Susan from You Can Never Have Too Many Books tagged me in a meme, and since I love to talk about books, I decided to play along.
Here are Susan's questions and my responses...
1. What is your favourite place in the world?
Colorado - I've lived here all my life, and much as I love to travel, I love my mountains, my own western wall that enchants and challenges and shapes my world.
2. Have you ever visited an author's home, and did the experience live up to your expectation?
I visited the Brontes home in Haworth in 2009 and thoroughly loved the experience, especially walking on the moors and through the cobblestoned streets of the town and through the graveyard. Although I'm not a huge Jack London fan (Call of the Wild is okay but not the best book ever), I did enjoy visiting the ruins of his Wolf House in California. I still haven't visited Chawton, but it's on the list!
3. Do you read biographies of authors you like, or do you prefer to let their words speak for them?
I love to read biographies, and bios of authors are the best of the best. I'm just finishing up Eden's Outcasts about Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson Alcott. It's fabulous. Other great bios I've read include Claire Harmon's bio of Austen, Margaret Forster's bio of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Peter Ackroyd's bio of Shakespeare, and Ron Powers's bio of Mark Twain.
4. Do you have a comfort food?
Tea and toast--I loved rustic bread toasted with peanut butter or just butter as a mid-morning snack during work days.
5. Do you have a favourite classical author?
Can't reduce it to just one--Austen, Shakespeare, Eliot, Gaskell are the authors I reread most often.
6. Do you prefer to watch the movie first, or read the book first?
Book first, always. There are some first rate adaptations I haven't yet seen because I haven't yet read the book. I can't even name a book that I've read after seeing the movie...although my son wants me to go with him to Hunger Games, so I guess that one will be one anyway.
7. Do you have enough bookshelves? (I know this question is a cheat, because really do any of us have enough bookshelves?)
Yes and no. More books than shelves, but no more room to add shelves, until the teenagers grow up and move out!
8. Is there an author that you are planning to read this year for the first time?
G.K. Chesterton - I'm currently reading P.D. James book, Talking About Detective Fiction, and now I'm curious to read his Father Brown stories. I only just read my first Barbara Pym, so she's another author new to me that I'm going to be delving into.
9. Do you have a favourite historical period, and why is it your favourite?
Right now, I love reading about the Victorian period--the pace of industrialization and the oddball spiritual\political\social\psuedo-scientific theories and resultant experiments fascinate me.
10. Name a book that you are anticipating reading that is being published this year.
Hilary Mantel's sequel to Wolf Hall, which I just read is slated to now come out in May 2012. Like everyone else who enjoyed this book, I started with a decided dislike for Thomas Cromwell, and Mantel won me over with her brilliant book.
11. Name two of your favourite novels that you have reread more than once.
Middlemarch by George Eliot, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, and any of the Austens, usually my favorite is the one I've most recently read, so that would be Sense and Sensibility.
These are the only rules:
1. Post the Rules - here they are!
2. Answer the eleven questions that were asked of you by the person who tagged you
3. Make up eleven new questions and tag eleven new people to do the meme!
4. Let them know you tagged them!
Here are my eleven questions, though I am going to open this up to everyone who wants to answer these questions and then post their own--feel free to provide a link to you answers in a comment. So, if you're reading this, tag...you're it!
1. Which is your favorite genre, and has that changed over time?
2. Do you create a reading list for the year and if so, how well do you stick to it?
3. Do you have a reading goal for the year, such as xxx books? Why or why not?
4. Who is your favorite living author?
5. What's your experience with reading challenges?
6. How do your organize your books on shelves--alphabetically (by author or title), by genre, by publication date, or some other method?
7. Do you read e-books or audio books?
8. How do you choose what to read next?
9. Do you read books in parallel or strictly serial?
10. Which books have had the biggest impact on your life?
11. Which characters have you felt are the most real or believeable?
Thank you for playing, Jane! I loved your answers! I too went to Haworth. I didn't know what to expect, and came away feeling the cobblestones and gray buildings - so Yorkshire - really darkened the village, and the moors had such a sense of freedom about them, and space, that I could see how nature impacted on their fiction. It was really powerful.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the same biography of Austen, and have started looking for the Alcott bio. I don't have Ackroyd's bio of Shakespeare, though it is on my list of books to get at some point. I'm also looking for a good George Eliot one to read, but my library only stocks the hardcovers and I have problems carrying them now.
I'll have to think about your meme again, you have some good questions too! lol
I always like to see the movie first any more; that way I'm not disappointed by the movie and I don't sit comparing it the entire 2 hours. Of course, it does mean that you have Hollywood's image of the characters and settings in your head so that's a big negative about this route.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Father Brown stories, but Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is even better. It's a bit of a crazy read and is quite fun. I want to visit Haworth and Chawton some day too. I had hoped to visit one or both of them when I went to England last year, but we decided to just stick closer to London this time. Next time! :)
ReplyDeleteTea and Toast is great comfort food for me as well. I loved reading these memes this past week or so -- fun answers. I may do this tomorrow as I've been home sick.
ReplyDeleteOkay...you got me with your questions! These were such fun, Booky ones, that I had to answer them! (I'd been tagged THREE times, actually)
ReplyDeleteHere they are!