Thursday Thirteen: Reading Habits

 

13 Q&A On Reading Habits

Thursday Thirteen

I found this on Wordtrix’s blog last week and she said to feel free to borrow! So I have!

1. What are you reading right now?I’m smack dab in the middle of this one:The Edge of Desire (a Bastion Club Novel). I’ve had it over a week, so you know how busy I am.
2. Longest book you’ve ever read:That would be Tad Williams’ The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Book 1) 785 pages
I was extremely frustrated after reading the first two books that it took ten years to get the third one. I didn’t want to go back and reread the first two before trying to tackle that one after so long. 🙁
3. Strangest title of a book that you’ve read:The Oversoul Seven Trilogy: The Education of Oversoul Seven, the Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time. Really, any one of those would suffice, right? Then you get to the books. If you treat it as fiction, it’s not bad and the first one is really kind of interesting as it follows the lives of three people through different ages in time. When you come to understand that she thought she was channeling her own “oversoul”‘s words and not just some anthropological muse, then things get a bit more bizarre.
Ideas exploding from head 4. Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction?Fiction, because I like to escape and think of possibilities. Non-fiction has it’s place, but it’s not usually entertainment. Although we do have some fascinating non-fiction coffee-table books.
5. Did you have a series of children’s/young adult books that you once enjoyed?I absolutely loved the original Nancy Drew Series. I used to read them like candy. I never got in to the Bobsey Twins, Hardy Boys though. I reread several of them regularly. I loved the Ghost Ranch once and the one with the old mansion surrounded by trees dripping with Spanish Moss.
6. Can you enjoy reading the source book after seeing the screen adaptation?Usually, I like filling in all the details and seeing how it was supposed to be. I usually prefer to read it before seeing it though.
If I’d read The Bad Beginning before seeing A Series of Unfortunate Events, I probably would have read all of them. Not sure why this one didn’t click. I suspect hype. Then there’s Tolkien. I’m just convinced that Tolkien may have had great ideas, but dang, the execution is not to my liking.
7. Have you ever read a novelization of a movie or TV show?Several: The Keep, Close Encounters, Star Wars Trilogy, A Cinderella Story, Lots of Disney movies from the 70s. Some details were better, some not so much. I hate the ones where they manage to condense the story even further.
8. Book that everyone’s read but you:J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I tried. I really did. Several times. No go. Thank goodness for Peter Jackson!
9. Favorite “classic” writer/novelist:ShakespeareSomehow I managed to take a class intended for jr/sr level college students as my freshman english class. I’d read a couple of the plays and sonnets before in high school english class, but never really had much appreciation for the bard then. I remember sitting on the steps by one of the dorms on a lovely fall afternoon and laughing out loud as I read Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’d never had the words jump to life from the page like that before. I still prefer to see the plays performed, but have a much greater appreciation for the work even though I HATED dragging that Riverside edition around with me 3 days a week.
10. Favorite contemporary novelist (let’s say 1950s on):I’m going to have to go with Anne McCaffrey and not just her Dragonriders of Pern series. Some of her blatant science fiction, like the series with Damia weren’t necessarily my favorites, but when you consider books like Crystal Singer, Killashandra and Crystal Line (Crystal, Vol. 3) and her sentient ship/city series together with her romances like The Lady, Ring of Fear, The Mark of Merlin, The Kilternan Legacy, (which we have bundled under one cover as Three Women), Stitch in Snow and The Year of the Lucy I’ve found way too many greatly crafted tales. I’ll always have a special place for the inhabitants of Pern though. I may not have liked all the different retellings, but the characters definitely came alive for me.
11. Favorite short story writer:That would have to be Isaac Asimov. The three sets of his that I most enjoyed were:I, Robot (The Robot), Azazel, Casebook of the Black Widowers collections. So much packed into so few words, but they really make you think.
12. Favorite columnist/journalistic writer:Dave Barry can make anything funny. I’ve laughed so hard I’ve cried at some of his tellings.
13. Favorite poet:I’ve never been big fan of poetry, but read correctly (and preferrably by the poet), the words can sing and the meanings become clear even to me. In college I had the opportunity to hear some of the best poets in the world read, I think one of the most moving was Maya Angelou. But, I’m afraid DH is going to beat me, because my all time favorite has to be Dr. Seuss. And don’t even try to tell me those are just stories and not real poems. *grin*

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Paige Tyler 2 Munchkinheads (Cancer) 3 Sheri (Cookingmom)
4 Stephanie Adkins 5 Nicholas 6

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10 thoughts on “Thursday Thirteen: Reading Habits”

  9. Take heart! You are not the only one who hasn’t read LOTR. I have tried several times, before and after seeing those dreadful movies, but I just can’t get interested. It is so dull, so badly written.

  10. Loved reading your list, Kaige. I hope more people will do this one–it’s interesting to see what we all have in common or where we differ.

    (Sorry about the late post–had computer issues yesterday.)

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