books and memes and memes and books
Sep. 26th, 2019 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishI no longer remember who I got this from.
1) Favourite genre
Oh, let's start off with the easy ones, shall we. This past year or two I guess it's "space opera," I can count four series offhand that I'm fond of (Bear's Jacob's Ladder, Leckie's Imperial Radch, Lee's Machineries of Empire, Williams's Dread Empire's Fall). All of those are doing something interesting with it beyond the basic tropes, though.
2) Currently reading
Halfway through Graydon Saunders's The Human Dress, which I've been working at off and on since last April. It is Slow Going and I'm not sure why; maybe the language. I'm reading Emily Wilson's lovely translation of the Odyssey to Erin some nights. And I'm still carting around Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History for when I need a print fix.
3) First book you remember loving
The Phantom Tollbooth, back in elementary school. Though I was in I think eighth grade when I read the bit where Milo doesn't want to swim back through the Sea of Knowledge from the Isle of Conclusions, to which he has jumped, and Canby says "Oh, I wouldn't worry, most people can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and come out dry as a bone," and blinked, and read it again, and burst out laughing.
4) Book/series you wish would be adapted to film
MURDERBOT MURDERBOT MURDERBOT. I dunno, this is honestly a weird question for me. I don't really visualise as I read. Murderbot's pretty great, though.
5) Favourite protagonist
James Cobham from Brust & Bull's Freedom And Necessity.
6) Favourite antagonist
Ayt Mada from Fonda Lee's Green Bones books. Utterly convinced of her rightness and may actually be right.
7) Do you write any stories?
Ha. Not lately, let's say.
8) A movie you think was better than the book
Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Everyone says The Godfather and lots of folks say The Princess Bride, and they're not wrong either.
9) Best book you've read this year
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This Is How You Lose The Time War. Lesbian time-travel adventure and romance, told half in epistolary format.
10) A favourite author
John M. Ford (RIP).
11) Least favourite genre
I... don't know that I have one? I don't really read romances or westerns, but I've enjoyed when bits of those genres have snuck into other things I've read.
12) Book you'd recommend to a friend
This depends so very heavily on the friend's tastes that it's a useless question. I give away copies of The Dragon Waiting when I find them but it's even odds whether they'll actually go to someone who appreciates it.
13) Favourite film adaptation of a book
The Rankin-Bass Hobbit, for paring the essential story down to its barest bones and still having it be intelligible, and for the amazing voice-acting. John Huston will always be my Gandalf.
14) Book you've read the most times
Any given volume of the Belgariad. I'm pretty gentle with my books but I literally wore out my first copy of Pawn of Prophecy and had to replace it.
15) A book you didn't expect to like
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. I hated Cryptonomicon SO MUCH for its unwillingness to engage with the zillion stray plot-threads it left lying around, and I'm told the Baroque Cycle was more of the same. But Anathem ... was great fun, and even had a pretty good ending. (Then REAMDE was just awful, and I've stayed away from Stephenson since.)
16) Favourite classic book
Is Catch-22 a classic? Mm, only I reread it a few years ago and the rampant misogyny kind of turned me off.
17) Book that's impacted you the most
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny. I got to the end ("Jack wondered if he would arrive in time") and said "He can't do that!" and then thought about it and decided that yeah, he could.
18) If you could meet one author, living or dead, who would it be?
The living one.
19) An author you think more people should know about
I mentioned Mike Ford above, so this time I'll go with Graydon Saunders. His Commonwealth novels are dense epic fantasy that are not at all what you think of when you read the words "epic fantasy." They explore the larger-scale consequences of having Evil Powers rise up and take over your world every so often, and of a society that's trying to get itself into the future in a way that doesn't allow for that.
20) Favourite book/series of all time
Ugh. The Dragon Waiting, I guess, if you held a gun to my head.
1) Favourite genre
Oh, let's start off with the easy ones, shall we. This past year or two I guess it's "space opera," I can count four series offhand that I'm fond of (Bear's Jacob's Ladder, Leckie's Imperial Radch, Lee's Machineries of Empire, Williams's Dread Empire's Fall). All of those are doing something interesting with it beyond the basic tropes, though.
2) Currently reading
Halfway through Graydon Saunders's The Human Dress, which I've been working at off and on since last April. It is Slow Going and I'm not sure why; maybe the language. I'm reading Emily Wilson's lovely translation of the Odyssey to Erin some nights. And I'm still carting around Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History for when I need a print fix.
3) First book you remember loving
The Phantom Tollbooth, back in elementary school. Though I was in I think eighth grade when I read the bit where Milo doesn't want to swim back through the Sea of Knowledge from the Isle of Conclusions, to which he has jumped, and Canby says "Oh, I wouldn't worry, most people can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and come out dry as a bone," and blinked, and read it again, and burst out laughing.
4) Book/series you wish would be adapted to film
MURDERBOT MURDERBOT MURDERBOT. I dunno, this is honestly a weird question for me. I don't really visualise as I read. Murderbot's pretty great, though.
5) Favourite protagonist
James Cobham from Brust & Bull's Freedom And Necessity.
6) Favourite antagonist
Ayt Mada from Fonda Lee's Green Bones books. Utterly convinced of her rightness and may actually be right.
7) Do you write any stories?
Ha. Not lately, let's say.
8) A movie you think was better than the book
Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Everyone says The Godfather and lots of folks say The Princess Bride, and they're not wrong either.
9) Best book you've read this year
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This Is How You Lose The Time War. Lesbian time-travel adventure and romance, told half in epistolary format.
10) A favourite author
John M. Ford (RIP).
11) Least favourite genre
I... don't know that I have one? I don't really read romances or westerns, but I've enjoyed when bits of those genres have snuck into other things I've read.
12) Book you'd recommend to a friend
This depends so very heavily on the friend's tastes that it's a useless question. I give away copies of The Dragon Waiting when I find them but it's even odds whether they'll actually go to someone who appreciates it.
13) Favourite film adaptation of a book
The Rankin-Bass Hobbit, for paring the essential story down to its barest bones and still having it be intelligible, and for the amazing voice-acting. John Huston will always be my Gandalf.
14) Book you've read the most times
Any given volume of the Belgariad. I'm pretty gentle with my books but I literally wore out my first copy of Pawn of Prophecy and had to replace it.
15) A book you didn't expect to like
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. I hated Cryptonomicon SO MUCH for its unwillingness to engage with the zillion stray plot-threads it left lying around, and I'm told the Baroque Cycle was more of the same. But Anathem ... was great fun, and even had a pretty good ending. (Then REAMDE was just awful, and I've stayed away from Stephenson since.)
16) Favourite classic book
Is Catch-22 a classic? Mm, only I reread it a few years ago and the rampant misogyny kind of turned me off.
17) Book that's impacted you the most
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny. I got to the end ("Jack wondered if he would arrive in time") and said "He can't do that!" and then thought about it and decided that yeah, he could.
18) If you could meet one author, living or dead, who would it be?
The living one.
19) An author you think more people should know about
I mentioned Mike Ford above, so this time I'll go with Graydon Saunders. His Commonwealth novels are dense epic fantasy that are not at all what you think of when you read the words "epic fantasy." They explore the larger-scale consequences of having Evil Powers rise up and take over your world every so often, and of a society that's trying to get itself into the future in a way that doesn't allow for that.
20) Favourite book/series of all time
Ugh. The Dragon Waiting, I guess, if you held a gun to my head.
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Date: 2019-10-02 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 09:02 pm (UTC)