disturbing TEG or Madam.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…my favorite library as a child...I loved to sit in the middle of the aisle and pull out those big, magical old books. The mildew smelled exactly like wisdom to me.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be...probably Anne of Green Gables, once she stopped being an orphan. I'd like to live inside her life AND her mind.
9. The most overestimated book of all time is…I don't know about "all time" but since Kate mentioned my first pick The Corrections, I may have to jump in with my second. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I hate books where so much energy is spent telling me how brilliant and beautiful a main character is, and how much people love her. It makes me rebelliously end up loathing her.
10. I hate it when a book...fails to make me care about the main characters. No amount of gorgeous writing can salvage it for me then.
I'm tagging: Heather, Rach, Amber, Lisa and Deirdre for this one.
1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? I love hardcovers for their durability, but nothing beats a paperback for slipping into a diaper bag without causing too much extra weight.
2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it...Words to Live By. Or else Green Gables. I'm a dork for that series.
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is...this is a hard one for me, but I'd have to say it's this one from On The Road:
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
4. The author (alive or diseased) I would love to have lunch with would be...since I have been on a bit of Virginia Woolf kick lately, I would have to say her. Although I would also LOVE to meet Anne Tyler. She's one of my idols and she gives so few interviews.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…I am going to cheat a little bit here and say the collected works of Jane Austen. They're published as ONE book, and I think I would be happy spending all of that tropical time with Darcy, Elizabeth, Marianne and Elinor (but not Fanny, she's a bit of a drip).
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…emanated light from within the book itself, so I could read in the dark without necessarily disturbing TEG or Madam.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…my favorite library as a child...I loved to sit in the middle of the aisle and pull out those big, magical old books. The mildew smelled exactly like wisdom to me.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be...probably Anne of Green Gables, once she stopped being an orphan. I'd like to live inside her life AND her mind.
9. The most overestimated book of all time is…I don't know about "all time" but since Kate mentioned my first pick The Corrections, I may have to jump in with my second. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I hate books where so much energy is spent telling me how brilliant and beautiful a main character is, and how much people love her. It makes me rebelliously end up loathing her.
10. I hate it when a book...fails to make me care about the main characters. No amount of gorgeous writing can salvage it for me then.
I'm tagging: Heather, Rach, Amber, Lisa and Deirdre for this one.
Labels: meme
posted by Anonymous at 4:01 PM
12 Comments:
These are great answers and I feel like I know you better for them. Hmm...I'll need a couple of days to think about these myself and then I'll post. Thanks for the tag!
Yes, you're absolutely right about not caring about the main characters. Maybe that was my problem with The Corrections. I love that you picked "collected works" for your one book!
This is a very thoughtful meme - by which I mean, it requires a lot of thinking! I'm always so hard pressed to decide about my "favorite" or "best of" anything when it comes to books. There are just too many to choose from.
I love the smell of old books - and I, too, always think of that first trip to the library as a child.
I enjoyed reading your bookish revelations.
oh - I will let you know what I think of Writing Begins With the Breath when I read it - I'll put it up next on the list!
If you haven't already you should totally go to Prince Edward Island and visit Anne's house. PEI is incredibly beautiful and her house is magical!
This is a good, thoughtful meme - I'll have to keep the list of questions handy and give this one some thought.
#5 makes me more determined to correct a terrible lapse in my reading of classics. (I've never read Jane Austen - gasp)
I love Anne of Green Gables too! So much. I reread them a few years ago, plus some of the later ones I'd never read as a kid. L.M. Montgomery is a wonderful storyteller. It was the Emily books that hooked me in first because you know Emily was a WRITER. I haven't reread those in YEARS but I must -- they were so inspiring. Remember how she called her notebooks her "Jimmy books" and how she had to retype each ms by hand to mail it off to different publishers? And the romance! Teddy! He was just as good as Gilbert in my memory. :-) Plus, I like the name Teddy a lot better than Gilbert!
Er, oh yeah, and Jane Austen too! I agree about Fanny. Loved Northanger Abbey, though. Need to reread Persuasion.
such great answers...and i can relate to so many of them (stranded with austen...the book light (oh how i need this!)...anne)
I'm the same way - liking, caring about, and identifying with the protagonist is the most important thing to me in a book.
I think you should open that bookstore and i'll come soak up the atmosphere and give you my own answers to this meme. great choice for the deserted island. x
this is absolutely the best meme I have every seen. Because it's about books - how could it fail!
Yes! Built-in book lights! :)
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