Books and their memes

[bending_sickle]

Note: “Favorite” is a word used loosely by me to mean “having great fondness for but in no way necessarily getting the most fondness”. Also, I’m definitely forgetting a gazillion books that I have enjoyed greatly.

Currently Reading: Stupeur et tremblements by Amelie Nothomb, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, These foolish things by Michael Sadlier and Cracking the GRE by the Princeton Review

Next Reading: ?

Last Book Read: Love and other near death experiences by Mil Millington

Last Book Bought: Love and other near death experiences by Mil Millington

Longest Book Owned: Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

Shortest Book Owned: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Favorite Book: Good god, I can’t decide that.

Book Read the Most Times: Good Omens and In the language of love by Diane Schoemperlen

Least Favorite Book: 1984 by George Orwell (This I am very sure of.)

Favorite “Serious” Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Favorite Comedy: Good Omens

Favorite Classic: Godamn, I know I’ve read lots of these… Not Wuthering Heights, in any case, although it is engrained into my brain. Dracula?

Favorite Shakespeare: “Much Ado About Nothing” (by “Hamlet” is a close second)

Favorite Poetry Collection/Poet: E.E.Cummings “100 Selected Poems” and my two volumes of poem anthologies.

Favorite Fantasy: East of Midnight by Tanith Lee

Favorite Sci-Fi: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Favorite Non-Fiction: The Situation is Hopeless but not Serious: The Pursuit of Happiness by P. Watzlawick

Favorite Historical Fiction: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (not that I read lots of historical fiction)

Favorite Chick/Lad Lit: Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding and Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman

Favorite Horror: The Witching Hour or Lestat by Anne Rice if they’re actually “horror”.

Favorite YA: Sister Dark, Sister Light by Jane Yolen

Favorite Manga/Comic/Graphic Novel: Alas, I read even less of this than horror, although I’ll say Sandman on the pure basis of it being the first graphic novel I would consider buying.

Favorite “Other” Genre: Asimov’s Galaxy: Reflections on S. F. or I. Asimov: A Memoir by (yes, that’s right) I. Asimov

Favorite Series: The Discworld Chronicles

Favorite Short Story: “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar” by Neil Gaiman

Favorite Play: “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde

Best Book Read this Year: Never leave me by Kazuo Ishiguro

Worst Book Read this Year: Comme un roman by D. Pernac (although the choices are slim, as apparently I’ve only read 9 novels so far – I blame to serious lack of good English bookstores)

Curious books I’ve got jotted down in my “read as of 2001” incomplete list. Those I really liked are “*”.

Sati – Christopher Pike
*The Woman and the Ape – P. Høeg
Maurice – E.M. Forster
Cause Celeb – H. Fielding
The Kite Runner – K. Hosseini
Solo - ?
*The Mouse that Roared – L. Wibberley
*Restlessness – A. van Herk
*The Situation is Hopeless but not Serious: The Pursuit of Happiness – P. Watzlawick *From Dust Returned – Ray Bradbury
Hominids and the two next by R. J. Sawyer

Short stories:
Sister Emily’s Lightship – J. Yolen
Changing Planes – ?
Ray Bradbury short stories
Diane Schoemperlen short stories
Neil Gaiman short stories

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

I felt a strange exaltation, with no desire to marvel at what had happened nor indeed any particular curiosity as to what was to happen. The hour was perfect of itself, and in due time would know the measure of its own perfection.
“Get things ready,” she had said.

These Foolish Things by Michael Sadleir