too many pages to remember the turning
Nov. 19th, 2009 02:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
harborshoreSo I read a lot. And by that I do mean a lot. I mean that when I was thirteen, I was reading two paper bags of library books every week, the ones I'd borrowed and the ones my sister had borrowed, so around 25 books or so. To be fair, I was learning English by osmosis, so it's possible I was a little more intense about the reading than I am otherwise. Not much more, though.
Just, one of my favorite things about college and about this LJ thing is that I'm no longer alone in my appreciation of reading. I got this meme from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
softlyforgotten.
Total number of books owned: *insert maniacal laughter here. Okay, so, there's a box of books behind my bed, two more boxes in a basement back in MN (otherwise known as The Great Tragedy of Moving Home From College--I promise I'll get them back!), two tall bookshelves in my room and one (very) long shelf that contains my paperback fantasy novels. Most of them, anyway.
Last book bought: I bought many, many books in London. Among them were An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer (and three other Heyers), HD's Trilogy, Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit (so far shaping up to be one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read), and Charlotte Bronte's The Spell.
Last book read: Last book finished? Because I'm sort of reading, um, about eight books right now. Oh! Emma Jones, The Striped World, which is a wonderful poetry collection.
Five books that mean a lot to you and why: Oh god, this meme is impossible.
1. Against Forgetting, edited by Carolyn Forche. An anthology of poetry written in wartime, about wartime, by poets who lived through a war but write about love, etc. I dig it out when I need to remember why the hell writing can be important at all.
2. Jazz, Toni Morrison. Because its ending is the most stunning ending I've ever come across. Because it never fails to hurt me, reading it, and then somehow it all gets, not fixed, but it gets better, it does get better. Beauty in darkness and beauty in making it through.
3. Women and Apple Trees, Moa Martinsson. I read this the first summer after college, completely entranced--this one is a favorite as well as a book that means something, but it means something because I could not let it go. It's a story of two women, growing up in the countryside in Sweden--it's a difficult story, but god, Martinsson just holds on and on and on to her readers and we're helpless to resist.
4. Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers. It's a mystery novel about women and men and their struggle for equality. It means a lot, even though (or because) it's a wish-fulfillment story, because the way the main character walks through all these thoughts in her head, navigating education and equality and work and love, it resonates deeply. Even so many years later.
5. A Little Love Song, Michelle Magorian. I read it when I was twelve, I think, and it was this very visceral and intense experience of actually thinking about finding your place in the world. There's this moment when the main character yells "I like being a woman!" and I remember thinking, oh, do I? Oh, I do. It was deeply, deeply cool. *grins*
You all know I could keep going, right? Right.
5 books that everyone should read at some time or another:
I just want to state for the record that this list is not organized in order of importance.
1. Sappho's poems/fragments, any translation.
2. As You Like It, Shakespeare.
3. Schoolgirls, Peggy Orenstein. (Every girl should, especially.)
4. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing.
5. The Brothers Lionheart, by Astrid Lindgren.
What author do you own the most books by? Astrid Lindgren or Terry Pratchett.
What book do you own the most copies of? Likesoftlyforgotten, I own a lot of Shakespearean editions. Only one Complete Works, but two different editions of his sonnets/poems, many of the plays individually (As You Like It, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing), and Swedish translations of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night. Other than that, I own two different editions of Margaret Atwood's poems and three of Edith Södergran's poetry.
Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Nope.
What fictional character are you secretly in love with? What is this secrecy bullshit? I have crushes on many fictional characters and I am not ashamed of them.
What book have you read the most times in your life? Good lord. That's actually a really difficult question--I reread books a lot, because they're different when you do, and I really like that, the way you can find new details in them and new ways to look at what you already knew about the story. But probably Good Omens. And I've read a lot of Shakespeare many, many times.
Favorite book as a ten year old? Possibly The Dark is Rising. But I'm fairly sure it depended on my mood.
What is the worst book you've read in the past year? I've forgotten its title, but it was something about cryptography and an ancient artifact and a woman that just--ugh, the way the relationship was written in that pissed me off so much. (Hi, of course the ending will mean she goes back to her borderline abusive asshole boyfriend. Because that's romantic.) It wasn't written by Dan Brown, though his latest was fairly atrocious.
What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? I hate questions about best books. They are by definition impossible. I need specifics! Best book for when you're happy? Best book for making you care about the world? What?
If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Maybe Dandelion Wine. Just because it's missing from my earlier list of must-reads, which is a travesty, and also because there's something about it that makes me sit still, makes me quietly happy.
What book would you most like to see made into a movie? I can only answer this if I get to cast it AND direct the movie. I tend to have read books too many times to like the movies based on them, unfortunately. But I would like to do a new version of The Dark is Rising, instead of that shite they pretended was based on the book.
What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? It's a pretty close tie between Ulysses (last time I tried I got stuck on page 674) and The Inferno (stuck on page 456).
What is your favorite book? Didn't I already say something about how impossible questions about best books or favorites are? Um, Dandelion Wine, Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, Good Omens, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, Jazz.
What is your favorite play? Stoppard's Arcadia.
Poem? Seriously, picking favorites is not getting any easier.
Here, have this one by Liz Waldner, because Homing Devices is currently my favorite poetry collection:
in the name of gentleness of feeling
fields waving in breezes, dark trees making a cloud shape at the back of the sky, the outline of the cloud itself like it and high and suddenly being willing to live; given to green gentleness, given to green ways, given to the greenwood; become homesick for yourself; then, as if somebody touched you, turn to look right into the face of the moon, just risen above dark trees and for a moment you are home in a room like milk, walk with a step like milk, a voice, a mind like milk, and the name that you speak--
you speak,
you tilt the cup to your lips, so the waving grasses slant and turn pale before the dark trees, you tilt the world to your lips to drink and send the wind askew, and just before your tongue touches milk, the dark trees sound and you turn as if tapped on the shoulder to see white sheets waving on the night time line and the moon light shines in the cup and the sweet air moves across your cheek and you can wonder where home is later.
Essay? I'm reading Reflections on Gender and Science right now, and Evelyn Fox Keller is seriously fucking brilliant. Former scientist-turned-gender studies theorist, holy shit, she is so smart. And such a good writer.
Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Alive today? In Sweden it's Lars Noren, playwright and asshole extraordinaire. In the world--Dan Brown? Stephenie Meyer?
What is your desert island book? I can't believe I'd only get to take one. Shakespeare's Complete Works, maybe.
What are you reading right now? The aforementioned essay collection on gender and science, Sappho's poems (the Anne Carson translation), Wanderlust, Carson McCullen's The Member of the Wedding. And a couple of others.
Just, one of my favorite things about college and about this LJ thing is that I'm no longer alone in my appreciation of reading. I got this meme from
softlyforgotten.Total number of books owned: *insert maniacal laughter here. Okay, so, there's a box of books behind my bed, two more boxes in a basement back in MN (otherwise known as The Great Tragedy of Moving Home From College--I promise I'll get them back!), two tall bookshelves in my room and one (very) long shelf that contains my paperback fantasy novels. Most of them, anyway.
Last book bought: I bought many, many books in London. Among them were An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer (and three other Heyers), HD's Trilogy, Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit (so far shaping up to be one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read), and Charlotte Bronte's The Spell.
Last book read: Last book finished? Because I'm sort of reading, um, about eight books right now. Oh! Emma Jones, The Striped World, which is a wonderful poetry collection.
Five books that mean a lot to you and why: Oh god, this meme is impossible.
1. Against Forgetting, edited by Carolyn Forche. An anthology of poetry written in wartime, about wartime, by poets who lived through a war but write about love, etc. I dig it out when I need to remember why the hell writing can be important at all.
2. Jazz, Toni Morrison. Because its ending is the most stunning ending I've ever come across. Because it never fails to hurt me, reading it, and then somehow it all gets, not fixed, but it gets better, it does get better. Beauty in darkness and beauty in making it through.
3. Women and Apple Trees, Moa Martinsson. I read this the first summer after college, completely entranced--this one is a favorite as well as a book that means something, but it means something because I could not let it go. It's a story of two women, growing up in the countryside in Sweden--it's a difficult story, but god, Martinsson just holds on and on and on to her readers and we're helpless to resist.
4. Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers. It's a mystery novel about women and men and their struggle for equality. It means a lot, even though (or because) it's a wish-fulfillment story, because the way the main character walks through all these thoughts in her head, navigating education and equality and work and love, it resonates deeply. Even so many years later.
5. A Little Love Song, Michelle Magorian. I read it when I was twelve, I think, and it was this very visceral and intense experience of actually thinking about finding your place in the world. There's this moment when the main character yells "I like being a woman!" and I remember thinking, oh, do I? Oh, I do. It was deeply, deeply cool. *grins*
You all know I could keep going, right? Right.
5 books that everyone should read at some time or another:
I just want to state for the record that this list is not organized in order of importance.
1. Sappho's poems/fragments, any translation.
2. As You Like It, Shakespeare.
3. Schoolgirls, Peggy Orenstein. (Every girl should, especially.)
4. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing.
5. The Brothers Lionheart, by Astrid Lindgren.
What author do you own the most books by? Astrid Lindgren or Terry Pratchett.
What book do you own the most copies of? Like
softlyforgotten, I own a lot of Shakespearean editions. Only one Complete Works, but two different editions of his sonnets/poems, many of the plays individually (As You Like It, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing), and Swedish translations of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night. Other than that, I own two different editions of Margaret Atwood's poems and three of Edith Södergran's poetry.Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Nope.
What fictional character are you secretly in love with? What is this secrecy bullshit? I have crushes on many fictional characters and I am not ashamed of them.
What book have you read the most times in your life? Good lord. That's actually a really difficult question--I reread books a lot, because they're different when you do, and I really like that, the way you can find new details in them and new ways to look at what you already knew about the story. But probably Good Omens. And I've read a lot of Shakespeare many, many times.
Favorite book as a ten year old? Possibly The Dark is Rising. But I'm fairly sure it depended on my mood.
What is the worst book you've read in the past year? I've forgotten its title, but it was something about cryptography and an ancient artifact and a woman that just--ugh, the way the relationship was written in that pissed me off so much. (Hi, of course the ending will mean she goes back to her borderline abusive asshole boyfriend. Because that's romantic.) It wasn't written by Dan Brown, though his latest was fairly atrocious.
What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? I hate questions about best books. They are by definition impossible. I need specifics! Best book for when you're happy? Best book for making you care about the world? What?
If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Maybe Dandelion Wine. Just because it's missing from my earlier list of must-reads, which is a travesty, and also because there's something about it that makes me sit still, makes me quietly happy.
What book would you most like to see made into a movie? I can only answer this if I get to cast it AND direct the movie. I tend to have read books too many times to like the movies based on them, unfortunately. But I would like to do a new version of The Dark is Rising, instead of that shite they pretended was based on the book.
What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? It's a pretty close tie between Ulysses (last time I tried I got stuck on page 674) and The Inferno (stuck on page 456).
What is your favorite book? Didn't I already say something about how impossible questions about best books or favorites are? Um, Dandelion Wine, Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, Good Omens, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, Jazz.
What is your favorite play? Stoppard's Arcadia.
Poem? Seriously, picking favorites is not getting any easier.
Here, have this one by Liz Waldner, because Homing Devices is currently my favorite poetry collection:
in the name of gentleness of feeling
fields waving in breezes, dark trees making a cloud shape at the back of the sky, the outline of the cloud itself like it and high and suddenly being willing to live; given to green gentleness, given to green ways, given to the greenwood; become homesick for yourself; then, as if somebody touched you, turn to look right into the face of the moon, just risen above dark trees and for a moment you are home in a room like milk, walk with a step like milk, a voice, a mind like milk, and the name that you speak--
you speak,
you tilt the cup to your lips, so the waving grasses slant and turn pale before the dark trees, you tilt the world to your lips to drink and send the wind askew, and just before your tongue touches milk, the dark trees sound and you turn as if tapped on the shoulder to see white sheets waving on the night time line and the moon light shines in the cup and the sweet air moves across your cheek and you can wonder where home is later.
Essay? I'm reading Reflections on Gender and Science right now, and Evelyn Fox Keller is seriously fucking brilliant. Former scientist-turned-gender studies theorist, holy shit, she is so smart. And such a good writer.
Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Alive today? In Sweden it's Lars Noren, playwright and asshole extraordinaire. In the world--Dan Brown? Stephenie Meyer?
What is your desert island book? I can't believe I'd only get to take one. Shakespeare's Complete Works, maybe.
What are you reading right now? The aforementioned essay collection on gender and science, Sappho's poems (the Anne Carson translation), Wanderlust, Carson McCullen's The Member of the Wedding. And a couple of others.