Book meme thing
2006-Aug-30, Wednesday 21:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matgbPaulie (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
trustedhippy_fd) tagged me (the bastard). So I've got to do a book meme. OK, easy, I love books. Only, um, I have to choose one, for each. Ah, bugger. This may take awhile. However, before that, an answer to his question:
I'm reading more, I'm better informed, I'm aware of every theory about the latest news story (including most of the crackpot ones), but actual, real, books?
Example. An entry from over a year ago. That book I quoted from? I bought it in the Xmas sales in 2004. It looks immense, it's from one of my favourite authors. Still in the pile next to the bed. Still unread. Sure, I've bought, and read, other books since then, but 18 months after purchase, an Iain M Banks hardback sits there unloved. Ah well. Anyway, to arms my friends, to arms...
1. One book that changed your life - the hardest question first.
Easy. The Swedish Imperial Experience, by M. Roberts. Not because of its content, not because I found it really interesting (and love that period of Swedish history), but because of the effect it had on me. I'd been working in a shop for 4 years, a university drop out in a McJob. One Xmas, bored, I picked it up from my old pile of A level texts, and read it, cover to cover. I loved it. It wasn't, technically, A level, I'd been leant it by a friend who'd studied the same period at university. 7 months later, I handed my notice in, 8 months later I'd started my Access course, and then went on to University.
A book that changed my life, just by enjoying reading something clever.
2. One book that you've read more than once
Oh gods. Um, LotR, technically, but not in reality, and more recently most of the Narnia books, but I hadn't read them since I was a kid. Um...
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I've read it so many times now, I have the audiobook, the radio adaptation, the TV series and the film, but the book remains one of my favourites. If you're looking for a factual book, McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom on the American Civil War, a simply excellent general text. Which reminds me, 2nd Manassas finished today...
3. One book that you'd want on a desert island
Oh, I don't know. I keep varying between something deep and weighty, something light but rereadable, or something inbetween. Most certainly not Shakespeare, plays should be watched, or acted, but not read unless you're an actor. How about the complete works of St Douglas? Works for me. Bugger, that's him twice. Fanboy much?
4. One book that made you laugh
Jasper Fforde, Any. Especially The Eyre Affair as it's the first, or Something Rotten, as it's the first I read. And anything by Pratchett.
5. One book that made you cry
Um, cry? Moi? Seriously, none. Angry? Quite a lot of books on the corruption endemic in modern politics, but I'm guessing most of you know that anyway. Sampson's Who Runs this place is a good intro for that, and a recommended read for anyone that doesn't get the mess we're in, mostly because it doesn't do anything other than impartially describe it.
6. One book that you wish you had written
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flemco's Pedestrian Wolves. Not actually because it's a great novel (it's not), but because it's so obviously based on personal experience, and, well, yes please. Even just a visit to NOLA pre Katrina would've been cool.
7. One book you wish had never been written
Anything by Laurell K Hamilton. Seriously. I've read 5 of her books, each time on the grounds that "she can't be that bad, she has a huge fanbase that raves about her", and each time it's been crap. Why I kept going I don't know. Avoid.
8. One book that you are reading at the moment
Well, I just finished Kostova's The Historian, and I wasn't impressed, I keep putting off both Anansi Boys and Looking for Jake (but the latter is short stories, so that's ok, I've read a lot of them). There's a pile of history and politics books I'm in theory ducking into and out of, but to be honest, I'm not actually reading anything, but I have just finished a book, so that's ok, right?
9. One book that you've been meaning to read
Apart from The Algebraist above? Bloody Foreigners - a history of immigration to Britain. I picked it up in a bookshop in Camden (um, a year ago), and haven't managed to get back to it since, but it looks very good.
10. Five others that you’d like to do this
Ah, bugger. OK. Chrisdevils_kitchen and Chris strange_stuff. paulatpingu, faeriecween and susannah_banana
And anyone else that wants to.
trustedhippy_fd) tagged me (the bastard). So I've got to do a book meme. OK, easy, I love books. Only, um, I have to choose one, for each. Ah, bugger. This may take awhile. However, before that, an answer to his question: I've been meaning to write a post here asking if anyone else has found it a lot harder to read decent fiction since they started blogging?Yes, yes, and thrice yes. The more I've been writing and reading online,t he less time I spend reading books. I used to avarage a book a week, sometimes one a day. Currently, I'm at less than one a month, and the too read pile is huge.
I'm reading more, I'm better informed, I'm aware of every theory about the latest news story (including most of the crackpot ones), but actual, real, books?
Example. An entry from over a year ago. That book I quoted from? I bought it in the Xmas sales in 2004. It looks immense, it's from one of my favourite authors. Still in the pile next to the bed. Still unread. Sure, I've bought, and read, other books since then, but 18 months after purchase, an Iain M Banks hardback sits there unloved. Ah well. Anyway, to arms my friends, to arms...
1. One book that changed your life - the hardest question first.
Easy. The Swedish Imperial Experience, by M. Roberts. Not because of its content, not because I found it really interesting (and love that period of Swedish history), but because of the effect it had on me. I'd been working in a shop for 4 years, a university drop out in a McJob. One Xmas, bored, I picked it up from my old pile of A level texts, and read it, cover to cover. I loved it. It wasn't, technically, A level, I'd been leant it by a friend who'd studied the same period at university. 7 months later, I handed my notice in, 8 months later I'd started my Access course, and then went on to University.
A book that changed my life, just by enjoying reading something clever.
2. One book that you've read more than once
Oh gods. Um, LotR, technically, but not in reality, and more recently most of the Narnia books, but I hadn't read them since I was a kid. Um...
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I've read it so many times now, I have the audiobook, the radio adaptation, the TV series and the film, but the book remains one of my favourites. If you're looking for a factual book, McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom on the American Civil War, a simply excellent general text. Which reminds me, 2nd Manassas finished today...
3. One book that you'd want on a desert island
Oh, I don't know. I keep varying between something deep and weighty, something light but rereadable, or something inbetween. Most certainly not Shakespeare, plays should be watched, or acted, but not read unless you're an actor. How about the complete works of St Douglas? Works for me. Bugger, that's him twice. Fanboy much?
4. One book that made you laugh
Jasper Fforde, Any. Especially The Eyre Affair as it's the first, or Something Rotten, as it's the first I read. And anything by Pratchett.
5. One book that made you cry
Um, cry? Moi? Seriously, none. Angry? Quite a lot of books on the corruption endemic in modern politics, but I'm guessing most of you know that anyway. Sampson's Who Runs this place is a good intro for that, and a recommended read for anyone that doesn't get the mess we're in, mostly because it doesn't do anything other than impartially describe it.
6. One book that you wish you had written
flemco's Pedestrian Wolves. Not actually because it's a great novel (it's not), but because it's so obviously based on personal experience, and, well, yes please. Even just a visit to NOLA pre Katrina would've been cool.7. One book you wish had never been written
Anything by Laurell K Hamilton. Seriously. I've read 5 of her books, each time on the grounds that "she can't be that bad, she has a huge fanbase that raves about her", and each time it's been crap. Why I kept going I don't know. Avoid.
8. One book that you are reading at the moment
Well, I just finished Kostova's The Historian, and I wasn't impressed, I keep putting off both Anansi Boys and Looking for Jake (but the latter is short stories, so that's ok, I've read a lot of them). There's a pile of history and politics books I'm in theory ducking into and out of, but to be honest, I'm not actually reading anything, but I have just finished a book, so that's ok, right?
9. One book that you've been meaning to read
Apart from The Algebraist above? Bloody Foreigners - a history of immigration to Britain. I picked it up in a bookshop in Camden (um, a year ago), and haven't managed to get back to it since, but it looks very good.
10. Five others that you’d like to do this
Ah, bugger. OK. Chris
devils_kitchen and Chris strange_stuff. paulatpingu, faeriecween and susannah_bananaAnd anyone else that wants to.
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no subject
Date: 2006-Aug-30, Wednesday 22:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-Aug-30, Wednesday 22:26 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-Aug-31, Thursday 15:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-Aug-31, Thursday 09:01 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-Aug-31, Thursday 09:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-Sep-01, Friday 13:51 (UTC)Also, I just read the 5 People you meet in Heaven in 2 hours flat while ill. Also an exception to the rule. And if you need a book to make you cry, try that one.
LordHutton
hello
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