Tense Teacher called out all us "fellow English teacher and book lover types" to participate in a meme. Never one to ignore a direct command (hey! I heard that snicker...), here is my take on the book-centered survey:Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror?
Wait, why isn't "Romance" listed as an option here? Of the three listed, I'll choose Horror. I like Steven King quite a bit.
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass Market all the way. I hate hardbacks and avoid them whenever possible.
Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Brick and mortar for the most part. I'm a big fan of spending a good couple hours wandering through Borders, reading bits and pieces of various things before deciding if and what to purchase. Barnes and Noble is okay, too, but of the two I prefer Borders. Used bookstores are great fun for finding little hidden gems in dark corners.
Barnes and Noble or Borders?
Pretty sure I answered this above, but Borders.
Hitchhiker or Discworld?
Huh? I assume "Hitchhiker" refers to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I've never read. The other I've never even heard of.
Bookmark or Dog-ear?
Bookmarks usually, though occasionally I just remember page numbers.
Asimov's Science Fiction or Fantasy & Science Fiction
Again I say: Huh?
Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title, or random?
Depends on the shelf. My romance novels are grouped by author and ordered correctly within a given series, but beyond that they're random. My school textbooks and things are random, usually generally ordered by size. My literature bookshelf is alphabetical by author.
Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
Almost always keep, though occasionally I give to Goodwill.
Keep dust-jacket or toss it?
I keep them even though they piss me off like you wouldn't believe. Part of the reason I hate hardcovers.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
I usually read with it off. Like I said, dustjackets piss me off.
Short story or novel?
I love both equally. I refuse to choose.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
I've never read any of either series, so I have no preference.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
The next chapter break after I get tired.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time?”
They're both ridiculously trite.
Buy or Borrow?
I like to own books, so buy. "Borrowing" for me just means stealing.
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
Browse. I trust no one's opinion but my own.
Lewis or Tolkien?
Never read anything by either.
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Collection. I like the cohesion of a consistent style.
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Tidy endings. I agree with Tense Teacher - cliffhangers just piss me off.
Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
At night, relaxing in bed.
Standalone or Series?
Stand-alones are fine, but I love a good series. Almost all my favorite romance novels are parts of a series.
New or used?
I prefer new, but as long as it's still in good condition I don't mind too much.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Of which nobody else has heard? I'm not sure that's possible. My most recent discovery is The Gift of Nothing, which I bought J. for his birthday a few weeks ago.
Top 5 favorite genre books of all time? Romance: Bewitching by Jill Barnett. Science Fiction: Prey by Michael Crichton. Horror: Cujo by Stephen King. Poetry: 100 Poems by e.e. cummings. Children's: Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss. Yeah, I kind of fudged the "genre books" definition. So what?
Favorite genre series?
The Mallory series by Johanna Lindsey (Romance). That family is just so cool.
Currently Reading?
Blogs. Student essays. Course readers. Oh, you meant books? Yeah, right.
And thus ends the meme. Interested in playing? No tagging from me, just an open invitation to steal. :)
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April showers bring May flowers, so every post this month will end with a little bit of beauty from the world outside. I know little to nothing about flowers, so don't bother asking me what kind they are. You're pretty much guaranteed to get something like, "The pretty kind!"
14 comments:
What! Not read Lewis OR Tolkein? Not ready any Harry Potter?
Dear, my dear. I am never one to follow the crowd, and I don't ask others to, either.
However, you SHOULD read C.S. Lewis - the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe SERIES (see, it's a series). You should read them in the order they're meant to be read, and you should do it because book 7 is completely worth pushing your way through all the others (which aren't terrible). It won't be as good/deep if you don't, and I promise you, it will have you in tears because it's SO good. Like a romance novel, it has a happily ever after ending, but unlike it is so much more than just that. By far, the best description of life after death. AND, they're great books for reading to kids at bedtime, so if you must, wait and share them with your children. It's a great foundation, and I only wish I'd had some idea they existed before I was a full-fledged adult.
p.s. I'm with you on the hardback-thing.
I looked it up in a borrowed, dog-eared, jacketless book - it's a rose!
What a perfectly lovely thing to do! Though truth be told, the flowers will pale next to the beauty of your writing.
I like hard covers just because I use the dust jacket as a book mark, when I switch from using the front one to the back one it means I'm half-way-ish. I never have a good bookmark, silly scraps of paper usually.
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is freaking hilarious, after you read it you'll find yourself laughing at random things in life that were never funny before. It's possibly my favorite book ever, and its a series. It's obviously sci-fi but I don't ever want to think of it that way, its just so grounded because the main character is just a normal average boring guy, on a crazy adventure he wants nothing to do with. you also will learn the meaning of life the universe and everything, and gods last message to his creations, hehe, they aren't what you would expect. I could go on and on about that book.
Oh for favorite that no ones heard of. More Than Enough by John Fulton. A friend of mine from Boston, the one I'm nuts for if you've read my older stuff, her teacher wrote it but it didn't sell so she bought me a copy and had it shipped to me for $3.50, $3.49 of it was the shipping. I think when you buy a new book for a penny it counts as no-one's heard of. The book is pretty good too, not fantastic but good.
Tomorrow if I'm bored at work I might just steal this meme.
Pop quiz: do you know where the term meme comes from? I do.
I am so glad I am the only one that hasn't read Harry Potter or Tolkein. I have tried, but not really my cup of tea.
I love talking about books and hearing others preferences and recommendations.
Thanks for sharing!
Now I don't feel such an outcast, never having read Tolkein. I have tried LOTR 3 times, but have never made it past the first few pages.
Do try The Hitchikers Guide to the G. Either the book or, if you can get hold of them from the BBC, the radio series (which came first) or the TV series. But NOT the absolutely terrible movie of a couple of years ago, which never should have seen the light of day.
Okay Jill B said most of what I was going to say. So, yeah. Except for the hardback thing. I love the hardback.
Great meme.
Great post!! But never Tolkein?? And no Science Fiction?? The LOTR series was a much better read than it was as a movie! And for SciFi, may I suggest any of Robert Heinlein's books! Like 'Friday'!!
Also, for a little diversion, try some Dean Koontz.
what everyone said about C.S. Lewis and Hitchhiker's Guide. That is one seriously funny piece of work.
I did this meme a while back (I think. I kind of had a meltdown in there, too, so it's a little fuzzy.)
My favourite book that no one's ever heard of is Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. It's a detective story about Richard III. Don't roll your eyes, it's really good. Veddy British, but that's never been a deterrent for me.
Wow! You can just remember the page number you were on?
Now I'm interested in reading Hitchhikers guide because of everyone's comments. My mom has the Lion, Witch and wardrobe series, my sister really liked it.
I'm currently "borrowing" and reading the Little House on the Prairie series... wow!
~ Wolf Lover Girl
R.U. Serious,
I think I'm one of few here who actually made it through one of the Tolkein books, I didn't like it myself. I don't blame the author, it was well written and quite the story, the trouble is the genre itself. I can't do fantasy, and I think there are others who will agree. It's just hard for me to get to attached to elves and hobbits and the other strange creatures. Oh sure they're all basically just people anyway but somehow I was never able to get past that. Sci-fi, and HH double G being a great example of it, has all the craziness and strange creatures but it's grounded in a main character that is very relatable. If put in that crazy situation I could see myself responding as Arthur Dent does at times. So no insult against Tolkein, it's just not for everyone. The same can be said for sci-fi too of course, or any other genre for that matter.
For starters, this blog sucks. ;-)
Onto books, being a mathematician I consider myself pretty poorly read. However, I've read the 3 Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit. I've speed through the full Hitchhikers series and am eagerly awaiting the realise of the last Harry Potter book. I did get C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll confused for a bit, but seeing as I've read the first couple of Narnia books and Alice in Wonderland that's kinda irrelevant. (Random fact: Lewis Carroll was a mathematician.)
So the moral to my story is, these may not be most mentally taxing or profound works in existence; but they are some of the books any future students are likely to have read, so it might be prudent to have a read. Atleast so you can find some relatively pop-culture examples of metaphors. :-p
In other news:
- That Aussie Boy dude's hot.
- The scientific name for that flower is "pinkus flowerii" as I'm sure I mentioned when we did the phlower fotography marathon.
- You smell.
- Australia won the cricket world cup.
- The term "meme" is obviously an abbreviation of "mememememememememememe...".
- ;-)
Umm...yeah. What Jill said. (At least about Tolkien and Lewis)
Actually, it took me a long time to finally get around to reading LotR, but I was sooo glad I finally did. It is so wonderful. I get that it's not for everyone, but to me that is just weird. :p I will read almost anything.
As for Lewis, my favorite book is "The Great Divorce." It's fairly thin and doesn't take too long to read, I highly recommend it!!
I will probably steal this meme, but maybe on another day when I feel less like road-kill.
hi everyone! i suck and am running out of time for personal responses. so for today, here's what i have to say to everyone:
no, i have never read lewis, tolkien, or any harry potter. and i know that this is shocking and shameful. but recall that until this year i was an english major who'd never read the scarlet letter, the great gatsby, or the catcher in the rye. so there.
i may have to read HGG after all of this though.
i like the flower idea. it's fun. :) (and amanda - you are too kind.)
and finally, kilgore trout, i used to know, but have forgotten. boo to me. :(
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