First, the comfort reading meme:
What kind of a book are you most comfortable reading?
I have a number of comfort books that I read over and over. In listing them (Pride & Prejudice, Harriet the Spy, and Anne of Green Gables), they appear to have little in common. I guess they all have strong female heroines. Also, they are relatively light, readable stories. Reading in general comforts me. I can sink into a world other than mine. :o)
What kind of a book do you love to hate?
I love to hate poorly edited, but well loved, books. For example, some of the Harry Potter series, Eclipse of the Twilight series and Stephen King’s books. I also love to hate Wuthering Heights. (A book I despise so much it deserves its own specific mention here.) Finally, I love to hate most self-help books for their fluffery.
What was the last book you surprised yourself by liking?
Probably On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and The Gathering by Anne Enright. (Have you noticed that book lovers can rarely answer a straight forward book question with just one book??) Both of those books deal with very heavy, uncomfortable subjects, but I thought each of the authors treated the subjects with amazing respect and insight.
What was the last book you surprised yourself by disliking?
This was a while ago, but Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, was one that I couldn’t bring myself to like. I was surprised by this one because I like YA fiction, Jerry Spinelli won a Newberry Award, and Stargirl is generally well liked. It just didn’t work for me. I thought it was really formulaic.
What would be the worst book to be marooned on a desert island with?
Let me see . . . I can’t even think of one. I think I would find comfort in at least having a book. I would probably even put up with Wuthering Heights if worse came to worst.
What book would you take with you if you suspected you might be marooned in the near future?
While Boat Building for Dummies seems to be the favorite answer, I’m pretty sure I would take Pride & Prejudice. Yep. Literary love over practicality.
What forces you to read outside your comfort zone?
The book blogging definitely makes me want to read books I normally wouldn’t even glance at. Also, the ARCs push my reading envelope a litte. :o) Finally, my book club guides me to interesting books.
Thanks to Julie at Bookworm and Dorothy at Of Books and Bicycles for doing this meme and inspiring me to do so.
Second, the promised miscellany. I loved this quote by Philip Roth posted at The Elegant Variation:
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste. Sundays I have breakfast late and read the papers with Hope. Then we go for a walk in the hills, and I’m haunted by the loss of all that good time. I wake up Sunday mornings and I’m nearly crazy at the prospect of all those unusable hours. I’m restless, I’m bad-tempered, but she’s a human being too you see, so I go. To avoid trouble she makes me leave my watch at home. The result is that I look at my wrist instead. We’re walking, she’s talking, then I look at my wrist—and that generally does it, if my foul mood hasn’t already. She throes in the sponge and we come home. And at home what is there to distinguish Sunday from Thursday? I sit back down at my little Olivetti and start looking at sentences and turning them around. And I ask myself, Why is there no way but this for me to fill my hours?”
Finally, I wanted to note that Kay Ryan was selected as the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States. See The New Yorks Times article for more info. I do like to keep track of the poets laureate. Here’s a sample poem by Ryan:
The other shoe
Oh if it were
only the other
shoe hanging
in space before
joining its mate.
If the undropped
didn’t congregate
with the undropped.
But nothing can
stop the mid-air
collusion of the
unpaired above us
acquiring density
and weight. We
feel it accumulate.
*GIVEAWAY REMINDERS*
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This makes me sound like I’m a 13 year old girl, but I can read ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Island of the Blue Dolphins’ over and over and over.
Also I was very surprised at myself when I couldn’t even bring myself to finish the latest Chuck Palahniuk novel.
Great answers! I should have added my book club to the last answer, too. I’ve ranged much farther afield with my group than I ever would have on my own.
I love to hate Da Vinci Code, for the artificial dialogues. People don’t talk like that! Oh well, the story was not too bad. It’s been over two months since I read The Gathering, and I have reviewed the book, but I still couldn’t tell you if I like it or not. I think it’s a fine piece of writing, very emotionally detached. But it’s difficult to like. Certainly won’t be a comfort read.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who loathes Wuthering Heights.
I kind of liked Wuthering Heights! But that’s okay — we don’t have to agree :) I love Pride and Prejudice too, and would love to have that one with me no matter where I went.
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