Books, again

A list of questions about books, so of course I filled it out. Thanks, Cadence!

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Sadly, probably Stephenie Meyer. Those dang 9th graders! My obsession with owning the books I read took off once I started getting a paycheck. However, my genre most purchased is still postmodern African-American.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Animal Farm, because I thought I didn’t have a copy so I bought one, and then I found out I did have a copy of it. Sigh.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
I didn’t notice! Aggch!

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Jesse Davies from The Gable Faces East. Read it in 9th grade, it’s the stupidest Mormon book ever, but if that Australian 1800’s man were real, I’d sink my teeth into him. No worries, Deg, he’s fake! ;)

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Yep, the play. I need a new copy, actually. Mine’s barely recognizable at this point.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Gentleman Outlaw and Me, Eli by Mary Downing Hahn. It was sad her other books were not so wonderful.

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I really hated The World According to Garp by John Irving. As much fun as it is to read about your mom impregnating herself with an incompetent, dying soldier who doesn’t know what’s going on, I’m weirded out.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Emotionally – Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Intellectually – October Sky by Homer Hickam. Personally – Fine, I’ll admit it. I liked The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Ender’s Shadow. If I got Deg to read it and he is begging for the sequel, that should tell you something.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
One problem with that question – that assumes I read modern lit. How about Alice Sebold? She’s alright.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I’m still waiting for The Giver by Lois Lowry. Can you imagine how amazing the cinematography would be on that one?!?

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Bryan Greene. As fascinating as physics is, the philosophy of the universe explained in a nonfiction novel would be horrific.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Do I have to admit it? Sigh. Okay. I dreamed about Edward. Shame on me! If it’s any consolation, though, I wasn’t in love with him in the dream, nor am I in real life.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
The Twilight Series! I knew there’d be a place for it in here…

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Emotionally – Native Son by Richard Wright. Intellectually – For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (stream of consciousness kills me every time). Personally – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury when I read it with this year’s 8th graders. (It was a good difficult – they ask so many good questions!)

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
How about read? Comedy of Errors. Watched is probably BBC’s 12th Night, which is obscure because it is so low budget it gives a new meaning to low budget.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
They both need to cut back on the wordiness, but overall, I think I get French lit better.

18) Roth or Updike?
Is it sad that I haven’t read either?

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Once again, I haven’t read either. Ugh!

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, hands down! Dr. Sorensen ruined Milton and Chaucer for me.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen. Eliot needs to learn when enough is enough with the detail, though she is quite the analytical.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I hate Victorian lit, and therefore, refuse to read it. And while I refuse to amend, it is a bit sad that I’m lacking in my knowledge.

23) What is your favorite novel?
Though I agree with Cadence that this question isn’t fair, I will say that there’s a reason I need a new copy of A Raisin in the Sun.

24) Play?
Julius Caesar. Hands down. Like, I memorized Antony’s funeral speech for fun.

25) Poem?
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (How do I love thee?/Let me count the ways…)

26) Essay?
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell or The Death of a Pig by E.B. White

27) Short Story?
I’m sick and twisted, so I’ll say A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

28) Work of nonfiction?
To Be a Slave by Julius Lester or 1776 by David McCullough

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Don’t have one, though I love Orwell, Card, Hansberry, Joyce, and Wright, just off the top of my head.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer. I’ve read you voraciously, Steph, but come on now. It’s a freaking vampire version of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet!

31) What is your desert island book?
Harry Potter series.

32) And… what are you reading right now?
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding (again)