Book meme, another one
1) What author do you own the most books by?
F. Scott Fitzgerald, for sure.
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
“The Great Gatsby.” I have this thing where whenever I see a new version of it with a different cover, I make super grabby hands for it.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really.
4) What fictional character(s) are you secretly in love with?
At the moment, probably Henry DeTamble from “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and Ray Singh from “The Lovely Bones,” but on the “everlasting scale,” Harry Potter.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Probably one of the Harry Potter books.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I dunno, some book from the Berenstain Bears collection? Or The Babysitters Club?
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Hmm, it wasn’t ridiculously terrible or anything, but “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.”
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
So far, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” This is not because I loved it in any way, but it made me think a lot and it really affected me.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
“Kokoro,” by Natsume Soseki.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I don’t even know some of the past winners for the Lit prize so I wouldn’t know who to recommend.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I’d really like to see “Richistan” made into a documentary.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Anything by Dave Eggers, haha. Well, I haven’t read “What is the What” yet but I feel like his writing would translate terribly on-screen.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don’t think I’ve ever had one…
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Harry Potter would probably be the standard answer but I actually think HP has a lot of depth for a children/young adult’s book. And I read one page of Twilight…
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Outside of books required for school, probably “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” It was so dense and difficult to get through at times.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I’ve never seen any being performed, if that’s the question.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Their lit? I’ve read more of French but I have a feeling I wouldn’t prefer either.
18) Roth or Updike?
Never read either.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
David Sedaris is wildly funny but I connect more with Eggers. I don’t know! What a tough battle.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer! I loved “The Canterbury Tales.”
21) Austen or Eliot?
Never read Eliot and I’ve read a lot of Austen but I don’t really like her either…
23) What is your favorite novel?
Toss-up between “The Great Gatsby” and “Kokoro.”
24) Play?
“Death of a Salesman,” for sure.
25) Poem?
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes.
26) Essay?
Can’t recall any.
27) Short story?
I don’t read a lot of short stories, but I did like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons” by Fitzgerald.
28) Work of nonfiction?
“Deluxe: How Luxry Lost Its Luster”
29) Who is your favorite writer?
I do love Fitzgerald. And I’m two books closer to finishing everything Eggers ever wrote, but I have a feeling he’ll be on this list.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Without a doubt, Jonathan Safran Foer. Jesus christ.
31) What is your desert island book?
“The Time Traveler’s Wife.”
32) Who is your favorite critic or scholar?
I like Chuck Klosterman a lot, but I haven’t read a lot of other critics’ works.
33) Who is your favorite philosopher?
I don’t think he’s a favorite, but the one that has inspired me to think the most about his ideas is Marx.
34) Who is your favorite public intellectual?
What does this even mean? Does President Obama count?
35) And… what are you reading right now?
Dave Egger’s “How We Are Hungry” and Audry Niffenger’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”
