Book 'em, Danno

The lovely CalTechGirl has tagged me with a book meme. This is a wee bit unfortunate since I very rarely have time to actually READ, at least dead tree material. Fortunately, I have my [grumble grumble] commute, during which I listen to a large number of books on tape and CD.

What are you reading right now?
On tape I have W.E.B. Griffin's The Fighting Agents, about O.S.S. operations in World War II. The downside of having it on tape is that it's part of a whole series, not all of which are at the local library.

On dead tree, I checked out a complete set of Dashiell Hammett's novels. I've been trying to read Red Harvest but I'm finding absolutely no time to read it. Some time back I checked out the same book and barely found enough time to finish The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man.

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you'e done with that?
Nope. I'll just browse the racks to find something.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now?
Huh? Do people actually DO that? I always thought it was just a joke from old sitcoms. Get in, get done, get out, that's my motto. Kind of like shopping.

What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
I hated anything I was forced to read. I don't do literature classes well. However, it is true that a number of things I was required to read, which I hated at the time, I later picked up and enjoyed because I wasn't forced to do so.

But if I had to pick one thing that was the worst of the worst, I'm going to take a hint from CTG and go with textbooks, two to be exact. One was a chemistry text by Dickerson, Gray, and Haight which we lovingly referred to as "The Little Orange Piece of Shit" (distinguished from "The Big Red Piece of Shit" which was the calculus text).

Bad as it was, though, the LOPS paled before a computer science text I had later. I can't remember the title or author but this book read, seriously, as if the author had merely stapled together lecture notes. And had dropped them and forgotten to sort them correctly before stapling.

What's the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
I don't go around recommending books without being asked but The Silmarillion would top my list, especially for anyone I know to be a LOTR fan.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
No. I'm there every week but we have a self-checkout system.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don't like it at all?
I can't think of any right off.

Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you're on the computer? While you're having sex? While you're driving?
Only when I'm alone on a trip.
No.
No, I like to focus on one or the other.
Yes.
No.
Not since high school.
No, and I tend to force off the road those idiots who do. Well, not really but I can dream.

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits?
No, but they probably should have. I was a pretty voracious reader. I once read for about eight hours straight; seriously, no bathroom break or anything. Once, when I was in about third or fourth grade, my class went to the school library. We all picked out books to read, and when I looked up from mine a different class was in there.

What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down?
Not sure, it's been a long time since that has happened. It may have been LOTR but it was probably a non-fiction book.

CTG added some additional questions to the original list:

What book have you stayed up all night NOT reading (because it disturbed you in some way)? Has a book ever entered your dreams?
I can't recall either happening, but probably the most disturbing book I ever read was Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking.

What book/ series would you like to write an ending too? Or rewrite? I'm not strictly talking about fanfic, just this: given the opportunity, which stories would you like to work on?
Can’t come up with anything right off, maybe I'll add something later.

Best book to movie transition? And as a corollary, what books should NEVER be a movie?
The first part is easy: Stephen King's The Dead Zone. A book that should NEVER be a movie? Well, only because it would be absolutely impossible to do it in any coherent way is The Silmarillion.

Do you prefer one-off novels or character-driven series books? What's your favorite book series?
Either, it just depends on the book. My favorite series varies with what I'm reading at the moment, but I'll go with Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series (with Sue Grafton's alphabet murder series as #2).

Which book character do you see yourself as most like? How about when you were a kid?
For shits and giggles, I'll say Milo Minderbinder, but I suspect a more appropriate answer would be Major Major Major Major. As a kid, too.

Ever NOT want to finish a book because you were desperately afraid that the author was going to take it somewhere you didn't like? Ever fling a book at the wall because that happened?
No on both counts, but it reminds me of the one time I was utterly, utterly, UTTERLY FURIOUS at a work of fiction. Not a book, an episode of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Tales" TV series. I'm getting angry again even now. Nearly a full show of the most suspenseful, gripping, terrifying drama I've ever seen in my life, resolved in the last two minutes in the most ridiculous, inane, frickin' stupid way possible. It made me want to take the writers, producers, actors, production staff, and all their families unto the seventh generation and feed them into a wood chipper.

Someday when I've calmed down, perhaps I'll post about it.

I know I should tag somebody, but I'll pass for the moment and maybe do so later.

Posted by Ken S at August 21, 2007 07:41 AM | TrackBack (0) |