I can do it if I WANNA
I want to do one of these "book memes" that's been appearing on blogs lately, but nobody will ever pass one on to me because nobody loves me or indeed knows I exist. But I'm bloody well going to do it ANYWAY. You can't stop me. Actually, it seems there are two different ones floating around, so I'm just going to mash the two of them together for TWO TIMES THE FUN.
1) Total number of books owned?
Haha. Several thousand, although in all fairness, that is counting all the crappy genre fiction (please note that this is a judgment on my *taste* in genre fiction, not genre fiction in general) that I read when I was smaller. Suffice it to say: a lot.
2) The last book I bought?
Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I've never read Updike, and I'm quite keen to try. It's next on my list.
3) The last book I read?
The last book I finished was Quicksand, by Junichiro Tanizaki. I wrote a less-than-favorable amazon review of that one.
4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?
The Dragonlance Chronicles, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman--hey, "mean a lot" is open to interpretation, and I'm trying to not seem excessively snobbish here. The road that these (okay, counting them as a single entry is kind of cheating) lead me down may not have been so great, and it's been a while since I've dipped into them, so I can't exactly vouch for the quality of writing in any objective way, but they still make me feel all wobbly and nostalgic. Like other people with Tolkien, I fancy.
Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany--I guess this must have been the first really substantial "literary" novel I ever read, no doubt because it had a thin (very thin) veneer of genre about it. So, you know, I proved to myself that I could. And then I got to meet him and get him to sign my copy, which sort of made it a definitive experience.
Homer's Odyssey--I can't point to a specific version, but various retellings of the story read to me by my parents made a huge impression of me. It's a big world out there.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon--I think it was when I finally sat down and read this mofo that I finally cast off all literary timidity: from that point on, anything was fair game. And it's a pretty fucking dazzling novel, to boot.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--I read the last page, looked up, and said out loud, "this may be the best novel I've ever read." And well may it be.
5) You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I, uh...have never read Farenheit 451, so I'm not one hundred percent sure what the concept is. But I imagine it involves something like memorizing an entire book so as to preserve its contents. I could fudge it a little and list a big anthology, but that would be kind of lame. So then my immediate thought is Gravity's Rainbow, but then I realize that someone else probably has that covered. So I choose The Doll by Boleslaw Prus, on the basis that as far as I know this thing is not circulating in the Polish-speaking world, and it's unlikely that it would ever be chosen by a native anglophone. And it's a great novel.
6) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
It's kind of odd, given all I've read, but I'm sort of thinking not...no. No, I don't think so. I'm groping around, but nothing is coming to me. I get emotionally involved with fictional characters of course, but...but quite like that, somehow. My loss, perhaps.
7) What are you currently reading?
I'm almost finished with Thomas Pynchon's V. After that, as noted, Updike.
8) Five books you would take to a deserted island:
The Norton Anthology of Poetry--Because including all four volumes of the Norton Anthology of English Literature would be cheating a little tooblatantly. What we're going for here is longetivity.
Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto, trans. Barbara Reynolds--I AM however going to cheat by including both volumes of this as one item. Just try to stop me! It's a great story, or you can just linger over the poetry, which is frequently sublime.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon--Because, come on, man, we're on a freaking desert island here. We don't want a novel that we can just absorb and toss aside in a single reading.
Ulysses, by James Joyce--for the same reason.
The Columbia Encyclopedia--Perfect for browsing through and dreaming. Seriously, you can do it for hours. Perfect for this little island getaway.
9) Tag five people and have them do it on their blogs
There's no point to that, since, as noted, nobody knows who I am. But if anybody wants to do it in comments, there's very little I can do to stop you.
1) Total number of books owned?
Haha. Several thousand, although in all fairness, that is counting all the crappy genre fiction (please note that this is a judgment on my *taste* in genre fiction, not genre fiction in general) that I read when I was smaller. Suffice it to say: a lot.
2) The last book I bought?
Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I've never read Updike, and I'm quite keen to try. It's next on my list.
3) The last book I read?
The last book I finished was Quicksand, by Junichiro Tanizaki. I wrote a less-than-favorable amazon review of that one.
4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?
The Dragonlance Chronicles, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman--hey, "mean a lot" is open to interpretation, and I'm trying to not seem excessively snobbish here. The road that these (okay, counting them as a single entry is kind of cheating) lead me down may not have been so great, and it's been a while since I've dipped into them, so I can't exactly vouch for the quality of writing in any objective way, but they still make me feel all wobbly and nostalgic. Like other people with Tolkien, I fancy.
Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany--I guess this must have been the first really substantial "literary" novel I ever read, no doubt because it had a thin (very thin) veneer of genre about it. So, you know, I proved to myself that I could. And then I got to meet him and get him to sign my copy, which sort of made it a definitive experience.
Homer's Odyssey--I can't point to a specific version, but various retellings of the story read to me by my parents made a huge impression of me. It's a big world out there.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon--I think it was when I finally sat down and read this mofo that I finally cast off all literary timidity: from that point on, anything was fair game. And it's a pretty fucking dazzling novel, to boot.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--I read the last page, looked up, and said out loud, "this may be the best novel I've ever read." And well may it be.
5) You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I, uh...have never read Farenheit 451, so I'm not one hundred percent sure what the concept is. But I imagine it involves something like memorizing an entire book so as to preserve its contents. I could fudge it a little and list a big anthology, but that would be kind of lame. So then my immediate thought is Gravity's Rainbow, but then I realize that someone else probably has that covered. So I choose The Doll by Boleslaw Prus, on the basis that as far as I know this thing is not circulating in the Polish-speaking world, and it's unlikely that it would ever be chosen by a native anglophone. And it's a great novel.
6) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
It's kind of odd, given all I've read, but I'm sort of thinking not...no. No, I don't think so. I'm groping around, but nothing is coming to me. I get emotionally involved with fictional characters of course, but...but quite like that, somehow. My loss, perhaps.
7) What are you currently reading?
I'm almost finished with Thomas Pynchon's V. After that, as noted, Updike.
8) Five books you would take to a deserted island:
The Norton Anthology of Poetry--Because including all four volumes of the Norton Anthology of English Literature would be cheating a little tooblatantly. What we're going for here is longetivity.
Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto, trans. Barbara Reynolds--I AM however going to cheat by including both volumes of this as one item. Just try to stop me! It's a great story, or you can just linger over the poetry, which is frequently sublime.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon--Because, come on, man, we're on a freaking desert island here. We don't want a novel that we can just absorb and toss aside in a single reading.
Ulysses, by James Joyce--for the same reason.
The Columbia Encyclopedia--Perfect for browsing through and dreaming. Seriously, you can do it for hours. Perfect for this little island getaway.
9) Tag five people and have them do it on their blogs
There's no point to that, since, as noted, nobody knows who I am. But if anybody wants to do it in comments, there's very little I can do to stop you.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 9:04 PM
haha...a classy meme! mine are sooo not classy.
i'd offer to do this one, but yeah, books...i don't read them...maybe there's a music one out there? :p
Funny you should ask...