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alizzy, but I can write a bunch more!
01. One book that changed your life:
Wait 'Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn because my fifth grade teacher (named, I shit you not, Ms. Five, pronounced FEEV-ah) got me to read it instead of the Nancy Drew novels I was addicted to since the summer before. I was a precocious reader and basically checked out the elementary school library (all of Roald Dahl!) before I moved onto the public one and got drawn in by the tawdry early 90s update of the famous girl detective. Ms. Five was so proud of me for reading something else; she told me so, after I left. That, and she wasn't sure it was ever going to work.
02. One book that you’ve read more than once:
The Stand by Steven King. It's kind of like a zombie apocalypse book without the zombies. I do like zombie stuff, but in book form it's such a snooze. I love post-apocalyptic, what-in-the-hey-do-we-do-now? stories, and this one had both apocalypse, post-apocalypse, and post-post apocalyptic struggle leading to second apocalypse. Plus, I felt really cool lugging the hardcover book (which was the size of a lunch box and the weight of textbook) around middle school and reading it before French class started. To date, the only one of his that I've reread (I think I only finished one other, and that would be Needful Things--movie's equally good, but both are subtly different and worth a look-see).
03. One book you’d want on a desert island:
The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Because I will probably decide to go mad at some point if I'm stuck on a deserted island, and it would be a handy reference on how to do that. Also, it never stops being funny (until the later books).
04. One book that made you laugh:
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Praise be to my friends in Australia for getting me onto Pratchett; the man is a genius with a world-building savvy that rivals Joss Whedon in both intertwining complexity and hilarity. I still remember the exchange in Men at Arms that provoked literal, laugh-out-loud laughter (unfortunately, I think I was in the library at the time):
Carrot: "Did you know she was a werewolf?"
Colon: "Um ... Captain Vimes kind of hinted, sir..."
Carrot: "How did he hint?"
Colon: "He sort of said, 'Fred, she's a damn werewolf.'"
I snorted at that. It was of the good, and I was hooked on Discworld thereafter.
05. One book that made you cry:
Tie: They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Michael Burch and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I really haven't cried over a book since I was a much younger reader (and, inversely, I cry at movies a lot more than I did when I was kidling), but those two both made me bawl. I remember reading Where the Red Fern Grows late into a weekend night because I had to finish it, but taking longer because I was crying too hard to see.
06. One book that you wish had never been written:
Ooh, tough one. Anything by Kevin J. Anderson counts, right? Normally, if I don't like a book, I drop it and don't finish it. Then again, I read all of the original sextuplet (emphasis on the sex) of the Dune series and really that stopped being good after, oh, Dune? Okay, so Dune Messiah was okay, and Children of Dune not dreadful, but Shai Hulud help you if you go on past God Emperor of Dune, people. The less said about Heretics of Dune or Chapterhouse Dune the better. Oh, and eeeeeew, Kevin J. Anderson helped pen some of the prequels (which, believe it or not, were better than Heretics or Chapterhouse even if they BROKE THE WORLD of Dune). So yeah, goodbye Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. Would that Herbert had kicked it before he got sex-starved and insane in his twilight years.
07. One book you’re currently reading:
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson. A birthday present that's sequential and serial enough in nature to pick up and put down without losing ones place fairly easily. It's really fascinating, informative without being overly nerdy and just plain funny. I happen to find bugs writing to a sex-advice columnist hi-larious, okay?
08. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
This is cheating 'cause it's a graphic novel, but Neil Gaiman's Sandman collection. I really do intend to read it, and my roommate owns all of it, so I should just get it over with. The problem I have is the one I always have when something's been hyped to the nth degree: I develop this unfounded loathing of it. Few and far between are the things suggested me over and over that I've then gone on to pick up and like, let alone love (note to you Veronica Mars people: shut it, and maybe I'll consider watching it before I'm thirty). So, when I got into comics again in college and admitted I'd never read it...well, I got told I should a lot and I avoided it. I've since read one of the separate Death collections, which was all right, and more Gaiman in the form of a short story or two and the excellent Good Omens (which I still like better for the Pratchett half than the Gaiman half). Anyway, it's on my list. Some day...
Tag forjethrien, feiran, darkling1 (whenever you get back from your vacation, dude, 's cool with me), ivy03 (uh, as a stress-buster?), and viridian. And everyone else on my f'list, too. If, you know, y'want.
alizzy, but I can write a bunch more!01. One book that changed your life:
Wait 'Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn because my fifth grade teacher (named, I shit you not, Ms. Five, pronounced FEEV-ah) got me to read it instead of the Nancy Drew novels I was addicted to since the summer before. I was a precocious reader and basically checked out the elementary school library (all of Roald Dahl!) before I moved onto the public one and got drawn in by the tawdry early 90s update of the famous girl detective. Ms. Five was so proud of me for reading something else; she told me so, after I left. That, and she wasn't sure it was ever going to work.
02. One book that you’ve read more than once:
The Stand by Steven King. It's kind of like a zombie apocalypse book without the zombies. I do like zombie stuff, but in book form it's such a snooze. I love post-apocalyptic, what-in-the-hey-do-we-do-now? stories, and this one had both apocalypse, post-apocalypse, and post-post apocalyptic struggle leading to second apocalypse. Plus, I felt really cool lugging the hardcover book (which was the size of a lunch box and the weight of textbook) around middle school and reading it before French class started. To date, the only one of his that I've reread (I think I only finished one other, and that would be Needful Things--movie's equally good, but both are subtly different and worth a look-see).
03. One book you’d want on a desert island:
The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Because I will probably decide to go mad at some point if I'm stuck on a deserted island, and it would be a handy reference on how to do that. Also, it never stops being funny (until the later books).
04. One book that made you laugh:
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Praise be to my friends in Australia for getting me onto Pratchett; the man is a genius with a world-building savvy that rivals Joss Whedon in both intertwining complexity and hilarity. I still remember the exchange in Men at Arms that provoked literal, laugh-out-loud laughter (unfortunately, I think I was in the library at the time):
Carrot: "Did you know she was a werewolf?"
Colon: "Um ... Captain Vimes kind of hinted, sir..."
Carrot: "How did he hint?"
Colon: "He sort of said, 'Fred, she's a damn werewolf.'"
I snorted at that. It was of the good, and I was hooked on Discworld thereafter.
05. One book that made you cry:
Tie: They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Michael Burch and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I really haven't cried over a book since I was a much younger reader (and, inversely, I cry at movies a lot more than I did when I was kidling), but those two both made me bawl. I remember reading Where the Red Fern Grows late into a weekend night because I had to finish it, but taking longer because I was crying too hard to see.
06. One book that you wish had never been written:
Ooh, tough one. Anything by Kevin J. Anderson counts, right? Normally, if I don't like a book, I drop it and don't finish it. Then again, I read all of the original sextuplet (emphasis on the sex) of the Dune series and really that stopped being good after, oh, Dune? Okay, so Dune Messiah was okay, and Children of Dune not dreadful, but Shai Hulud help you if you go on past God Emperor of Dune, people. The less said about Heretics of Dune or Chapterhouse Dune the better. Oh, and eeeeeew, Kevin J. Anderson helped pen some of the prequels (which, believe it or not, were better than Heretics or Chapterhouse even if they BROKE THE WORLD of Dune). So yeah, goodbye Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. Would that Herbert had kicked it before he got sex-starved and insane in his twilight years.
07. One book you’re currently reading:
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson. A birthday present that's sequential and serial enough in nature to pick up and put down without losing ones place fairly easily. It's really fascinating, informative without being overly nerdy and just plain funny. I happen to find bugs writing to a sex-advice columnist hi-larious, okay?
08. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
This is cheating 'cause it's a graphic novel, but Neil Gaiman's Sandman collection. I really do intend to read it, and my roommate owns all of it, so I should just get it over with. The problem I have is the one I always have when something's been hyped to the nth degree: I develop this unfounded loathing of it. Few and far between are the things suggested me over and over that I've then gone on to pick up and like, let alone love (note to you Veronica Mars people: shut it, and maybe I'll consider watching it before I'm thirty). So, when I got into comics again in college and admitted I'd never read it...well, I got told I should a lot and I avoided it. I've since read one of the separate Death collections, which was all right, and more Gaiman in the form of a short story or two and the excellent Good Omens (which I still like better for the Pratchett half than the Gaiman half). Anyway, it's on my list. Some day...
Tag for
jethrien, feiran, darkling1 (whenever you get back from your vacation, dude, 's cool with me), ivy03 (uh, as a stress-buster?), and viridian. And everyone else on my f'list, too. If, you know, y'want.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 02:18 pm (UTC)Recently, I picked up the hardcover of Dune on sale for about $10 because
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Date: 2006-08-25 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 12:04 pm (UTC)Wait Till Helen Comes! Yes! When I was in fifth grade I won a back cover contest. (We had to draw an illustration for a back cover of a book we'd read in class. I don't remember the book, but I know my illustration was of a basketball with a smiley face drawn on it buckled in to the passenber seat of a car.) The prize was a free book from the annual book fair and I had such a crush on this book. I just loved the cover illustration. I don't know why but I was sort of ashamed of it so I chose another book as my free one, then snuck back to the book fair after school and bought Wait Till Helen Comes. I still remember most of it, too. *goosepimples*
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Date: 2006-08-25 02:21 pm (UTC)And, aaah, bookfairs. I never had any money as a kid--I got like $5-10 at most--so they were such exquisite torture. Plus, there were those readers that had book buying lists at the end and you'd mark off books you wanted and send it in via your teacher and you got them delivered...never got too many of those, either, alas. It's a bit devious, those booksheet things, selling to kids in the classroom. I never thought about that.
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Date: 2006-08-25 12:09 pm (UTC)the devil of media tie-insKevin J. Anderson and the Dune series, but it's not for internet ears...(Actually, I may have told you already.)
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Date: 2006-08-25 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 01:32 pm (UTC)Gaiman: Yes, you should read Sandman, but make sure you get to Issue#8 ("The Sound of Wings") before you make judgements on it. The first few issues are a little weaker than a lot of the later stuff. And if you like it, I'll recommend Mike Carey's work on Lucifer and Hellblazer.
Judson: This sounds like a lot of fun. Can Jethrien and I borrow it at some point?
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Date: 2006-08-25 02:26 pm (UTC)Re: Pratchett--The problem I have with Pratchett is that I can never remember (until I've started to reread) whether I've read a given book or not (or finished one--I think I stopped in the middle of at least one). I know I've read all the Watch books because those are my favorites. I'm pretty sure I've read almost all the Witch books, but I'm shaky on the others. I need to check my list (which, if I didn't have, I would never know). Thanks for the offer to borrow. I'll peruse your shelf next time.
Re: Gaiman--I just know I have to get through it, period. I can't be a comics geek unless I do that. Although, I was able to (sorta) explain the whole Jean Grey-Phoenix saga to Lisa after we saw the botched X-Men: the Last Stand version, which is pretty impressive given how NEEDLESSLY COMPLICATED that story line is...I'm fairly proud that I managed to explain it without losing her and Andy too badly.
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Date: 2006-08-25 03:01 pm (UTC)Man, I loved that bookstore. What was it called? Bizzy Bees? Oh, nostalgia!
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Date: 2006-08-25 03:27 pm (UTC)I think you're right about that bookstore name. What fun that was. I remember trying to read some Laurel K Hamilton and going, "Ooookaaaaay," and putting it back gently.