There is nothing like a good book meme when one should really be applying a coat of primer to the back door.
Thanks to Kirsty for offering a perfect displacement activity.
1) What author do you own the most books by?
I think that’s probably a dead heat between Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope. Mrs Henry Wood is bringing up the rear, so to speak.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Ah, that’s emphatically East Lynne. I now have four editions and have banned myself from buying any more. I shall no doubt soon succumb to the new Broadview Press edition of The Diary of a Nobody, which will mean I also own four copies of that comic masterpiece.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Yes. A preposition is something one shouldn’t end a sentence with. Oops.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Becky Sharp. She has the morals of an alley cat, obviously, but what a corker!
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)?
That would be a tie between East Lynne and The Diary of a Nobody. Hopefully, that justifies having so many copies of each.
6) What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?
I have absolutely no idea. I like to pretend I was never a child.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland, although everyone else absolutely loved it. I’ve also just had to abandon Charlotte Yonge’s The Clever Woman of the Family, on account of it being ineffably dull.
8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Hmm, that’s a tricky question. Probably Rachel Ray, if one excludes re-reads – otherwise Cold Comfort Farm would win every year.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Rachel Ray. I think it would convert more people to the joys of Trollope.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Errk. I have no idea about modern new-fangled writers. I lost interest after the untimely demise of Angela Carter.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I really don’t approve of film adaptations. Why can’t people just read the book?
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Any book that I’ve enjoyed.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Disappointingly, I haven’t had one. Is this normal?
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Undoubtedly The Da Vinci Code. I became so fed up with people telling me I *must* read it, that it was easier just to read the bloody thing. On a positive note, I was then able to dismiss it with impunity.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I struggled for weeks to read it in the original Middle English, only to discover that everyone else in the class had used a modern translation. Bah.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I don’t think I’ve seen any of his obscure plays. A bad back and a love of performed Shakespeare aren’t really compatible.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I’ve read only a few Russian novels, and am a devotee of Zola. I suspect I’ll like them both equally once I’ve found time to read a few Dostoyevskys.
18 ) Roth or Updike?
I’ve read one novel by Roth (The Plot Against America) and nothing by Updike. I don’t think that’s likely to change.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I’ve read some Sedaris (and am happy to leave it at that) and have no interest in Mr Eggers.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Eliot. Hands down.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Crime and Punishment, and Dostoyevsky generally.
23) What is your favorite novel?
I couldn’t possibly choose just one. The top five would probably comprise: East Lynne, Daniel Deronda, Bleak House, Cold Comfort Farm, Rachel Ray. I might come back and edit that list tomorrow.
24) Play?
As You Like It and The London Cuckolds.
25) Poem?
Remember by Christina Rossetti.
26) Essay?
Although I can’t bear her fiction, it would have to be A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf.
27) Short story?
The Man with the Nose by Rhoda Broughton (not least because of the title)
28) Work of nonfiction?
Most of Claire Tomalin’s biographies.
29) Who is your favourite writer?
Ooh, there are lots: George Eliot, Emile Zola, Anthony Trollope, Rhoda Broughton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Florence Marryat.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I don’t pay much attention to any of them.
31) What is your desert island book?
Perhaps I could sneakily plump for the The Palliser Novels, although a one-volume edition might be a trifle unwieldy.
32) And… what are you reading right now?
A biography of the inestimable Mrs Humphry Ward by John Sutherland. I shall be returning to it shortly, once I’ve painted that wretched door.
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I have a copy of that Mrs Humphry Ward biography too, which I do intend to get around to at some point in the not too distant future. And if I can have a one volume edition of all of Dickens (including, I’ve decided, the Peter Ackroyd biography, which I’ve been meaning to read for years), then you can have the Pallisers. Maybe they’ll let us away with box sets.
I’m with you when it comes to Trollope, A Room of One’s Own and Cold Comfort Farm, but have to protest when it comes to Austen!
I confess I haven’t read Braddon or The Diary of a Nobody yet, must change that soon. I mooched Lady Audley’s Secret and am looking forward to it.
The Pallisers is a great choice, although I think if Kirsty is allowed all of Dickens, you should be able to at least add the Barchester Chronicles to your desert-island volume!
Please do let me know what you think of Lady Audley’s Secret, Sarah. I might venture that Braddon is also better than Austen!
I wonder how large the desert island would have to be to accommodate all those Trollopes? I suspect Kirsty would soon regret plumping for Dickens when she reached Barnarby Rudge. Urggh.
Oh hallelujah, a new meme! Thank you, Catherine. I’ll put this one aside for the weekend for something fun to do that won’t tax my poor brain too much. I’m astonished to find I have actually read Rachel Ray, and I enjoyed it very much, too.
Memes are marvellous, aren’t they? So much easier than trying to construct an original blog post. Anyway, Litlove, I shall look forward to reading yours at the weekend. I’m glad to see you’re also in the ‘Rachel Ray’ fan club. Hurrah for Trollopes.