Book Meme ganked from Stacy

[bixxy]

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
I still have several books that I've had since I was seven, most notably four little green hardbacked Beatrix Potters: The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Ginger and Pickles, and one of my all-time favorite books in life, The Pie and the Patty-Pan. I also have a whole

Comments

[typicalfemale]

Why didn't you like A Prayer for Owen Meany?

& as far as The Memory Keeper's Daughter my aunt says (I don't know if she really does this or not) that she reads the ending of every novel she gets before she starts it, so that she isn't in suspense but enjoys the journey. I still think it's crap, as I just finished My Sister's Keeper and somebody spoiled the ending for me last year and a friend told me "Oh, they lied, that's not the ending" when it WAS, I figured out today, so she wouldn't ruin my view of the book. Anyhow, Memory Keeper is a short book but if it's a twist-end, rough to plow through the first parts, I'd think.

[bixxy]

Memory Keeper doesn't have a twist end, it's just that some horrible things happen at the beginning. They drive the whole book, and I wanted to see if some of the horribleness was mitigated by the end.

I don't think I liked anything about Owen Meany. I'm wondering if maybe it's a book "of its time," like maybe it was the first time anybody had done...whatever...therefore it's a significant book? It seemed unnecessarily quirky (the CAPS of course, but other stuff too), the political diatribe was like "whoa, you lost me," and the whole book seems to exist for one silly parlor trick -- the lame payoff for "The Shot." I just don't like/"get" the book. Clearly, other people's mileage has varied!

FWIW I hated the end of My Sister's Keeper so much, I literally threw the book across the room.

[stacyinthecity]

Interesting, I didn't realize that The Player was a book first! It seemed perfect for film.

Thanks for taking my book advice. :)

[bixxy]

I know, right? With the film, it's this parade of superstars. Seeing them packs a punch that the book doesn't have.

[dewa8]

I love it that Farmer Boy made you hungry. I loved all the big meals she wrote about. Although that trick of eating the middle of the carrot separately from the outside never really worked for me as well as it was supposed to.

[petrel]

How was Her Fearful Symmetry? I was so excited that it was coming out, but then it had such mixed reviews that I would only put it on hold at the library rather than actually buy it. Now I am down to something like number 94 in the hold queue...

[bixxy]

I feel like it was recognizably a Niffenegger book --same sorts of artsy, left-of-center characters, a similar "feel" -- but it is NOT The Time-Traveler's Wife.

Her Fearful Symmetry is a gothic novel a la Henry James and a bunch of other stuff I haven't read. There's quite a bit of the "love triumphs over everything, including time & death" stuff, like Time-Traveler, but stuff eventually goes all Stephen King borderline gross right at the end.

You should read it when your number comes up. I will probably reread mine more than once. Nothing touches Time-Traveler, but I've found that despite my initial semi-disappointment over Symmetry and struggling to give it a fair shake, much of it has stayed with me.

[petrel]

Okay, I finally, finally read Her Fearful Symmetry. I was pretty into it and read the whole thing in four days. I liked the character development -- I really wanted to know what was going to happen to each of them. But then I got toward the end and it was getting weird. And then I got to the last page and I kept thinking, "REALLY? This is how you end it?" It felt like she just got tired of writing and just ended the book. But, I liked it. Definitely not as good as Time Traveler but worth reading. I am sure it will stay with me as well. Once I stop grumbling about the last two pages.

[bixxy]

Yep, definitely not Time Traveler, but still worth sumpin.