Literature Meme part the first

School's out--it's time for me to blog again! And because I don't yet have the mental energy to write about what's actually going on around here (at the moment my children are wrestling on the living room floor while I do my best to ignore them), I'm going to do this literature meme which I got from Madhousewife. Like her, I bet I will do it in two parts because: see above for lack of mental energy. But I do feel like writing something, so here goes.


1. What author do you own the most books by?
I do not feel like getting up to count, but it's either Alice Munro or C.S. Lewis. Quite different from each other, but I obviously loved both of them enough to buy a lot of their books.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Other than the Bible? I don't think I own multiple copies of any book. At one time I had two copies of Mere Christianity (Lewis again). Oh, never mind, I do have two copies of Pride and Prejudice.


3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not at all. I think that's a false rule. I love the person who wrote, "That is something up with which I will not put" to show how awkward it is to always avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Hmmm. Like a lot of women who read, Mr. Darcy comes to mind, although I have to admit that is influenced by Colin Firth's portrayal of him. I had to fan myself quite often when reading Outlander; that Jamie Fraser is something else. But I don't think that was love.


5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children, i.e. Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Probably The Great Gatsby, since I'd read it a bunch of times already and I read it six times last year (once with each class of juniors).


6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
  The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, that's a series. No, I can't figure out how to turn italics off for this entry.


7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Let me check Goodreads. Okay, I'm back. The worst one I finished (and some of the books I didn't finish weren't the worst, I just couldn't get into them at the time) is called The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. I quoted another reviewer in my review, which I will quote again here (how meta!)

"Stereotypical characters. Predictable, illogical plotlines. Full of cliches." Ugh. I skimmed it to finish but shouldn't have wasted my time--it ended exactly as I was predicting.


8. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I think I would force them to REread To Kill a Mockingbird. I think most ninth graders are not thoughtful enough to get more than the most basic message ("Racism is bad!") from that book, and they would get more out of it when they are more mature.


9. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I don’t know. I don’t pay attention to that stuff.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
As Mad said, "Most of the books I would like to see made into movies have already been made into movies. Bad ones." I used to want another version of Gatsby and now they're making it (is it done yet?) I desperately wanted the Narnia books to be movies and now they're kind of disappointing. I have a T shirt that says, "Movies: Ruining the book since 1920." Although I am interested to see what they've done with The Hunger Games.

11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
I don’t know. Ulysses, I guess. I don't think anyone's likely to try to film that, thank goodness.



More tomorrow!