And so I do not blog well in hotels so for this grouchy, rainy morning: a meme.
You have received this note because someone thinks you are a literary geek. Copy the questions into your own note, answer the questions, and tag any friends who would appreciate the quiz, including the person who sent you this.
Don’t bother trying to italicize your book titles. We know you want to…
1) What author do you own the most books by?
Beverly Cleary, hands down. She was pretty dang prolific.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
We have a lot of copies of To Kill a Mockingbird because it’s Brett’s favorite book and so we have a couple of collectible copies. I’ve bought a lot of copies of This Way to the Gas, Ladies & Gentlemen and given most of ‘em away.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
You know, it does a little but only because I’m tired and my brain is extra itchy.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Oh literary crushes! I’ve crushed on Will (Dark is Rising), Almanzo (after I saw his actual picture at about 13) and of course Ponyboy. The only recent crush I’ve had was on Fenno until I reread the book and decided he was a tiny bit of a prig. Not a big huge prig (I’m still too crushy to actual insult this imaginary man) but a tiny bit.
4a) What fictional character would you most like to be?
I never wanted to BE a fictional character. Sometimes I wanted to be in a story but as myself.
4b) What fictional character do you think most resembles you?
Sniff in the Moomintroll books. Petty and shrill. I aspire to be more Snufkin (another literary crush!!!). Actually, come to think of it, I identify with various moomin characters at various times in my life. Except for the Snork Maiden because I am not obsessed with my fringe.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Probably the Laura Ingalls Wilder series.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Probably the Laura Ingalls Wilder series.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
This young adult book about a teacher molesting her student. It was a female teacher and the ending totally invalidated that she was molesting him.
What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
I just read a couple of great young adult books. One was Weedflower (about the Japanese internment camps) and the other one was Anything But Typical about a boy with autism.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Hmmm. This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen MAYBE. I’m tired and if I thought harder it might be something different but maybe not.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Oh lord, I don’t know.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I think Bel Canto would make a great movie — directed by Ang Lee.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Hmmm, maybe a A Wrinkle in Time because they’d probably cast Miley Cyrus or something.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I periodically dream I’m having conversations with literary characters but they’re not all that weird.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Angles & Demons.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I don’t like Herman Melville.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I think I’ve only seen one play performed.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Here I quote my friend Sonia, “Option C: the British!” But if I HAVE to choose, it’s not a fair fight because I’ve read more of the French.
18) Roth or Updike?
Neither.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Oh (sigh) David Sedaris, I guess.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven’t read any of the big Russian novels
23) What is your favorite novel?
This very minute? Bel Canto. No wait, Persuasion. No wait, Finn Family Moomintroll. No wait, Watership Down. Nevermind.
24) Play?
I’m a big fan of Edward Albee or was ten years ago (haven’t reread any lately) so what the hell, Zoo Story.
25) Poem?
I keep typing one and then changing my mind. I can’t decide between the cold plums in the refrigerator and the lanyard.
26) Essay?
Oh!! Shoot. There are SO MANY but I’ll stick with The Weight that Women Carry.
27) Short story?
Just one?!? My god, people. Well, since I just read it, the one by Ann Beattie about the couple whose child died and they come home from the party and sleep on the floor of the living room.
28) Work of non-fiction?
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
29) Who is your favorite writer?
That’s an unfair question. Hmmm, Barbara Comyns.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Audrey Niffenegger (Time Traveler’s Wife)
31) What is your desert island book?
Oh gosh, that changes all the time. I guess Watership Down is plenty long, right? But what if it was a stressful desert island? What with the desert — no food, no water? Then I would want something comforting like Noah’s Beverly Cleary collection.
32) And … what are you reading right now?
I brought That’s How it Was by Maureen Duffy to reread on the trip but there hasn’t been time to read it. It’s a green book only it has a black cover.
Ummm, I tag everybody. That’s right — every single person on the internet.
