Thursday, July 10, 2008

Book Meme!

As you probably know by now, I can never resist a book meme. So... Book meme!

1. A favorite book!

Um, man... I guess I'll go with a nerd staple and say The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

2. A book that affected you in your YA years.

More little-kid than YA, maybe, but I remember reading Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time over and over and over.

3. A favorite fantasy novel.

This is hard. I keep wanting to name entire series. Like Discworld. Or even Sandman, and now we're seriously stretching the definition of "novel."

4. A favorite sci fi novel.

Can I be lazy and just say Hitchhiker's again?

5. An awesome book (possibly a favorite) you think not many people around you have heard of/read.

Man, I don't know. OK, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go to my LibraryThing library, sort in reverse order by popularity, and mention the first awesome book I come across that way. And the winner is... The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Coverup by Philip J. Klass. If you read one book about UFOs, ever, I suggest reading this one. And if you read lots of books about UFOs, I definitely suggest reading this one.

6. A book you own more than one copy of.

I have two different editions of The Star Trek Compendium. Does that count?

7. An author whose every single book you own/will buy.

Terry Pratchett. There are a few of his early books that I don't have, but I have a complete set of Discworld novels... which is kind of saying something.

8. The worst book you've ever read.

Well, the one book I've ever read and then immediately wished I could un-read was Avon: A Terrible Aspect. But that didn't actually ruin the TV series it was based on for me forever, as I thought at the time that it might, and I can look back on it now and laugh. So I'm going to say Battlefield Earth instead.

9. A book you dislike that lots of other people you know like.

I can't think of any particular books, so I will instead mention the deep-seated antipathy towards Jane Austen that was instilled in me in high school. Many people have tried to talk me out of this. Please, don't bother.

10. The most difficult book you've ever read.

I don't know. Maybe Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind? I'm sure his conclusions are wrong, but he totally blinded me with science.

11. Tell me what kind of books your mom reads/read.

A lot of mystery and suspense, I think, with a fair smattering of science fiction. Actually, I think she's been reading a lot more SF in recent years, which is kind of nice, as it gives us something to talk about.

12. What have you read so far this year?

This.

13. What are you reading now?

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

14. What are you reading next?

I'm not sure. I've only just started this one, and haven't even really picked out any possibilities for what to read next.

8 comments:

  1. the deep-seated antipathy towards Jane Austen that was instilled in me in high school
    Oh, man. Emma was the most boring book I've ever read -- and then they went and made a movie out of it? PBS had a whole series of Jane Austen's work a few months ago, and I couldn't stomach the thought of watching any of them.

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  2. I loved A Wrinkle In Time.
    I can't even count how many times I read that over as a kid...:)

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  3. Captain C: Emma was painful on many, many levels, and B.O'.B.'s over-the-top enthusiasm for it did not help.

    Geosomin: I don't know how many times I read that as a kid, myself, but it was enough that the cover eventually fell off. :)

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  4. Start with "Northanger Abbey" for a gentle introduction to Jane Austen. It's about a fangirl! In two hundred years nothing much has changed. :)

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  5. In the highly unlikely event that I ever decide I want to be re-introduced to Austen, I'll keep that in mind. ;)

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  6. (Oh, and it's been way more than 200 years... Don Quixote's all about a fanboy, too. ;))

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  7. Concerning Hitchhiker, I started off with the original radio series, which was fantastic. After that, perhaps inevitably, the books came as something of an anticlimax. I think that it's the same syndrome that makes seeing a movie based on a favourite book always seem unsatisfying. I felt that in the books Douglas Adams was trying just a little bit too hard to be clever and funny.

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  8. Whereas my first exposure to it was the book, and, as the meme indicates, it's still an all-time favorite of mine. I've gotten the impression from some of his later books that he was trying too hard, but I find the original Hithhiker's trilogy (back when it actually was three volumes) quite naturally clever and entertaining.

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