Not tagging anybody, but play if you want to! Copy the q's, write your
answers.
1) What author do you own the most books by? Terry Pratchett and Anne
McCaffrey battle for dominion.
2) What book do you own the most copies of? The Lord of the Rings
series. Yes, I am a sucker for matching sets with cool cover art.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No. "Correctness" shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of sounding
clear and authentic.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Miles
Vorkosigan. Shut up.
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)?
Excluding Goodnight Moon which I have read five million times, probably A
Wrinkle in Time.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? A Wrinkle in
Time, Madeleine L'Engle.
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year? I'm not going to
answer that. Sorry. Professional conflict.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would
it be? "Of Men and Numbers" by Jane Muir. It will revolutionize the way
you see math.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature? I'd vote
for Barbara Kingsolver.
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Oh, I'd love
to see any of the Vorkosigan novels made into a movie. The Warriors
Apprentice, ramming a space station? Wheee! Peter Jackson should direct
it.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie? I'm trying
to think of something really impossible to translate into visuals, here,
but with current technology I think anything can be done.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary
character. That would be a dream about one of my own books; many years
ago I'd been asked to rewrite Love and Rockets, before it was published
and won the RT Award, minus the hero because the interested editor hated
him. I tried and tried to think of how it could be done and still save
the story; then I had a dream in which the lead singer of Green Day sang
the lyrics "wasting your time" (Sassafrass Roots) to me, over and over.
I got the message; it was a wrong direction and wouldn't work. Love and
Rockets was published many years later with the hero by an editor who
loved him, and it turned out well. Thank you, Green Day, for your
nocturnal assistance.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult? I am the
queen of lowbrow. My forehead drags the ground when it comes to
literature. (I'm not trying to duck the question, but what's more lowbrow: Cherry Poptart comics? Bimbos of the Death Sun? Slaves of the Volcano God? Read and liked all as an adult.)
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read? Oh, God. That
would be Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. My eye is twitching just
thinking about reading it.
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? Are any of
them obscure? But probably the most fun version I ever saw was A
Midsummer Night's Dream set to the Beattle's music with 60s costumes.
17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians? For literature? I can't
believe you're even asking this. The only Russian writer I can recommend
is Bulgakov. Go France.
18) Roth or Updike? Neither. Please.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Why are you torturing me this way?
Stop.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare.
21) Austen or Eliot? Eliot.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? I
didn't read Science and Civilization in China until I was nearly 30, and
it really changed my view of history. Everybody should read at least
the single volume version in high school. (The extended version is a
long series of books but is well worth the time.)
23) What is your favorite novel? William Kotzwinkle's Swimmer in the
Secret Sea. Short but powerful.
24) Play? Much Ado About Nothing.
25) Poem? All of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats".
26) Essay? The one Montaigne wrote about loving your works, however
badly they came out, the way a parent loves a deformed child. Can't
remember the title but you really can't go wrong with any of Montaigne's
essays. Still, that one especially speaks to all writers.
27) Short story? Robert Heinlein, And He Built a Crooked House. About a
mad mathematician who built a house on a tesserect.
28) Work of nonfiction? The Way Things Work by David MacAulay.
29) Who is your favorite writer? I can't have just one favorite. I have
favorites for all categories.
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? That question can't be
answered for at least another 20 years. Nobody can guess what
literature will stand the test of time. Some of the authors we consider
classic today were considered hacks by their generation.
31) What is your desert island book? Probably The Way Things Work. So I
can build what I need to survive until I can get off the island.
32) And ... what are you reading right now? Preserving Food Without
Freezing or Canning by the gardeners and farmers of Terre Vivante.
