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Jan. 14th, 2010 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreA book meme! Yoinked from calapine.
1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
It's probably one of the John Bellairs books. Not House with a Clock in its Walls, as I'm pretty sure that I've had to replace that one. Dark Secret of Weatherend, maybe?
2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
I am very bad at finishing books. I think the last one I actually finished was The True Meaning of Smekday. (Which you should all go read, right now.) A the moment, I am reading (among other things) Under the Dome, by Stephen King. I quite like it. Next will probably be ridiculous Frankenstein fanfic.
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
Working at the library has really made it clear that there are a great many books that a great many people like that I will never ever read. Twilight is the big obvious example, but there is also pretty much everything on our These are New York Times Bestsellers shelf, on which I've never found anything that looked remotely interesting to me. Not enough robots or dinosaurs, y'know?
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Frankenstein. I really do feel guilty about that one. But Victor is such a ginormous jerkface.
5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
Books are about the one form of entertainment media I don't hoard, actually.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
To be completely honest, I read about fifty pages or so (in really long books, it gets to 100) and then the last page. Just to see. Not any more than the last page, though. That way, it's like watching the first episode of Babylon 5 - you know what the ending will be but you have no idea how you'll get there. I don't do this with mysteries, though. That's cheating.
7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
I kinda like reading them but don't care much one way or another.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
I think that I prefer being me, honestly.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Sure. Doesn't everyone? For example, Dracula is backstage during my very first middle school play, reading about the King of Vampires for the first time while I waited till it was time for me to go on.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
...Mostly, I buy them. Y'know, in stores. Or people give them to me. Or (lately) I get them through paperbackswap. None of that is terribly exiting, sorry.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
No. Books are particular. I give books when I know a person wants them. Why give a special thing to a person for whom it might not be special?
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Probably Lord of the Rings. I took it to Europe, I took it to college. I should buy it for my Kindle.
13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
I don't think that there are any books I hated in school that I've gone back and reread. Possibly, I would not hate Hatchet so much now, since I wouldn't be forced to read it 14 times in a row in one-chapter chunks. (Dear 8th grade English teacher - I still hate you.)
14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
Cheese. Also, from talking to other library employees, a great many strange people use bacon as a bookmark.
15. Used or brand new?
Yes, please. 8)
16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
I'm not sure I'd call him a genius - I don't think I'm qualified to judge - but Mr King does many things very well and I love a great many of his books. Also, his Danse Macabre took a young horror fan by the hand and showed her around the place a little and I am terribly appreciative to him for that. Also also, I think he introduced me to Lovecraft. So, yeah.
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Well, Frankenstein. Heh. Also, The Godfather.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
At least 50% of Stephen King films?
19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Redwall books, when I was little. Nero Wolfe novels now. Oddly, they are almost always eating food that I wouldn't touch with a very long pole. It's like sexually attractive people - I am able to perceive that this food would appeal to people who, y'know, eat things without actually wanting any of it for myself.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
Nobody, really. There are a few people on whose recommendations I will try books, but no one on whose recommendation I would buy them. Books are particular, as I said above.
And now, time to get ready for work.
calapine.1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
It's probably one of the John Bellairs books. Not House with a Clock in its Walls, as I'm pretty sure that I've had to replace that one. Dark Secret of Weatherend, maybe?
2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
I am very bad at finishing books. I think the last one I actually finished was The True Meaning of Smekday. (Which you should all go read, right now.) A the moment, I am reading (among other things) Under the Dome, by Stephen King. I quite like it. Next will probably be ridiculous Frankenstein fanfic.
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
Working at the library has really made it clear that there are a great many books that a great many people like that I will never ever read. Twilight is the big obvious example, but there is also pretty much everything on our These are New York Times Bestsellers shelf, on which I've never found anything that looked remotely interesting to me. Not enough robots or dinosaurs, y'know?
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Frankenstein. I really do feel guilty about that one. But Victor is such a ginormous jerkface.
5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
Books are about the one form of entertainment media I don't hoard, actually.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
To be completely honest, I read about fifty pages or so (in really long books, it gets to 100) and then the last page. Just to see. Not any more than the last page, though. That way, it's like watching the first episode of Babylon 5 - you know what the ending will be but you have no idea how you'll get there. I don't do this with mysteries, though. That's cheating.
7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
I kinda like reading them but don't care much one way or another.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
I think that I prefer being me, honestly.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Sure. Doesn't everyone? For example, Dracula is backstage during my very first middle school play, reading about the King of Vampires for the first time while I waited till it was time for me to go on.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
...Mostly, I buy them. Y'know, in stores. Or people give them to me. Or (lately) I get them through paperbackswap. None of that is terribly exiting, sorry.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
No. Books are particular. I give books when I know a person wants them. Why give a special thing to a person for whom it might not be special?
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Probably Lord of the Rings. I took it to Europe, I took it to college. I should buy it for my Kindle.
13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
I don't think that there are any books I hated in school that I've gone back and reread. Possibly, I would not hate Hatchet so much now, since I wouldn't be forced to read it 14 times in a row in one-chapter chunks. (Dear 8th grade English teacher - I still hate you.)
14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
Cheese. Also, from talking to other library employees, a great many strange people use bacon as a bookmark.
15. Used or brand new?
Yes, please. 8)
16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
I'm not sure I'd call him a genius - I don't think I'm qualified to judge - but Mr King does many things very well and I love a great many of his books. Also, his Danse Macabre took a young horror fan by the hand and showed her around the place a little and I am terribly appreciative to him for that. Also also, I think he introduced me to Lovecraft. So, yeah.
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Well, Frankenstein. Heh. Also, The Godfather.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
At least 50% of Stephen King films?
19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Redwall books, when I was little. Nero Wolfe novels now. Oddly, they are almost always eating food that I wouldn't touch with a very long pole. It's like sexually attractive people - I am able to perceive that this food would appeal to people who, y'know, eat things without actually wanting any of it for myself.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
Nobody, really. There are a few people on whose recommendations I will try books, but no one on whose recommendation I would buy them. Books are particular, as I said above.
And now, time to get ready for work.
