I don't usually succumb to this sort of thing. And I'm not going to pester anyone else with tagging or anything like that. But I found this meme on one of the message boards at Library Thing and thought it sounded like fun (the person who left the message called it a "funny meme thing"). If you want to borrow it and fill in your own info, go right ahead. I stole it from someone who stole it from someone else. So, feel free. Oh, and if you do – let me know. I'd love to read your answers.
1. What author do you own the most books by?
Well, if we're just counting individual books, it would be Anthony Powell. I have 25 separate works by Powell in my library; however, four of those are the Dance To the Music of Time series with three novels in each volume. But if we're talking actual physical objects, I'd have to say it's Henry James. There are 24 volumes of Henry James's writings in my library – I think we have all of his Library of America volumes, and that's an awful lot of Henry James.
2. What book(s) do you own the most copies of?
Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and Huckleberry Finn.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Yes, mightily. I'm a loyal and active member of the Grammar Police.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Sherlock Holmes, Adam Dalgliesh, Aloysius Pendergast (from the novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child), and Laurie Laurence from Little Women.
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)?
Lewis Carroll's Alice books, and Mark Twain's Huck Finn. I guess that's obviously why I have so many copies of them.
6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
365 Bedtimes Stories by Nan Gilbert.
7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Probably a tie between The Book of God and Physics by Enrique Joven, and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. Neither were terrible – just not as good as the other books on my list.
8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Well, I've read some really great books in this last year. I guess if I really have to choose just one it would be The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I'm not tagging anyone, and I'd never force anyone to read a book (although I strongly recommend The Age of Innocence, if you haven't read it).
10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Hmmmm. Still thinking about this one. Maybe Philip Roth? Although it's not likely an American will ever win it.
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Well, since the films usually don't do justice to the books, I'd have to say I hope Hollywood doesn't decide to make a film of any of my favorite books anytime soon. But if they do, I hope they get Martin Scorsese to direct it.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don't dream about writers or books or literary characters. But I do sometimes dream plots for stories I'd like to write. The weirdest one of those I've ever had was not suitable for discussion here.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I could not possibly answer this. I've read lots and lots of these, and I've been an adult for a long, long time. However, I can safely say the most lowbrow book I've read recently was The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel (who, sad to say, died earlier this month).
15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
This would be a tie between Molloy by Samuel Beckett, and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
That I've seen? Well, I think I've seen just about all of them at one time or another, either live or in movies or TV productions. And I'm not sure exactly what the criteria for "obscure" would be. Maybe Coriolanus?
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I'm assuming we're talking about writers here, not about whole nationalities of people. And with that understood, I'd say I prefer the French – or, at least, I've read more French authors than Russian authors.
18. Roth or Updike?
I like them both. Haven't read as much as I'd like by either of them.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Haven't read any David Sedaris, and I have no idea who Dave Eggers is. Sorry.
20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21. Austen or Eliot?
T.S. or George?
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Well, I'm not embarrassed by it, but there are many works by Charles Dickens I haven't and probably never will read. And even though he's so well-represented in my library, I've only read a few of Henry James's works – and admitting that is sort of embarrassing. Never read Dante. Never read Cervantes. Never finished Paradise Lost (but I know how it ends).
23. What is your favorite novel?
I could not possibly choose just one. But something by Barbara Pym or one of the novels from Anthony Powell's Dance To the Music of Time sequence would definitely be in the running.
24. Play?
Again, impossible to pick just one. And I'm not sure my favorite play to read would be the same as my favorite play to see performed, or to perform in. (There's that sentence-ending preposition thing again.)
25. Poem?
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith, Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet CXVI) by William Shakespeare.
26. Essay?
Most likely Jonathan Swift's satirical "A Modest Proposal," although I probably shouldn't admit that.
27. Short Story?
Again, too many to choose from.
28. Work of nonfiction?
I don't read a great deal of nonfiction at the moment, but in the past I read quite a lot of it. And I usually say Joan Didion's The White Album is my favorite nonfiction work. However, I also enjoyed all of Anthony Powell's memoirs and Quentin Bell's biography of Virginia Woolf. And I love James/Jan Morris's Oxford about the history of the University and the town, and Who Killed Society? by Cleveland Amory – I've re-read both of those several times. But I suppose the one nonfiction book I've re-read the most times would be A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters by Barbara Pym. Oh, and Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi (true crime is one of my guilty pleasure genres).
29. Who is your favorite writer?
Several of those, too. Barbara Pym, Anthony Powell, Muriel Spark, Joseph Heller, Larry McMurtry, P.D. James, Jane Austen. I could go on. But I won't. You can take a look at my Library Thing list.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
J.K. Rowling.
31. What is your desert island book?
That would be hard. I guess something by one of my favorite authors. Possibly Some Tame Gazelle or A Few Green Leaves, by Barbara Pym.
32. And ... what are you reading right now?
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin, Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment, and Dance of Death by Preston & Child.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Let's Play Thirty-two Questions
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Sunday Salon: Back to the Books in July
Wow, more than half of July has managed to sneak right by me. Doncha hate it when that happens? And here I was saying I wanted to try to slow down and savor (yes, I think I actually used that word) July a little more than I did June. (June was here and gone before I even turned around.) But so far, I don't seem to be doing much savoring. Well, I blame it partly on the cold I had during the first couple weeks of the month. Didn't really get much reading done. Mostly just slept and blew my nose. And watched the first season of "Man Men" via our cable company's On-Demand service. (Is it really possible Peggy didn't know she was pregnant? No, don't tell me what happens – I'm going to start season two this week.)
But the slow-down has really blown my reading schedule all to pieces. I was trying for a book a week this year, but here we are just about thirty weeks into 2009 (can that be right?) and I've only read twenty-seven books. So I'm obviously going to have to pick up the pace a bit. I'm doing a little better now, though. I finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game this past week (review, I hope, to come tomorrow), and I'm going to be finishing up Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts later tonight. So at least July won't be a total loss.
And I've got a couple more underway: Dance of Death, one of the Pendergast thrillers by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; and Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin. I suppose I should have started with Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death, before tackling Grave Goods, but I found GG among the new releases at the library the other day and it reached out and grabbed me, so I just had to bring it home.
Today I've been doing a little assessment of the books I've read this year, but haven't reviewed yet. Didn't realize there were quite so many. Out of the twenty-seven books I've read in 2009, there are a dozen I still need to review:
Blasphemy. Douglas Preston
Brimstone. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Ellen Foster. Kaye Gibbons
Index to Murder. Jo Dereske
Land of Marvels. Barry Unsworth
Moon Tiger. Penelope Lively
The Old Man and Me. Elaine Dundy
The Private Patient. P.D. James
Rest in Pieces. Rita Mae Brown
The Valley of Fear. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Mothman Prophecies. John A. Keel
The Angel's Game. Carlos Ruiz Zafon
So I need to get busy. And since I'm taking stock, I should admit that there are a few books I've started this year, but put on hold for now: Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand, Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I think I'll probably get back to Stone's Fall eventually, but the other two may just stay on the shelf, unread. Sad.
Anyway, that's where I stand at the moment. Now I need to go find out what becomes of Suora Zuana and the young Novice Serafina in that appalling convent in Sixteenth Century Ferrara. No, don't tell me what happens – I'm still hoping for a happy ending.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Friday Finds: 17 July 2009
This week I added four new titles to my "new finds" list. I have a feeling they'll all be going on my TBR list once I've had a chance to check them out a little more closely. And although I hate to admit it, I might buy the Lowry book for the cover alone!
My list:
- Girl in a Blue Dress, by Gaynor Arnold
- Evil at Heart, by Chelsea Cain
- Homer & Langley, by E.L. Doctorow
- The Bellini Madonna, by Elizabeth Lowry
Not sure where I first heard about Evil at Heart or Homer & Langley. Shelf Awareness, maybe? Or possibly a publisher's newsletter. They're both due for official release in September, so I'll have to try to remember to track them down in the fall.
Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Booking Through Thursday: TBR
This week's Booking Through Thursday question is a follow-up to last week's topic about unread books:
Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?
Well, I've got loads of unread books on my shelves that aren't necessarily on my TBR list. So I'll just talk about the books I tell myself I am going to read someday. And those books are pretty much scattered out all over our apartment – on shelves, on tables, in boxes and bags, on the floor. Not so much like party-goers, though. More like unruly kittens, always tumbling about, and getting underfoot, and disappearing into hard-to-reach places, and never coming when you call them.
For a while, I played around with various ideas about what to do with the books on my "read soon" list. You know – those books I'm planning to read in the near future. Challenge books and ARCs. That sort of thing. Tried separating them out and keeping them on special shelves, or in a box all by themselves. But I ended up spending more time moving books around than I spent reading them. So now, I mostly just keep the TBR books shelved with the other books – those I've read and those I have no intention of reading but don't want to ditch. I do try to keep the recent ARCs in a pile all by themselves, but they frequently get mixed in with the other books – another example of best laid schemes going "aft agley."
As you can see, I've still got a few shelves in the bedroom with TBR books on them. (You can also probably tell that I'm not going to be featured on HGTV anytime soon.) This bookcase has some "read soon" books mixed in with books about to be stored, or just coming out of storage (hence the plastic covers on some). Of course, "read soon" is an extremely erratic concept around here.
The second photo is a close-up of a couple of the shelves – and I'm realizing that some of those are actually books I've started, but put aside for one reason or another. I really need to get back to those. Gee, maybe I should take photos of my unruly books more often. 
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday Thingers: Tagging
This week's topic for the Tuesday Thingers group is about using tags in your Library Thing library. Wendi asks:
Do you tag? If so, do you tag for your own purposes (make lists, sort, clouds, etc)? Do you tag to help classify a book (historical fiction, self-help, sci-fi, mystery, etc)? What is the most helpful thing for you about tagging?First of all, about that connection between tags and Early Reviewer books ("the more you tag your books, the more likely you are to snag a similar Early Reviewer book"). Well, I had a similar theory when I first signed up with the Early Reviewers program – I figured if I could just hit on the right system of tagging, or the right number of tags, it would help me get more of the books I was interested in. And I still believe that tags play a part in the sacred "algorithm" (well, I think the people in charge say they do, anyway), but several of the books I've gotten have been from genres that don't really "fit" with my library, if you're just judging by my tags. And I've also noticed that people who use few or no tags for their collections still seem to receive their share of ER books. So I think tags are probably a help, but many other things figure in the overall decision.
But I do use tags. Lots of tags. Over four hundred different tags. Mostly I use broad classifications like "American literature" or "Mysteries" or "Science Fiction." But I use smaller and more focused groupings, too – like "Prehistory," "Poirot," and "Pop-up Books." I'm pretty sure every book in my LT library has at least one tag attached to it, and most have more than one. I like tagging because it allows me to sort my books by category if I want to do that, but also because I'm able to tell at a glance how many books of various genres I have in my collection – and anyone looking at my library can see that, too. And that sort of serves as my bookish introduction to the rest of the LT world.
Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.
Teaser Tuesdays: A Little Illumination
So far this week I've finished one book and started two more. The book I've just managed to wade through is The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I don't mean that to sound negative – I did enjoy the book, just found it hard to keep reading. For some reason, it's taken me several weeks to finish. So right now I've got about four books going, which is fairly normal in my case.
My teasers this week come from Jill Ciment's new novel Heroic Measures. I haven't gotten very far into it, but I can tell you it's about an older couple, living in New York City and preparing to sell the apartment they've lived in for many years. This snippet is about the husband, Alex, an artist whose latest works are illuminated manuscripts:
As monks once illustrated the Bible with gold leaf and devotion, he is illuminating the seven-hundred-and-fifty-page file that the FBI had kept on Ruth and him during the heyday of the cold war. Initial showings of the manuscript pages have garnered him just enough attention from the art world to offer promise, though at his age, he isn't exactly sure what promise means anymore. [p. 31]Alex is seventy-eight years old, so I suppose I can understand his skepticism about any potential fame that might be staring him in the face. But it's never too late to court success, of course. Alex should take my advice and just remember Helen Hooven Santmyer. She was 88 when her most famous work And Ladies of the Club was published and became a best-seller in 1984. So you see, there's hope for all of us aging artists, even if we haven't had our fifteen minutes yet.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given! Please avoid spoilers!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday Finds: 10 July 2009
Here are my finds for this week. Actually, for the last couple of weeks – didn't post any finds last Friday, since the hubby and I were away for the weekend. I first read about Heroic Measures in a recent New York Times Book Review. I'm not sure exactly where I discovered the other three, although I'm thinking Shelf Awareness is a good bet for The Rapture and possibly for the others as well.
- The Fate of Katherine Carr, by Thomas H. Cook
- Heroic Measures: A Novel, by Jill Ciment
- Name to a Face, by Robert Goddard
- The Rapture, by Liz Jensen
Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.
What An Animal! Challenge: The Wrap-Up
The What An Animal! Challenge ended June 30, and I've let ten whole days go by without writing my wrap-up post. I really didn't forget about it – just haven't felt very energetic the last few days because of a bad cold. But I don't want to let the month get too much farther along without putting this one to bed.
The Challenge began one year ago, on July 1, 2008, and participants were to read at least six books that fulfilled any of these requirements:
an animal in the title of the book; an animal on the cover of the book; an animal that plays a major role in the book; a main character that is or turns into an animal (define that however you like).This was a fun challenge. Even though I didn't read as many books as I thought I might, I managed to read my six and enjoyed every one of them. I still need to review a couple of the books – thought I'd done it already, but I see now I still have some work to do. Will try to get that done in the next few days. For right now, though, here's what I read, with links to reviews:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Moon Tiger. Penelope Lively [review to come]
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Robert C. O'Brien
Rest In Pieces: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown [review to come]
To Dance with the White Dog. Terry Kay
Wish You Were Here: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown
A few of the titles might need a bit of explanation. For anyone not familiar with the Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series – Mrs. Murphy is a pet cat who helps her owner solve mysteries. I'm slowly making my way through the series, and the challenge gave me the perfect reason to read a couple more of those. Also, the "moon tiger" in the title of Penelope Lively's novel doesn't refer to an actual tiger – it's the name for a kind of candle-like lamp that burns itself away as it provides light.
All of the books were great reads. And one of them, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, has been on my TBR list since way back in the '70s when it first appeared. Can't imagine why in the world it took me so long to get around to it. But my favorite of the six was definitely Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In fact, it's going on my list of all-time favorite books. If you haven't read it yet, you're missing a great experience. In fact, just sitting here thinking about it is making me want to start it all over again.
I want to thank Kristi of Passion for the Page for hosting the challenge, and all the other participants for making it happen. Now I just have to make up my mind about signing up for What An Animal! II.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Booking Through Thursday: Curse of the Unread?
This week's Booking Through Thursday topic comes from The Toddled Dredge (via K for Kat), and it's about that ever-expanding To-Be-Read list:
So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, 'No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!'Gosh, what a request! List or show a photo of "the books you have not read, but keep meaning to." Such an innocent-sounding request, too.
But since I "keep meaning to" read just about every book ever written, that would take in an awful lot of books! OK, that's an exaggeration. But just in my own home library, there are hundreds of books I haven't read, but would like to get around to reading someday. And I have an actual physical TBR list that has now expanded to two volumes of spiral-bound 3-subject-size notebook space. You guys don't really want to wade through that, and I'm not going to spend the day photographing all those tomes.
And none of these books weigh on my mind. I love adding books to my list. Even though I know it would take me two or three lifetimes to read them all, I have no qualms whatsoever about throwing one more book onto the must-read pile. You'll never catch me saying anything like "Don't give me another book to read!" My sentiment would more likely be "I can't finish the ones I have! What the hell – bring on a few more new ones!"
However, in the spirit of playing along, here's a photo of me with a few of those books – some I've read, and others I haven't yet but fully intend to read someday. Yes, I know it's blurry. I think that has something to do with the wine my hubby was drinking when he snapped it. Yes, I know the place is a mess, but it was taken on a Sunday and we have a "day of rest" policy at our place on Sundays (guess you could say I'm religious about my relaxation).
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Tuesday Thingers: Too Much Networking?
This week's topic for the Tuesday Thingers group is all about social networking:
How do you feel about social networking sites? Do you have any you like more than others? Are there any you don't like? Do you have any that you don't associate with your blogs and/or book reviewing? If you could only belong to one of these sites, which one would it be and why?
Well, I guess I should start off by saying that I don't really consider Library Thing a social networking site, although I know that technically it is one. I first joined LT in order to have a way to catalogue all my books, and that's still how I see it – mainly. I do have a few discussion groups I follow, although I don't often post any messages (yes, I'm one of those famous "lurkers"). The only one I'm really active in is the 50 Book Challenge discussion group – it allows me to keep track of the books I read, and even post little mini-reviews, without worrying too much about how other people are going to react.
I'd be very upset if I had to give up LT. As I say, I love their cataloguing feature – I believe it's the best on the Internet. So I suppose if I had to pick just one site to continue with, LT would be it.
I do have accounts with Facebook, Good Reads, My Space, Shelfari, and Twitter. But of all those the only one I really use with any regularity is Good Reads: I use it to keep track of books I've actually read and books I want to read, whether or not they're actually in my library. Of course, when I started doing this, LT hadn't yet come up with their "Collections" feature. Now that they have, I can list books I don't own as "read but unowned" or "to be read" or "wish list"; so I suppose there's really no reason to keep up with the two separate accounts. But there are a few discussion groups at Good Reads I keep up with, so for the time being I'm going to keep things as is.
And all the other sites? Well, I've always found Shelfari a little awkward. I do like the look of all my books on those virtual "shelves," but the site just seems difficult to maneuver around in. I joined Twitter because I had heard that sometimes publishers give away free books there; but so far, no free books have materialized – and I rarely do any tweeting.
I signed up with My Space several years ago because I had found Grace Slick's My Space page, and had to be a member to look at all the info there. I played with my own account for a while, but soon realized it wasn't anything I'd ever be interested in. Still have the account, but I haven't signed in for months now. I find Facebook a little more interesting, although again, I haven't really looked at my account there for a couple of months. I guess I just assume that if anyone wants to contact me, they'll use email or leave a comment on one of my blogs, since that's probably the surest way of getting my attention. I know it says terrible things about my character, but I have to admit that when all is said and done, I'm just more of a blogger than a social networker.
Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.
