Literature Meme
1) What author do you own the most books by?
I have multiple books by many authors, but the current winner may be Charlaine Harris because I have all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels except the most recent one.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Why would you have more than one copy of the same book? There may be two Bibles somewhere in the house and I have two copies of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim because I bought one and Sharon gave me one (I think).
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Bill Compton from the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. A sexy Civil War soldier turned vampire? That’s hot.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
I know I have read Some Can Whistle by Larry McMurtry at least three times, and cried at the ending every time.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Long Trail Home by Josh Durfey
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Love Junkie by Rachel Resnick was pretty bad. One of those bad relationships confessional books. Although I won’t say it was a bad book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski was incredibly disappointing.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
The Flamingo Rising by Larry Baker: I loved this quirky book and all its eccentric characters. Hubert Lee builds the world's biggest drive-in theater, the Flamingo, next to Turner West's funeral home, sparking an intense feud. Hubert Lee and his wife have two adopted two children from Korea, Louise and Abe, our narrator. The book was billed as a Romeo and Juliet story between Abe and Turner West's daughter, Grace, but it's more of a coming-of-age in the 1960s story. It’s also a story about love and family. The book has a sad ending that I didn’t see coming. I think I would have cried if I hadn’t been at work and I rarely cry over books.
9) What is your favorite book published in the past 15 years?
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: The book really isn't like anything I've ever read before. It's literary, with elements of a science fiction novel and a love story. The basic story is about a man named Henry who spontaneously travels through time and periodically meets with his future wife, Clare, throughout her childhood. Henry's time traveling is presented as a genetic disorder, and he and Clare struggle with his odd disorder in addition to the problems that any couple could have. When you look past the strange premise, the writing is solid, the characters are well-developed, and the love story between Henry and Clare is beautiful and compelling. I give it five out of five stars.
10) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I think most people would like The Lover by Marguerite Duras. It’s romantic and tragic and it’s not very long, either.
11) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no idea.
12) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I think that a book I read recently, One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak, would make a good movie, even though I wasn’t that taken with the book.
13) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It couldn’t be done well and the book is already perfect.
14) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
When I was reading The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler, I had one of the freakiest dreams that I have ever had. In this dream,
I find a baby in a box under my bed. The box looks like a Krispy Kreme donut box and says, "Baby in a box." In this dream, the baby is my baby. I'm holding her, but I keep forgetting to support her head, so her head flops backwards. I'm looking for diapers, but I can't find any. I'm at my house, and my family members are going about their normal lives. The baby's father is someone I know, but he doesn't know that we have a baby. I keep thinking that I have to find him and tell him. Then I misplace the baby, and I'm frantically looking all over the house, but I can't find the baby. I think that she'll cry and then I will be able to find her. Someone, my mom, I think, asks me what's wrong, and I yell, "I can't find Abby!" As weird as it was, it made me think about adding “Abigail” to my potential baby names list, even though it was never a name I thought about before, because maybe the dream was a sign.
15) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I’ve read some Karen Robards romance novels. Sometimes you just need some sexy pirates in your life.
16) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man by James Joyce. I did not enjoy it.
17) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I’ve never seen Shakespeare performed.
18) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French
19) Roth or Updike?
Roth
20) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
David Sedaris represent.
21) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare
22) Austen or Eliot?
Haven’t read either.
23) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
There are a lot of classics that I haven’t read. Sometimes I try to branch out. I attempted to read Wuthering Heights once, but I thought my brains were going to start leaking out my ears. Since I’m in real life and not grad school, I don’t have to be embarrassed. In my real life, the majority of the people I know think I’m some sort of super-genius just because I read for fun.
24) What is your favorite novel?
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25) Play?
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I wrote an essay in high school about how I identify with Laura, which is still true.
26) Poem?
1. “Snowy Egret” by Bruce Weigl
2. “Tonight I Can Write” by Pablo Neruda (in Spanish or English)
3. “The Summer of Lost Rachel” by Seamus Heaney
4. “Pain for a Daughter” by Anne Sexton
5. “Romance Sonambulo” by Federico Garcia Lorca (only in Spanish, which sounds pretentious, but it isn’t the same in English)
27) Essay?
“You Can’t Kill the Rooster” from Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
28) Short story?
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx: Everything that was beautiful about the film was in this tiny story.
Zog 19: A Scientific Romance by Pinckney Benedict: Partially because this was written by my former professor, but mostly because it’s an awesome story about a farmer whose body is taken over by an alien.
29) Work of nonfiction?
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn: Everyone has their own memories of September 11th, but this book gave me a new perspective of what really happened to the ordinary people who went to work in the Towers that day. This powerful book is richly detailed and terribly sad. It precisely follows the progression of events from shortly before the first plane hits to the collapse of the second tower. It was almost like reading a thriller, the way I wanted to yell at the people, "Don't go back into the building!" I couldn’t help but to flip to the end of the book to see if the people I was reading about lived or died.
Honorable mentions to The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler and Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees.
30) Who is your favorite writer?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
31) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Jonathan Safran Foer
32) What is your desert island book?
If I could have all of my books, I don’t think I would want to leave.
33) Name a good book you have read lately that most people have never heard of.
Please don't come back from the moon by Dean Bakopolous: This coming-of-age story set in a working-class Detroit neighborhood felt damn near perfect to me. At the beginning of the novel, the fathers of the neighborhood begin disappearing, and the rest of the book deals with the fall-out as their sons grow into men without them. I prefer realistic fiction set in modern times, and this book was the best example of that type this year. It was moving without being maudlin, and had many little details that were absolutely perfect.
34) Which famous authors have you met or seen in person?
David Sedaris. Sharon made me tell him about the pet monkeys my mother had as a child (and their gruesome deaths) and I made him laugh and write something down in a notebook. It’s one of my memorable moments.
35) And... what are you reading right now?
Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees
When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living by Mark Matousek
We: Understanding of the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert Johnson
Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties by Julia Reed
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
The Deen Brothers Cookbook: Recipes from the Road by Jamie and Bobby Dean and Melissa Clark (A great cookbook)
Which may be too much to read at one time, even for me.
I have multiple books by many authors, but the current winner may be Charlaine Harris because I have all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels except the most recent one.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Why would you have more than one copy of the same book? There may be two Bibles somewhere in the house and I have two copies of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim because I bought one and Sharon gave me one (I think).
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Bill Compton from the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. A sexy Civil War soldier turned vampire? That’s hot.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
I know I have read Some Can Whistle by Larry McMurtry at least three times, and cried at the ending every time.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Long Trail Home by Josh Durfey
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Love Junkie by Rachel Resnick was pretty bad. One of those bad relationships confessional books. Although I won’t say it was a bad book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski was incredibly disappointing.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
The Flamingo Rising by Larry Baker: I loved this quirky book and all its eccentric characters. Hubert Lee builds the world's biggest drive-in theater, the Flamingo, next to Turner West's funeral home, sparking an intense feud. Hubert Lee and his wife have two adopted two children from Korea, Louise and Abe, our narrator. The book was billed as a Romeo and Juliet story between Abe and Turner West's daughter, Grace, but it's more of a coming-of-age in the 1960s story. It’s also a story about love and family. The book has a sad ending that I didn’t see coming. I think I would have cried if I hadn’t been at work and I rarely cry over books.
9) What is your favorite book published in the past 15 years?
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: The book really isn't like anything I've ever read before. It's literary, with elements of a science fiction novel and a love story. The basic story is about a man named Henry who spontaneously travels through time and periodically meets with his future wife, Clare, throughout her childhood. Henry's time traveling is presented as a genetic disorder, and he and Clare struggle with his odd disorder in addition to the problems that any couple could have. When you look past the strange premise, the writing is solid, the characters are well-developed, and the love story between Henry and Clare is beautiful and compelling. I give it five out of five stars.
10) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I think most people would like The Lover by Marguerite Duras. It’s romantic and tragic and it’s not very long, either.
11) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no idea.
12) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I think that a book I read recently, One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak, would make a good movie, even though I wasn’t that taken with the book.
13) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It couldn’t be done well and the book is already perfect.
14) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
When I was reading The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler, I had one of the freakiest dreams that I have ever had. In this dream,
I find a baby in a box under my bed. The box looks like a Krispy Kreme donut box and says, "Baby in a box." In this dream, the baby is my baby. I'm holding her, but I keep forgetting to support her head, so her head flops backwards. I'm looking for diapers, but I can't find any. I'm at my house, and my family members are going about their normal lives. The baby's father is someone I know, but he doesn't know that we have a baby. I keep thinking that I have to find him and tell him. Then I misplace the baby, and I'm frantically looking all over the house, but I can't find the baby. I think that she'll cry and then I will be able to find her. Someone, my mom, I think, asks me what's wrong, and I yell, "I can't find Abby!" As weird as it was, it made me think about adding “Abigail” to my potential baby names list, even though it was never a name I thought about before, because maybe the dream was a sign.
15) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I’ve read some Karen Robards romance novels. Sometimes you just need some sexy pirates in your life.
16) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man by James Joyce. I did not enjoy it.
17) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I’ve never seen Shakespeare performed.
18) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French
19) Roth or Updike?
Roth
20) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
David Sedaris represent.
21) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare
22) Austen or Eliot?
Haven’t read either.
23) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
There are a lot of classics that I haven’t read. Sometimes I try to branch out. I attempted to read Wuthering Heights once, but I thought my brains were going to start leaking out my ears. Since I’m in real life and not grad school, I don’t have to be embarrassed. In my real life, the majority of the people I know think I’m some sort of super-genius just because I read for fun.
24) What is your favorite novel?
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25) Play?
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I wrote an essay in high school about how I identify with Laura, which is still true.
26) Poem?
1. “Snowy Egret” by Bruce Weigl
2. “Tonight I Can Write” by Pablo Neruda (in Spanish or English)
3. “The Summer of Lost Rachel” by Seamus Heaney
4. “Pain for a Daughter” by Anne Sexton
5. “Romance Sonambulo” by Federico Garcia Lorca (only in Spanish, which sounds pretentious, but it isn’t the same in English)
27) Essay?
“You Can’t Kill the Rooster” from Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
28) Short story?
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx: Everything that was beautiful about the film was in this tiny story.
Zog 19: A Scientific Romance by Pinckney Benedict: Partially because this was written by my former professor, but mostly because it’s an awesome story about a farmer whose body is taken over by an alien.
29) Work of nonfiction?
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn: Everyone has their own memories of September 11th, but this book gave me a new perspective of what really happened to the ordinary people who went to work in the Towers that day. This powerful book is richly detailed and terribly sad. It precisely follows the progression of events from shortly before the first plane hits to the collapse of the second tower. It was almost like reading a thriller, the way I wanted to yell at the people, "Don't go back into the building!" I couldn’t help but to flip to the end of the book to see if the people I was reading about lived or died.
Honorable mentions to The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler and Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees.
30) Who is your favorite writer?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
31) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Jonathan Safran Foer
32) What is your desert island book?
If I could have all of my books, I don’t think I would want to leave.
33) Name a good book you have read lately that most people have never heard of.
Please don't come back from the moon by Dean Bakopolous: This coming-of-age story set in a working-class Detroit neighborhood felt damn near perfect to me. At the beginning of the novel, the fathers of the neighborhood begin disappearing, and the rest of the book deals with the fall-out as their sons grow into men without them. I prefer realistic fiction set in modern times, and this book was the best example of that type this year. It was moving without being maudlin, and had many little details that were absolutely perfect.
34) Which famous authors have you met or seen in person?
David Sedaris. Sharon made me tell him about the pet monkeys my mother had as a child (and their gruesome deaths) and I made him laugh and write something down in a notebook. It’s one of my memorable moments.
35) And... what are you reading right now?
Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees
When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living by Mark Matousek
We: Understanding of the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert Johnson
Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties by Julia Reed
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
The Deen Brothers Cookbook: Recipes from the Road by Jamie and Bobby Dean and Melissa Clark (A great cookbook)
Which may be too much to read at one time, even for me.