Barb over at So, the thing is . . . blog tagged me. Of course, I begged her to do it because I really wanted to answer the questions. I'm still not sure how all this tagging/meme stuff works, but I loved these questions because they're all about books.
1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? Doesn't matter. I usually buy paperbacks, but if I'm desperate for a new book and can't wait for the paperback, I splurge on the hardcover.
2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... "Plenty more books inside." It's from a George Booth cartoon that it was in the New Yorker years ago. I have the cartoon framed and hung in my bedroom. It shows an old couple in rocking chairs in front of this big ramshackle Victorian house with books all over the lawn and all over the porch and teetering out the windows. The woman in the rocking chair says to a passerby, "There's plenty more books inside." It's kind of how I hope my house looks when I'm old and crotchety.
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title)... "Mistrust all enterprises requiring new clothes." A famous writer actually said it, but I don't know who. I know the quote from A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. It's carved on a wardrobe owned by George Emmerson.
4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be... Edith Wharton. She was a groundbreaking writer in so many ways. Plus she knew everybody who was anybody in the literary world at that time.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be… Joyce's Ulysses. I'm well educated, well read, 9 hours shy of a master's degree in literature, and that book stumps me. I make an attempt at reading it every few years and give up after a few chapters. Perhaps if I was stranded on a desert island I'd make it through.
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that… made it easier to prop my book up in bed.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of... the attic at my grandparents' house in New York. I'd go in there on cold or rainy days and poke around. There were lots of my dad's and uncles' books in there that I loved to read.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title)... Lucy Honeychurch from A Room with a View. It was my favorite book in high school and college, and I still read it once a year or so just for fun. If you had asked me when I was in middle school, I would have answered Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series, which I have read more times than I can count.
9. The most overestimated book of all times is… mom will debate me on this, but I say The Great Gatsby. I just don't get why the book is considered the quintessential American novel.
10. I hate it when a book… wastes my time. Meaning when I've spent all this time and energy getting to know and care about characters only to have it end in some stupid way just because the author couldn't think of a way out.
The funny thing about this list is that I didn't have to think much about these answers. It's like I've been waiting for someone to ask me these very questions.
3 comments:
When did you last read The Great Gatsby? I read it in high school and didn't care for it; but reading it when I was a grown-up made me a fan. I don't know about it's being the quintessential American novel (whatever the heck that is), but it just blew me away. Read it again!
I read it in the past year or so. I've read it many times. Mom and I have regular debates about the greatest novel. She says Gatsby, I say Age of Innocence.
Dude, I had such a hard time with this list. I swear it will be easier to do the eight random things abut yourself, because you are SO on the hook for that once I get mine done.
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