Starting on a goal
2 January 2022 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
delphipsmith::waves at lovely online friends who are still here after all this time::
One of my goals for 2022 is to get back into writing, here on LJ/DW and in RL. (I posted all of three times in 2021, gah.) I'll try to get an update on My Life and Other Comedies posted sometime this week, but to kick things off I'm stealing a book-related meme from several other folks. Because who around here doesn't like talking about books, right?? Here are the questions:
1- What can you say about a book you are reading right now? Unfinished please, or at least recent.
-2- Who is the worst Mary Sue you've ever encountered in a book.
-3- Name a book series that you felt very entertained by.
-4- Name a book that challenged you and changed your Weltanschauung.
-5- Which book or series of books have you felt repulsed by?
-6- Are there any books you own more than one copy of? Name two if so.
-7- How often do you re-read books you've loved before? What are a few?
-8- Which authors have you read this year? A few will do.
Aaaand here are my answers:
1- What can you say about a book you are reading right now? Unfinished please, or at least recent.
I just started The Bookseller of Florence, which is about a 16th century Florentine named Vespasiano who became known as the king of the world's booksellers. The book centers on his life, but but it's also very much the story of the rediscovery of classical writers (Ovid, Aristotle, Plato, etc.) during the Renaissance. I hope he'll discuss how this was largely made possible by Islamic scholars, who kept/made copies while Europe was busy with its Dark Ages.
-2- Who is the worst Mary Sue you've ever encountered in a book?
It would be a toss-up between Bella Swan (Twilight) and what's her name from the Outlander series. They just feel very Mary Sue-ish.
-3- Name a book series that you felt very entertained by.
If by "entertained" we mean "it made me laugh" then Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are the hands down winner. A close second would be Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, and Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster.
OTOH, if by "entertained" we mean "deeply and pleasantly and wholly diverted," then gosh, there are a lot that fall into that category. Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. Anne McCaffrey's earlier Pern books. Dune et seq. Laurie R. King's Holmes/Russell series. Dorothy Sayer's Peter Wimsey novels.
-4- Name a book that challenged you and changed your Weltanschauung.
Recently, that would be The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee (NYT review). There were bits I knew, or at least was aware of, but so much that I didn't, and she teases out the connections and interrelationships that I never would have seen before. Superb.
Considering my entire reading "life", I suppose I'd have to say Atlas Shrugged. It's been widely misunderstood and unfairly appropriated/distorted by right-wing wing-nuts, and it does have some problematic bits, but it has got quite a lot of good stuff in it too. For example: (a) it's ok to be smart and not hide it, (b) it's good to have a moral code to live by rather than just drifting along and doing whatever is expedient at the moment, (c) letting people guilt you into things is super unhealthy, and (d) facing up to unpleasant truths is, in the long run, much better than hiding your head in the sand and pretending reality isn't what it is. Those are pretty valid life lessons, I think.
-5- Which book or series of books have you felt repulsed by?
"Repulsed" is quite a strong word. I described The Virgin Suicides in mygoodreads review as "kind of icky," and I genuinely detest the Twilight series. Normally I like Stephen King, but Gerald's Game nearly made me physically ill with its detailed descriptions of...well, never mind, I won't do that to you.
-6- Are there any books you own more than one copy of? Name two if so.
Usually I own two copies of a book so I have one on hand that I can give away, so I don't actually have two copies of anything right at the moment but I have in the past and I'm sure will again. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is the first one that comes to mind. I have the Harry Potter books in English and French, does that count?
-7- How often do you re-read books you've loved before? What are a few?
Oh, regularly. I try to balance my reading between new and old; I usually hit about 30% re-reads and 70% new over the course of a year, but The Plague has sent me back to old friends more often, and in 2021 it was only 25 new books out of 80 total. Boo. I actually have a Goodreads shelf of my regular re-reads, if you want to see the full list, but it includes LOTR, The Stand, Harry Potter, The Secret History, Christine, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, This Star Shall Abide, the Lord Peter mysteries, Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, Pride and Prejudice, etc etc etc.
-8- Which authors have you read this year? A few will do.
This year's authors include Stephen King, Anita Brookner, Christopher Buehlman, Mario Puzo, Tad Williams, Shirley Jackson, Patricia McKillip, Charlotte Bronte, Philip Pullman, Arkady Strugatsky, Sheri Tepper, Charles Darwin, Dennis Duncan, and Alexander McCall Smith.
One of my goals for 2022 is to get back into writing, here on LJ/DW and in RL. (I posted all of three times in 2021, gah.) I'll try to get an update on My Life and Other Comedies posted sometime this week, but to kick things off I'm stealing a book-related meme from several other folks. Because who around here doesn't like talking about books, right?? Here are the questions:
1- What can you say about a book you are reading right now? Unfinished please, or at least recent.
-2- Who is the worst Mary Sue you've ever encountered in a book.
-3- Name a book series that you felt very entertained by.
-4- Name a book that challenged you and changed your Weltanschauung.
-5- Which book or series of books have you felt repulsed by?
-6- Are there any books you own more than one copy of? Name two if so.
-7- How often do you re-read books you've loved before? What are a few?
-8- Which authors have you read this year? A few will do.
Aaaand here are my answers:
1- What can you say about a book you are reading right now? Unfinished please, or at least recent.
I just started The Bookseller of Florence, which is about a 16th century Florentine named Vespasiano who became known as the king of the world's booksellers. The book centers on his life, but but it's also very much the story of the rediscovery of classical writers (Ovid, Aristotle, Plato, etc.) during the Renaissance. I hope he'll discuss how this was largely made possible by Islamic scholars, who kept/made copies while Europe was busy with its Dark Ages.
-2- Who is the worst Mary Sue you've ever encountered in a book?
It would be a toss-up between Bella Swan (Twilight) and what's her name from the Outlander series. They just feel very Mary Sue-ish.
-3- Name a book series that you felt very entertained by.
If by "entertained" we mean "it made me laugh" then Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are the hands down winner. A close second would be Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, and Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster.
OTOH, if by "entertained" we mean "deeply and pleasantly and wholly diverted," then gosh, there are a lot that fall into that category. Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. Anne McCaffrey's earlier Pern books. Dune et seq. Laurie R. King's Holmes/Russell series. Dorothy Sayer's Peter Wimsey novels.
-4- Name a book that challenged you and changed your Weltanschauung.
Recently, that would be The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee (NYT review). There were bits I knew, or at least was aware of, but so much that I didn't, and she teases out the connections and interrelationships that I never would have seen before. Superb.
Considering my entire reading "life", I suppose I'd have to say Atlas Shrugged. It's been widely misunderstood and unfairly appropriated/distorted by right-wing wing-nuts, and it does have some problematic bits, but it has got quite a lot of good stuff in it too. For example: (a) it's ok to be smart and not hide it, (b) it's good to have a moral code to live by rather than just drifting along and doing whatever is expedient at the moment, (c) letting people guilt you into things is super unhealthy, and (d) facing up to unpleasant truths is, in the long run, much better than hiding your head in the sand and pretending reality isn't what it is. Those are pretty valid life lessons, I think.
-5- Which book or series of books have you felt repulsed by?
"Repulsed" is quite a strong word. I described The Virgin Suicides in mygoodreads review as "kind of icky," and I genuinely detest the Twilight series. Normally I like Stephen King, but Gerald's Game nearly made me physically ill with its detailed descriptions of...well, never mind, I won't do that to you.
-6- Are there any books you own more than one copy of? Name two if so.
Usually I own two copies of a book so I have one on hand that I can give away, so I don't actually have two copies of anything right at the moment but I have in the past and I'm sure will again. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is the first one that comes to mind. I have the Harry Potter books in English and French, does that count?
-7- How often do you re-read books you've loved before? What are a few?
Oh, regularly. I try to balance my reading between new and old; I usually hit about 30% re-reads and 70% new over the course of a year, but The Plague has sent me back to old friends more often, and in 2021 it was only 25 new books out of 80 total. Boo. I actually have a Goodreads shelf of my regular re-reads, if you want to see the full list, but it includes LOTR, The Stand, Harry Potter, The Secret History, Christine, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, This Star Shall Abide, the Lord Peter mysteries, Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, Pride and Prejudice, etc etc etc.
-8- Which authors have you read this year? A few will do.
This year's authors include Stephen King, Anita Brookner, Christopher Buehlman, Mario Puzo, Tad Williams, Shirley Jackson, Patricia McKillip, Charlotte Bronte, Philip Pullman, Arkady Strugatsky, Sheri Tepper, Charles Darwin, Dennis Duncan, and Alexander McCall Smith.
