Sunday, February 10, 2008

Memed, I have been!

Medeia Senka memed me. Hooray! Naturally, I took a really long time to post it. Because I fail.
Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? Honestly?
I have to go with Aislinn on this...the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have no idea why. In my head I really, really like it.

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?
Oh dear me! This is a most difficult question. I really and truly am having much trouble with this (*rushes off to scan bookcases*). There are honestly way too many characters that I love for me to choose just three. For now I'll have to say: Doctor John Dolittle, M.D. (of Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle); Lyra Belacqua (of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials); and King Kazul the dragon (of Patricia C. Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles). Does a Grande Adventure count as a social event? Why, of course it does.

(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?
Thus far in my existence I have not yet met a book that boring. Perhaps I would just live forever. Hmm...that would kinda suck. What would happen when the apocolypse came around? Would I just...er...float around? Bookless? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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?
I honestly cannot remember having done that. I may have, but I can't think of any specific instance.

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? Which book?

Alice in Wonderland...? Anne of Green Gables...? I know both of the stories quite well, and happen to love them. But to this day I'm not entirely sure if I've read either all the way through. Which is weird.

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 and personalise the VIP.)
Matilda and The Witches by Roald Dahl. Why? Because they're awesome...and (since The Mother of All Evil is breathing down my neck and just called "Because they're awesome" a cop out answer) dey is kewl like dat.
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?
Oh! What a question! Hmm...I think I'd have to say...Every language in existence! Is that allowed?

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?
The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw. Or The Very Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by Julie (Andrews) Edwards. Or The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes. A yearly return to my youth sounds rather nice, actually.

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)?
A really awesome thing about YA authors is that they not only write fabulous books, they really like their readers. Or, you know, fake it really well.

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.
I would love to be wonderfully imaginative/wildly creative, but somebody has already imagined my dream library. I want the library from Disney's 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast. The. Most. Amazing. Thing. Ever.

I'm sure I could imagine something even more spectacular...but I've been in love with Beast's library ever since I was very young. Not to mention that Belle was the only Disney princess that I could ever relate to. She read books. I read books. She had a crazy father. I had a crazy father. She hated oily, misogynistic, pompous hunter-men. And wouldn't ya know it, I hate oily, misogynistic, pompous hunter-men. She loved a towering, hairy, rose-in-a-jar guarding beast man. Hey...me too! (Who doesn't love Beast? I was so mad when he turned all gross and princelike!)

Answeringly...


PS: I shall tag soon. Vhen you's vleast vexpecting it! Mwahahahaha. Ha.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

My God, i LOVE The Raconteurs. Completely. Like, my second favorite band.
And you're the second person i've found who's heard of them without me burning CD for them.
Yellow Sun...werewolfian awesome.
*music fangirling*

Anonymous said...

Yes! Roald Dahl is awesome!

And that is a pretty library.

Anonymous said...

THE LAST OF THE REALLY GREAT WHANGDOODLES!! Cheerz to ye, Avery. I did not know anyone else had read that. It's a good feeling that someone has. I was obsessed with the Splintercat for years.

Laughter,
Aella

Anonymous said...

Roald Dahl is cool. and YAY SOMEBODY ELSE WHO HASN'T READ LOTR! At least I'm not the only truly weird one as my friends so aptly put it... xD

Anonymous said...

The Beast's library. Awsomeness. That is amazing. I think I would have to go with an expansion and more winding staircases. I love those, until I trip and fall the rest of the way down.

Medeia said...

*Much head shaking and disappointedness* I do not understand... what is it with the cousins and not reading the Lord of the Rings?

Reese said...

Roald Dahl is okay. Never blew me away.

Did you ever read Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards? That was my favorite book as a kid. I have three copies.

Alena said...

I haven't read Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles in YEARS. But I remember it as being really good--actually, I think part of the reason I was so confused when I recently reread His Dark Materials, was I was conflating bits of the LRGW world with the Amber Spyglass world. Hmm.

... on the other hand, I have read Lord of the Rings. It's hard going at the start, but if you keep reading it gets easier.

Avery Trelaine said...

I adore Mandy! 'Tis a shame that I didn't think of it before.

Avery Trelaine

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, as it were, library. My dream library as well.

Also, I'm with Medeia on The Lord of the Rings. That book is up there as one of the greatest ever written, and might even be the one I would reread every year (I have done so far, but that doesn't narrow it down too much, I reread most of my favourite books every year). And it should be illegal to read anything in the genre which most refer to as "fantasy" without having read The Lord of the Rings. It's like trying to discuss intelligently anything western written between AD 500 and the present day without having read the Bible - it's ridiculous to try, and quite simply impossible. Also, Tolkien is just pleasing to read, at an intellectual level, at a spiritual level, even at a physical level - of Tolkien, it was said "It was as if he had been inside language". It's best when it's read aloud to you, though. I'd advise getting someone who's read it to read it to you.

I, disappointingly enough, have never read anything by Julie Andrews. I shall as soon as possible, having now heard of at least one amazing-sounding book of hers.

Medeia said...

At least (the very least) read the Hobbit.