Booky Ooky!

At long last I’m posting my answers to Eva’s Reading Meme, for which I was tagged by Chris.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

It’s not so much a book as an author. I have zero interest in Kurt Vonnegut for some reason. I read a couple of his things in high school, and I liked them, but I just can’t bring myself to do it again. NO idea why. Same goes for all the great Russian authors, only I haven’t read them before.

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?

First of all, the activity would have to be quiet, but social. I’ll say a brunch… one of those brunches that goes on for five hours. As for guests, I’m going to go with Hermione Granger (Book 7 Hermione, after she gets cool), Lyra from His Dark Materials (only a bit older so she can have mimosas), and the White Queen from Through the Looking Glass. That last might make things a little exasperating now and then, but I think Hermione would enjoy figuring her out.

(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?

Les Miserables? I dunno. Doesn’t seem like my thing, but I’ve never read it, so who knows? Other people have said Moby Dick, and I’m REALLY inclined to agree with that.

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?

Try EVERY book we were assigned in junior high and high school. I’m not one to read what I’m told. The only exceptions to this were Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Jane Eyre, both of which I wanted to read anyway.

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?

Really haven’t. It’s happened with movies, but books are too much of a commitment for this to happen.

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 sort of depends. Starter books, huh? I guess it would have to be something shortish, though. Ok, so if the VIP needs to be convinced that books are entertaining and good for leisure, I’d recommend Clive Barker’s Abarat. Pretty pictures and all. If they needed convincing of the power of literature to speak to the human experience and all that, I’d go with The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin. For a combination of the two, definitely The Golden Compass. I’d probably settle on the last one, but only if I trusted the VIP to appreciate it.

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 was going to say Japanese automatically too, but…. actually, there’s no but. Japanese. Anything else I can learn on my own, but Japanese is really hard and has a huge body of work.

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?

Coraline. Neil Gaiman. I read it once or twice a year anyway, so that’s no problem whatsoever.

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)?

The most important thing I can say I’ve discovered is how books can affect people in such profoundly different ways. It’s common knowledge that everybody reacts to things differently, but actually seeing it expressed and also seeing how one person’s interpretations vary across a whole number of books with which I’m familiar helps me to find new ways to appreciate what I read. It’s pretty neat.

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.

Honestly, I’m not all into fancy editions or anything like that. I like paperbacks…. gently used or new. Mostly all I want in my dream library is volume. I want it HUGE, automatically filled with everything I could ever be in the mood for. And it had better be really well-organized. Well, that’s my responsibility, really. It’s half the fun. So yeah… it’ll be huge… multi-roomed. THEMED rooms! Fantasy room. Sci-fi room. Classics room. All furnished to match, but not in a tacky way. And I have this great butler, too, that keeps things looking nice. And a cookbook room with a gigantic gourmet kitchen were the attractive celebrity chefs will live! Ok I’m done.