What an appropriate meme
Jan. 15th, 2010 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesBook meme! Gakked from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
drednort
1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
The Captive Soul by Josepha Sherman. It's a Highlander novelization I've had since 9th grade. Methos is and ever shall be my favorite Immortal. And getting to read about him falling in love with a woman who was physically deformed at a time when I felt like a giant freak? Kinda saved my life.
2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
Current: Indigo Springs - A.M. Dellamonica
Last: Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Next: No frakkin' clue
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I seriously wanted to put that book (and it's "heroine") into a trash compactor and then burn the neatly compressed cube that came out.
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I even found it used and acquired it. But damn, it's like 700 pages and every time I look at it I think, "I do not have time in my life to spend three months getting through this book."
5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
None. Hopefully by "retirement" I'll have lots of new books just coming out to amuse myself with.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I don't read the last page, but I do peek ahead to other chapters and other places, especially in books where I'm very engaged. I'm a notorious peeker, but not the last page. Because it usually doesn't tell you anything. The wrap up usually happens at the beginning of the last two chapters.
7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
Third option: invaluable resource. Listen up, all ye beginners searching for agents. One of the biggest favors you can do yourself is go to a bookstore, find the place you think your book would be shelved, and start reading the acknowledgments in books like yours - especially of new releases. Why? Because authors almost always, if they have an acknowledgments page, acknowledge their agent and say nice things about them. This will tell you:
1) Which agents are still actually working and getting things done.
2) Which agents may or may not be open to a new author. If an agent gets 60 gadzillion acknowledgments, their client list is probably very full.
3) And which agents would be most receptive to your book. If a particular agent seems to swing toward the, say, hard SF and space opera set and you've got a book that's The Sound and The Fury -- In Space!!, it might be worth your while.
Several agents I've queried (most of whom actually ended up requesting fulls or partials) were found through that very method.
In a non-utilitarian way, I like to read them because it's actually very telling about the book and the author. I like to see if a lot of authors acknowledge and thank people from a certain big name workshop or course (like Clarion West or something). I like to see what other authors they acknowledge as being helpful, what their influences were.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Most books I really love contain characters and situations I would NEVER want to switch places with - but given the chance? Maybe one of the kids from Damia's Children. You get really cool psychic powers (telepath, teleport, telekinesis, television - wait, that's not a power!), you get to be raised with fuzzy aliens and ride horses a lot, and basically you're in the top echelon of society yet part of a close-knit family. Oh and it's your genetic destiny to be really powerful and placed in a position of great prestige and wealth when you're old enough. Plus you get a real cool white streak in your hair, like Rogue from the X-Men.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time?
The Scarlet Letter reminds me of 10th grade English and a really great teacher I had. I wish I'd worked harder then.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
Sorry, I get mine the boring way. I buy them or they're given to me.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Haven't had the occasion, because I'm always afraid they won't share my tastes in books and will look at my gift and think, "How can I get rid of this?" like it's a one pound block of fruitcake.
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
See answer to question #1
13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
Haven't re-read anything from high school yet, because most of our selections were the kind of 18th/19th century Classic Literature books that nobody reads unless you force them at gunpoint. But I thought "A Separate Peace" wasn't so bad.
14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
This is why I picked this meme. I used to work as a booklister for a used book seller. We would process huge crates of used books from auctions, estate sales, and other places. We found postcards (one from a woman in Florida in the 1950's complaining about a "negro nurse", which is why I'd never wanna go back to the 1950's), strange book marks, checks from the 1980's, pictures both mundane and bizarre, once we found letters from Joan Baez's mom, notes passed by kids in school who are now probably holding their grandchildren, church bulletins, flyers, movie tickets, wrappers, posters, greeting cards of all kind, occasional bugs. But never any money.
15. Used or brand new?
New, I guess, because I like to keep up on current releases and because I love a new book smell. But used books, especially REALLY OLD ones, have their charms as well.
16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Third answer: I don't care. He's a fixture in popular culture and popular literature. Whether he's good or bad, he's a Big Name. If you don't read the books, you can just watch the movies and made for TV miniserieses (eses?)
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
The Lord of the Rings. Sorry, but the books were very dry and boring and the movies inspired in me the desire to commit carnal acts with an elf. Several elves (Cate Blanchett, yowzers). Carnal desire wins every time.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
That list is far too long for this meme. But let's start with 2007's Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. Wow. Way to not only abuse a classic series I loved as a kid but completely misuse Christopher Eccleston. That movie sucked like an Electrolux.
19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Nope.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
Nobody. I keep my own counsel when it comes to books. There are folks who, when they say, "This is good", I believe that I'll read a quality book, even if I detest it completely. But there's nobody I know who is 100% like me when it comes to books. So I try to come up with a composite opinion. If a lot of trusted sources say "ZOMG SO GOOD!", then I'll be really convinced.
drednort1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
The Captive Soul by Josepha Sherman. It's a Highlander novelization I've had since 9th grade. Methos is and ever shall be my favorite Immortal. And getting to read about him falling in love with a woman who was physically deformed at a time when I felt like a giant freak? Kinda saved my life.
2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
Current: Indigo Springs - A.M. Dellamonica
Last: Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Next: No frakkin' clue
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I seriously wanted to put that book (and it's "heroine") into a trash compactor and then burn the neatly compressed cube that came out.
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I even found it used and acquired it. But damn, it's like 700 pages and every time I look at it I think, "I do not have time in my life to spend three months getting through this book."
5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
None. Hopefully by "retirement" I'll have lots of new books just coming out to amuse myself with.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I don't read the last page, but I do peek ahead to other chapters and other places, especially in books where I'm very engaged. I'm a notorious peeker, but not the last page. Because it usually doesn't tell you anything. The wrap up usually happens at the beginning of the last two chapters.
7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
Third option: invaluable resource. Listen up, all ye beginners searching for agents. One of the biggest favors you can do yourself is go to a bookstore, find the place you think your book would be shelved, and start reading the acknowledgments in books like yours - especially of new releases. Why? Because authors almost always, if they have an acknowledgments page, acknowledge their agent and say nice things about them. This will tell you:
1) Which agents are still actually working and getting things done.
2) Which agents may or may not be open to a new author. If an agent gets 60 gadzillion acknowledgments, their client list is probably very full.
3) And which agents would be most receptive to your book. If a particular agent seems to swing toward the, say, hard SF and space opera set and you've got a book that's The Sound and The Fury -- In Space!!, it might be worth your while.
Several agents I've queried (most of whom actually ended up requesting fulls or partials) were found through that very method.
In a non-utilitarian way, I like to read them because it's actually very telling about the book and the author. I like to see if a lot of authors acknowledge and thank people from a certain big name workshop or course (like Clarion West or something). I like to see what other authors they acknowledge as being helpful, what their influences were.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Most books I really love contain characters and situations I would NEVER want to switch places with - but given the chance? Maybe one of the kids from Damia's Children. You get really cool psychic powers (telepath, teleport, telekinesis, television - wait, that's not a power!), you get to be raised with fuzzy aliens and ride horses a lot, and basically you're in the top echelon of society yet part of a close-knit family. Oh and it's your genetic destiny to be really powerful and placed in a position of great prestige and wealth when you're old enough. Plus you get a real cool white streak in your hair, like Rogue from the X-Men.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time?
The Scarlet Letter reminds me of 10th grade English and a really great teacher I had. I wish I'd worked harder then.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
Sorry, I get mine the boring way. I buy them or they're given to me.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Haven't had the occasion, because I'm always afraid they won't share my tastes in books and will look at my gift and think, "How can I get rid of this?" like it's a one pound block of fruitcake.
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
See answer to question #1
13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
Haven't re-read anything from high school yet, because most of our selections were the kind of 18th/19th century Classic Literature books that nobody reads unless you force them at gunpoint. But I thought "A Separate Peace" wasn't so bad.
14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
This is why I picked this meme. I used to work as a booklister for a used book seller. We would process huge crates of used books from auctions, estate sales, and other places. We found postcards (one from a woman in Florida in the 1950's complaining about a "negro nurse", which is why I'd never wanna go back to the 1950's), strange book marks, checks from the 1980's, pictures both mundane and bizarre, once we found letters from Joan Baez's mom, notes passed by kids in school who are now probably holding their grandchildren, church bulletins, flyers, movie tickets, wrappers, posters, greeting cards of all kind, occasional bugs. But never any money.
15. Used or brand new?
New, I guess, because I like to keep up on current releases and because I love a new book smell. But used books, especially REALLY OLD ones, have their charms as well.
16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Third answer: I don't care. He's a fixture in popular culture and popular literature. Whether he's good or bad, he's a Big Name. If you don't read the books, you can just watch the movies and made for TV miniserieses (eses?)
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
The Lord of the Rings. Sorry, but the books were very dry and boring and the movies inspired in me the desire to commit carnal acts with an elf. Several elves (Cate Blanchett, yowzers). Carnal desire wins every time.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
That list is far too long for this meme. But let's start with 2007's Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. Wow. Way to not only abuse a classic series I loved as a kid but completely misuse Christopher Eccleston. That movie sucked like an Electrolux.
19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Nope.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
Nobody. I keep my own counsel when it comes to books. There are folks who, when they say, "This is good", I believe that I'll read a quality book, even if I detest it completely. But there's nobody I know who is 100% like me when it comes to books. So I try to come up with a composite opinion. If a lot of trusted sources say "ZOMG SO GOOD!", then I'll be really convinced.
