Dear readers, please note that this meme contains lots of book titles, but only some are linked to Amazon. I'd have linked them all, but I'm lazy like that sometimes.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Since I'm not there to count, I'd say Steven King, with Patricia Cornwell and John McPhee tied for second.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Leaves of Grass.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, it was a stupid, useless rule made up by John Dryden. It isn't grammatically incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
To myself: Crime and Punishment, Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, The Sun Also Rises, The Razor's Edge, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Fran Lebowitz Reader
A few months back, David Sedaris told me about the home he and his partner bought in England and I told him to think of me when he was there, because I've purchased Me Talk Pretty One Day in cassette (dear God, yes), CD, hardcover, paperback, and e-book versions. (I've bought other books in multiple versions, too, but not to that extent.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Any Nancy Drew book.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Oh goodness - The First Assistant. I don't know why I read it except that I'd already read The Second Assistant and it was good and terrible. The sequel was contrived but had a feel-good ending.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Wry, pokes fun at literature and literature buffs, very clever and played just right.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Crime and Punishment
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Him Her Him Again The End of Him.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Really, what is the point of this question? I could plop in the name of any random book I didn't like here.
13) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Frankly, Deception Point by Dan Brown - stilted, impossible situations, grinding plot gears - formula romance fiction, minus the romance and plus ridiculously unbelievable action equals BLECH. I hope to never again be as desperate for a book at the airport.
14) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Wuthering Heights simply because Cathy is such a detestable character.
15) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
We're still talking literature, so Russians.
16) Roth or Updike?
I am indifferent.
17) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Hello...Sedaris FTW! (I still haven't cashed his check.)
18) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
19) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.
20) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
In the expected stuff, most of Dickens.
21) What is your favorite novel?
Crime and Punishment or The Sun Also Rises
22) Essay?
Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That." I have a trip to NY planned that will be much more of a hello, but still.
Also, I adore Mark Twain's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."
23) Work of nonfiction?
For the last several years, I've read much more nonfiction than fiction, though I'm not sure why. My favorite is probably something science-based, like Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is an old favorite, too.
24) Who is your favorite writer?
25) What is your desert island book?
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, featuring the more contemporary works. I'd rather hang with Steinbeck, et al than Twain. But that's just me.
26) What are you reading right now?
I am almost embarrassed to admit I have 5 books going right now and I didn't bring a single one with me on this trip.
27) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Is there any other but Atticus Finch? Honorable mention to Rhett Butler. Please. The man is sex on a Confederate stick.
28) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Tobias Wolff.
29) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
When I was pregnant, had a very bizarre dream set in a castle battle while reading Michael Crichton's Timeline. I won't go into detail, but I had the dream several times and it was instrumental in convincing me that I would be able to breastfeed my baby, despite having no role models for this growing up.
Looks like you have some great stuff there. I just sent six samples to my iPhone :)
Posted by: Webhill | January 25, 2011 at 10:08 AM
HA. Deception Point is the book that lives in my car, for those times I'm so desperate to read something, it'll do. I suppose now that I have both an e-reader and the iPhone, I can finally get rid of it.
Posted by: Stylishboots | January 25, 2011 at 10:43 AM
@webhill - thanks! Let me know if you like any of them.
@stylishboots - Sorry about that. ;) It's time to upgrade!
Posted by: Tara Youknow | January 25, 2011 at 11:53 AM