Lurking in the Library
19/10/2020 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThis snailish serpent finally gets around to posting that book meme centuries after the rest of my online friends
Stolen from Catness
I'm doing installments because it would take too long to answer all the questions in one hit
1. Which book would you consider the best book you’ve ever read and why?
Only 1?
It is just too crazy to be confined to one and to pick the best so instead I will go for 3 books that had a big influence
First one which I read when I was 12 was Animal Farm
I like how you can read it on so many different levels. You don’t have to know anything about the background and history of the story to enjoy it but it certainly does add to appreciating the story
Aside from never looking at power in the same way again, it is also one of the few books guaranteed to get the hankies out. Always the same scene all the time no matter how many times I read the story
Godel, Escher Bach - an eternal golden braid
I came across this cult classic around the age of 20. I had always been partial to paradoxes and parodies of all sorts and loved Escher's artwork as a kid but did not realize that it was all by the same artist until I seen so many of the pictures all together in the one book
I tried many times unsuccessfully to read the book from beginning to end but got bogged down with all the math stuff.
In those days, I would make the effort to read that sort of weird stuff because there was no world wide web to offer distractions and instant gratification
Years later I did the online course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" which was fascinating. Especially since it was the first time I had ever encountered formal logic. My inner Spock was very pleased indeed. But best of all, we learned how to translate sentences into math speak - that stuff with the assortment of inverted letters and brackets
So I was finally able to understand a lot of the really wierd geekish chapters of GEB
I had the edition of this book with the impossible triangle on the cover
Petunia was always threatening to grab it off me and throw it in the fire because she claimed it was corrupting my mind
It turned out to be a gateway drug to more of Douglas Hofstadter's strange stuff such as "Metamagical Themas' and "Le Ton Beau de Marot"
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I find this book funny and joyful and especially magical. It was the one that got me hooked on the Potter stories. I was reading the first two in a rush to see what happens next but this was the book that made me realise there was a whole lot of stuff hiding under the bonnet in these stories that was well worth paying attention to. Especially the Dementors and the assorted tricks for dealing with them and the way that Harry learns how to to channel his magic from chaotic craziness to restraint, reason and mercy in even the most trying of circumstances
Asking the hypothetical question of what sort of creature my Patronus would be, led me down all sorts of strange and crazy rabbit holes.
2. Are you an Austen person or a Bronte person?
I have never read any Bronte stories. I had to study the Austen novel Persuasions in school and it was sufficient to make me loathe Jane Austen forever.
It’s in my top 5 of most hated books of all time
3. Are there any genres you will not read?
Romance and literary fiction which is usually a polite way of describing pompous meandering nonsense
4. Are you a fast or slow reader?
I used to be a fast reader but now the beady old serpent eyes are not what they used to be and there are so many other distractions
5. What was your relationship with books like as a child?
I gobbled up books and when there were no books around I resorted to reading cornflakes packets or instruction manuals
I pretty much lived in the library during school holidays and quite often nearly got locked in
6. Are you the type of person who will read a book to the end whether you like it or not, or will you put it down straight away if you’re not feeling into it?
I used to feel an obligation to read a book to its bitter end but as I got older, I realised that life is far too short for bad books and will now only give a book the benefit of the doubt for the first quarter or third if I am feeling generous
7. Have you ever despised something you have read?
Apart from Jane Austen’s “Persuasions’, I would add the first book of Twilight which I forced myself to finish even after finding it unbearable after only a couple of chapters
The covers looked beautiful. The pictures, the font. Everything and I also had several friends who raved about Twilight. Also I love stories about vampires, zombies, werewolves and other monsters so I was favourably disposed towards them.
But the vampires turned out to be sad and pathetic sparkly fairies.
Then there is “The Alchemist” which I would happily burn to ashes and then burn the ashes. Pompous nonsense made even worse by the fact that I read it straight after Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” which had more alchemy and magic on the first page than in the whole of this tedious tome
Also the likes of “Who moved my cheese” and “The Celestine Prophecy" and assorted clones which were completely corny. I read the first to see what all the fuss was about and the second for the same reason but also for a laugh. I had a friend who despised it as much as I did. When we found it lying around the hostel we were staying at, we would read out ridiculous sections and tear them to shreds
Then there is Mein Kampf, The Protocols and “Crippled America” (trump’s 2016 election manifesto full of lies and BS) which I have dipped in randomly because they are just too tedious or ridiculous to be able to read for more than a few paragraphs at a time
8 Do you prefer to read first person or third person?
I am not fussed either way. First person does make it easier to identify with the character.
I had never read anything in first person present until the Hunger Games. I found it very strange and disorientating at first but after a while I got used to it and with 2020 hindsight I realised that any other viewpoint would not have had the same powerful effect on the reader. Just like Katniss, the reader was also in the dark about what was really going on and presenting other view points as was done in the movies, dilutes this effect
9. Are you for or against multiple narrators in the same book?
I generally prefer only one narrator. I don’t mind more but not much more than four because then it gets too confusing
At the moment I am reading David Baldacci’s “Absolute Power” which has story lines of at least 6 main characters. While the story is told in third person so they are not exactly narrators, it is still a bit tricky to follow so many of them
10. Bookmarks, dog ears or leaving the novel open and face down to keep your spot?
For most of my life my books have been from libraries so book marks were the only socially acceptable option. For books that I own, I will use dog ears to mark particular sections that I might want to go back to.
Stolen from Catness
I'm doing installments because it would take too long to answer all the questions in one hit
1. Which book would you consider the best book you’ve ever read and why?
Only 1?
It is just too crazy to be confined to one and to pick the best so instead I will go for 3 books that had a big influence
First one which I read when I was 12 was Animal Farm
I like how you can read it on so many different levels. You don’t have to know anything about the background and history of the story to enjoy it but it certainly does add to appreciating the story
Aside from never looking at power in the same way again, it is also one of the few books guaranteed to get the hankies out. Always the same scene all the time no matter how many times I read the story
Godel, Escher Bach - an eternal golden braid
I came across this cult classic around the age of 20. I had always been partial to paradoxes and parodies of all sorts and loved Escher's artwork as a kid but did not realize that it was all by the same artist until I seen so many of the pictures all together in the one book
I tried many times unsuccessfully to read the book from beginning to end but got bogged down with all the math stuff.
In those days, I would make the effort to read that sort of weird stuff because there was no world wide web to offer distractions and instant gratification
Years later I did the online course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" which was fascinating. Especially since it was the first time I had ever encountered formal logic. My inner Spock was very pleased indeed. But best of all, we learned how to translate sentences into math speak - that stuff with the assortment of inverted letters and brackets
So I was finally able to understand a lot of the really wierd geekish chapters of GEB
I had the edition of this book with the impossible triangle on the cover
Petunia was always threatening to grab it off me and throw it in the fire because she claimed it was corrupting my mind
It turned out to be a gateway drug to more of Douglas Hofstadter's strange stuff such as "Metamagical Themas' and "Le Ton Beau de Marot"
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I find this book funny and joyful and especially magical. It was the one that got me hooked on the Potter stories. I was reading the first two in a rush to see what happens next but this was the book that made me realise there was a whole lot of stuff hiding under the bonnet in these stories that was well worth paying attention to. Especially the Dementors and the assorted tricks for dealing with them and the way that Harry learns how to to channel his magic from chaotic craziness to restraint, reason and mercy in even the most trying of circumstances
Asking the hypothetical question of what sort of creature my Patronus would be, led me down all sorts of strange and crazy rabbit holes.
2. Are you an Austen person or a Bronte person?
I have never read any Bronte stories. I had to study the Austen novel Persuasions in school and it was sufficient to make me loathe Jane Austen forever.
It’s in my top 5 of most hated books of all time
3. Are there any genres you will not read?
Romance and literary fiction which is usually a polite way of describing pompous meandering nonsense
4. Are you a fast or slow reader?
I used to be a fast reader but now the beady old serpent eyes are not what they used to be and there are so many other distractions
5. What was your relationship with books like as a child?
I gobbled up books and when there were no books around I resorted to reading cornflakes packets or instruction manuals
I pretty much lived in the library during school holidays and quite often nearly got locked in
6. Are you the type of person who will read a book to the end whether you like it or not, or will you put it down straight away if you’re not feeling into it?
I used to feel an obligation to read a book to its bitter end but as I got older, I realised that life is far too short for bad books and will now only give a book the benefit of the doubt for the first quarter or third if I am feeling generous
7. Have you ever despised something you have read?
Apart from Jane Austen’s “Persuasions’, I would add the first book of Twilight which I forced myself to finish even after finding it unbearable after only a couple of chapters
The covers looked beautiful. The pictures, the font. Everything and I also had several friends who raved about Twilight. Also I love stories about vampires, zombies, werewolves and other monsters so I was favourably disposed towards them.
But the vampires turned out to be sad and pathetic sparkly fairies.
Then there is “The Alchemist” which I would happily burn to ashes and then burn the ashes. Pompous nonsense made even worse by the fact that I read it straight after Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” which had more alchemy and magic on the first page than in the whole of this tedious tome
Also the likes of “Who moved my cheese” and “The Celestine Prophecy" and assorted clones which were completely corny. I read the first to see what all the fuss was about and the second for the same reason but also for a laugh. I had a friend who despised it as much as I did. When we found it lying around the hostel we were staying at, we would read out ridiculous sections and tear them to shreds
Then there is Mein Kampf, The Protocols and “Crippled America” (trump’s 2016 election manifesto full of lies and BS) which I have dipped in randomly because they are just too tedious or ridiculous to be able to read for more than a few paragraphs at a time
8 Do you prefer to read first person or third person?
I am not fussed either way. First person does make it easier to identify with the character.
I had never read anything in first person present until the Hunger Games. I found it very strange and disorientating at first but after a while I got used to it and with 2020 hindsight I realised that any other viewpoint would not have had the same powerful effect on the reader. Just like Katniss, the reader was also in the dark about what was really going on and presenting other view points as was done in the movies, dilutes this effect
9. Are you for or against multiple narrators in the same book?
I generally prefer only one narrator. I don’t mind more but not much more than four because then it gets too confusing
At the moment I am reading David Baldacci’s “Absolute Power” which has story lines of at least 6 main characters. While the story is told in third person so they are not exactly narrators, it is still a bit tricky to follow so many of them
10. Bookmarks, dog ears or leaving the novel open and face down to keep your spot?
For most of my life my books have been from libraries so book marks were the only socially acceptable option. For books that I own, I will use dog ears to mark particular sections that I might want to go back to.
