a meme

January 26th, 2008

My life is undoubtedly horrible! I haven’t read a book of my own free will for almost a week. The reason for this (for of course I have a reason) was that I was going to start reading Jane Eyre, seeing as I was planning on using it for an extremely important essay, but then I couldn’t find the teacher I was going to talk to, and I didn’t want to start until I had talked to her. Now that we (the teacher and I) have decided that the essay I first thought of would be rather arse, I do not now have to read Jane Eyre as well as other related books, so technically, I’m free. So. Um. Expect more reviews soon! On Thursday at the latest (by then I should have finished Medea, which I’m reading for Swedish at the moment).

HOWEVER, Love tagged me for a meme, and I can’t say no to memes! Here are her answers, if you are curious. And here are my:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
There are two authors I would never ever read: Jan Guillou and Liza Marklund. They are both (or, Liza Marklund is a has-been now, isn’t she?) extremely selfpleased and seem to think that they are geniuses, despite barely being able to put one word after another. I have only read a handful of paragraphs of each, but that was more than enough. And I don’t know if they only get positive reviews, but a majority of the Swedish population seems to have these two authors as their favourites. (I can’t remember seeing a properly bad review for either authors, but I know that Guillou’s Arn-film got lots of bad reviews - one critic, my favourite critic ever, was a bit too lenient when grading it, and realised it later, and paid the cinema-goers with money from his own pocket. It’s a nice story.)

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Gosh. I must admit being very fond of afternoon tea, so that would be the event. My first guest would proabably be William Dobbin from Vanity Fair. I love Dobbin so much. He is one of the few characters who have actually made me so passionate that I have screamed at pages. IT IS TRUE. Secondly, I must go with Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter-books. He, as well, is a great favourite. Thirdly… hm. This is difficult. I wouldn’t mind Kurda Smahlt from the Darren Shan-books to come around.

Hah. Looking at these three guests, it is quite easy to see what sort of person I like. All of them gentle and wanting the best for everyone, at the cost of their own happiness or welfare or so. Of course, there are characters I adore even more (Acheron Hades from The Eyre Affair is most likely my favourite character ever), but I wouldn’t want to drink tea with them. Getting murdered in the afternoon is not the plan of my life.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
This is difficult. I do my best to steer clear of books that bore me, so I don’t really know. There was this one book that I tried to read twice, ages apart, and I simply couldn’t get through it. Unfortunately, I can’t really remember the title of it. It was about the history of science, and claimed that there was nothing tinier than an atom.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
Ah, too many. Lots and lots of books. Mainly classics (such as Jane Eyre). And, actually, I haven’t really hinted as much as other people have assumed I’ve read them, and I haven’t bothered correcting them. People believe I am the most well-read persone anyway. Breaking their hearts with the truth would be a little harsh.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
Hm. I don’t really know, acutally. There might have been one or two, but there are none I can recall at the moment.
You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
This depends on what kind of person this person seems to be. If the VIP seems really stuffy, I might recommend something like Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, which I think is a very pleasant book, which has pirates and lots of relevant issues (like family!). If the VIP seems to have a sense of humour, I would go with Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, as it’s an extremely clever, well-written and amusing novel.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
I have to go with Russian. I have read extremely little Russian literature, but I aspire to mend this fault. I am currently trying to learn Russian, although I am still on an extremely elementary level (I can tell whoever that I love them, but I can’t swear if I bump my toe). My Russian teacher mentioned once that Russian is extremely rich in synonyms, with only a slight difference between the meanings, creating a nuanced and incredibly language.

…also, being able to say that you have read Dostoyevsky in Russian is really kind of cool. Да.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
God. Um. I really don’t know. A year is such a long time! Or maybe it isn’t. Hm. I might be a bit lame, but I think I’ll go - for the moment at least - with Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is by far the best Harry Potter book, and Voldemort never makes an appearance, which is just A+.
I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
Um. Book challenges? I really haven’t discovered much. I am a little lame like that.
That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
I have a thing for hardcovers with pretty covers. Books in the same series should match. If books are unavailable in hardcover, they should stay the fuck out of those shelves. There would be place for them too, but maybe not as much. Everything is sorted by main genre (novels, plays, poetry, &c), by surname and by original publishing date. Not too many omnibus - it makes it so difficult to count the books. I would like some way of making sure that my books are MY books with some sort of ad libris or something a little less ugly than my scrawled blocks of a name in capital letters and a phone number. The shelves would be well-filled. And hm. More.

(it is just past midnight, so some of these answers might be completely bonkers. I do apologise.)

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