13 August 2006

Matt meme

It's from Matt, alright? It's not about him. It's about ME. Naturally... I'd just like to add, hastily, that these days I get most reading done on the boat. 23 minutes to and from work. Takes a while to finish a brick like that..

1. One book you have read more than once

Not all that many, or, well, just a few...
From age six, I read "The Secret Garden" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" once a month. At least. Up until the age of about 15. That makes, erh, quite a few readings.. I've re-read them a few times as an adult too, I still like the feeling of change. In those characters, of course, I'm not changing...

More recently, Good Omens (by Terry Pratchett) and Amatøren (by Lars Saabye Christensen) are my most frequent repeats. I laugh my head off at both each time.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

I was going to say one of the above, for entertainment - but reading how Matt would bring a heavy novel to kill major time I figured that made sense. In which case I'd bring Ulysses and Don Quijote. I'd really like to read both but never seem to find the time for it.

3. One book that made you laugh

Most by Terry Pratchett, Discworld series. Good Omens, Amatøren (am I repeating myself?), several books by Are Kalvø - those actually had someone coming up to me on the boat, asking if I was choking. I'd been trying not to laugh out loud... Oh, and "Families, and how to survive them" by John Cleese and Robin Skynner.

I'm really not very good at choosing just one, am I..?

4. One book that made you cry

Cry, as in weep, not cry with laughter? I honestly can't say, I tend to opt for the lighter variety...
Well, there may be at least one. I've read a lot of books of and / or about native Americans. I'd been very interested in their culture, language and history since I was about 9 or 10, and wrote a major thesis about them in my senior year in high school. If memory serves correctly, Dee Brown's Bury my heart at Wounded Knee had me shed a few tears. Whereas the biography of Geronimo just made me really ashamed to be white. One of many times. (So I was happy to find a t-shirt with "Don't judge my colour, judge my mind"...)

5. One book you wish you had written

I may have to say - any one by Douglas Adams, at least the first four of the (increasingly inaccurately named) trilogy Hitchhiker's guide to the Universe. Not least for all the fun he must have had while writing!
I'd also like to have written a ridiculous number of traveller's guides - to Greece, mainly - and do all the research for them myself!

6. One book you wish had never been written

The fifth book of the (increasingly inaccurately named) trilogy Hitchhikers' guide to the Universe. It's not such a horrible book in itself. It just breaks down the others. I feel.

There. I chose just one. Happy?

7. One book you are currently reading

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Don't look at me, I've only just started it, can't expect me to finish it. I've even had holidays, right, and no boating!

8. One book you have been meaning to read

The Da Vinci code. NOT because I want to read the Da Vinci code. At all. But because I'd very much like to read my favourite author Knut Nærum's book Madonnagåten (aka The Madonna riddle) - a parody that is best read after the original... I'd even throw in The Asti Spumante Code for good measure, Rarity recommended it ages ago. If I could only bring myself to read the first one...

9. One Book That Changed Your Life

Huh? Nah, sorry, haven't found that one yet.

10. Now tag five people

Do I want to do this? Do you?

2 comments:

Claire said...

I found your #4 interesting as I had "Exterminate all the brutes" further down on my list which deals with White colonization (slaughter would be more accurate) in Africa.

Violet said...

I'm a big fan of the Hitchhiker books too. And I love your other answer to #5 - to research for a travel guide was once one of my fantasy dreamjobs.