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Return of the Literary-ness
Aug. 2nd, 2009 05:03 pmNicolas encouraged me to start posting some of the literary stuff here again; I do have reviews to post, after all, but he suggested starting with this, and not necessarily being nice about it. So, then.
1. What author do you own the most books by?
You know, I thought that it'd be Takaya Natsuki, but it's actually still Terry Pratchett. I feel better about that, somehow.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
I don't have more than two copies of any book, but I have two copies of several at the moment: Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, and I believe 彼氏彼女の事情 volumes 4-6, since someone lent them to me years back, and I doubt I will ever see them again to return them.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with a preposition?
I've been in linguistics for far, far too long to let that sort of thing bother me anymore.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
See, the trick here is secretly, because I don't usually hide my fictional affections. No, I make them known to anyone who is willing to ask, and I have for years. Thus, it's sort of hard to say, exactly, who's a secret. Let's say, for the sake of argument, I go with, oh, Jon Snow from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I wouldn't say love, exactly, but I like him more than I've let on.
5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding children's picture books)?
It's almost certainly The Innkeeper's Song, although it may be that something else is close. But I doubt it.
6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Damned if I remember. It was probably a Hardy Boys book, I was really into those then.
7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Looks like Living Dead in Dallas just misses the cutoff here, as does The Meaning of Ichiro, which means we are left with the Death Note spinoff novel I got from Nicolas for my birthday last year. Man, that was a bad book. I'm glad nothing I've read since the turn of the New Year has been anywhere near that bad. Uninspiring is the worst it's been.
8. What is the best book you've read in the last year?
Hmmm. Looks like this is The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, to date. That was a really good mystery, with a lot to say otherwise about the way the world works, too.
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I seem to be on my way to doing that with The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. But that's a project belonging to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
regyt, so I'll stump for Swordspoint, which I've probably given away more copies of, at any rate.
10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Well, who do I want to wish lots of misfortune on? It's a general belief of mine that most people who win the Nobel Prize for literature aren't that good, at least when we consider the past, oh, 20 years or so of winners. You go back a while more, and I find people who are good again - Winston Churchill! Hesse! Eliot! Bertrand Russell! - but recently... I mean, I've read Saramago, and bleh. Morrison, bleh. I do sort of like Orhan Pamuk, though. Anyway, I think I'd most like to see Salman Rushdie win - his writing is of a quality that deserves it, and man, the spectacle of the thing!
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
That's not already in production, you mean? I bet The Privilege of the Sword would make a really good movie, but that's just off the top of my head.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
House of Leaves. I mean, the whole point is that it's a book. The story'd be cool either way, but it'd lose quite a lot of value in the transfer.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
You act as if I remember my dreams enough for this. I don't.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you read as an adult?
Living Dead in Dallas, I bet. Brrr. That was a baaad book. But I read my share of Kelley Armstrong and such; that's not high literature, either, but you have to have fun sometimes, too. Plus I still read YA stuff, too. There are good stories to be had there, and you don't always need sex scenes and lots of violence to tell your story.
15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Um. Well. The book I had the hardest time reading was やがて悲しき外国語、 by Haruki Murakami, because, well, it was the first book I read entirely in Japanese. The book I had the hardest time finishing was Count of Monte Cristo, probably. I read the unabridged one, and there's at least 500 pages you can cut out of that without losing any of the main plot. The most ambitiously structured one I've read was probably If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, by Italo Calvino, but it wasn't really that hard, in the end. Which one do you mean?
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've ever seen?
Seen? The Winter's Tale, I suppose.
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The Russians. Boo to the French, really; I don't think I've read any of the great French novels and enjoyed them.
18. Roth or Updike?
Roth by default, as I haven't read any Updike.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I'm not qualified to judge this, although Eggers' recent movie wasn't very good.
20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
How can I not go for Shakespeare, particularly as a linguist? The man invented so many words, and there are more allusions to Shakespeare than anything ever. At least, that's not religious, and I don't see that anyone's set up Shakespeare as a honest-to-goodness god just yet.
21. Austen or Eliot?
As much as I've mixed feelings for Austen, my feelings for Eliot are unalloyedly, unmixedly bad. So, that answers that. Unless you mean T.S instead of George; I certainly like T. S. Eliot more than Austen.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven't read any Dickens, for one. More generally, there's a lot of literature in translation that I haven't read - Spanish, Chinese, etc. There's probably good stuff out there.
23. What is your favorite novel?
Can I still say The Innkeeper's Song, even if it's been a long time since I've read it, and I recognize it's not the best book I've ever read? But it's got all sorts of sentimental ties, and I still do so like the story. I don't think I can change my answer, as yet.
24. Favorite play?
The Real Inspector Hound, by Tom Stoppard. Yep. Take that, Agatha Christie!
25. Favorite poem?
Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot. It's the only one I own as its own separate chapbook.
26. Favorite Essay?
Does this have to be in a book? I read one by John Lanchester recently on global warming that made me want to chuck the whole linguistics thing and go become an electrical engineer, and that's got to be quite powerful. I can't think of much that's essay length in books that I have otherwise, so let's leave it at that. Unless you want journal articles, because I can name a couple of those that worked pretty well, too.
27. Favorite short story?
The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm not a huge, huge Holmes fan, because he's generally not fair play, but I can't say that he hasn't had an effect on me.
28. Favorite work of nonfiction?
Let me be subjective here: Genji Days by Edward Seidensticker made me really come to admire for the first time my all-time academic hero. It's really a very enjoyable read, too, but it's not as pointed as most great works of non-fiction are, I think.
29. Favorite writers?
Peter S. Beagle. Edward Seidensticker (but only in translation, and his non-fiction! His own novel wasn't that good). Colin Dexter, Diana Wynne Jones, Haruki Murakami. I like a lot of people.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Hmmm. Chuck Palahniuk? Overrated's a hard one; is Dan Brown overrated? Is J. K. Rowling? I think people know what they're getting there. But I can't see what there is to Palahniuk at all, and yet he's critically acclaimed. What's up with that?
31. What is your desert island book?
I could probably read The Innkeeper's Song forever, but I'd be very happy to take Good Omens, too. It's got enough to it, it'd probably be quite enjoyable.
32. What are you reading now?
The first volume of Journey to the West, and Made to Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong. There's more seriousness to one than the other, but sometimes it's hard to say which is which.
1. What author do you own the most books by?
You know, I thought that it'd be Takaya Natsuki, but it's actually still Terry Pratchett. I feel better about that, somehow.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
I don't have more than two copies of any book, but I have two copies of several at the moment: Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, and I believe 彼氏彼女の事情 volumes 4-6, since someone lent them to me years back, and I doubt I will ever see them again to return them.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with a preposition?
I've been in linguistics for far, far too long to let that sort of thing bother me anymore.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
See, the trick here is secretly, because I don't usually hide my fictional affections. No, I make them known to anyone who is willing to ask, and I have for years. Thus, it's sort of hard to say, exactly, who's a secret. Let's say, for the sake of argument, I go with, oh, Jon Snow from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I wouldn't say love, exactly, but I like him more than I've let on.
5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding children's picture books)?
It's almost certainly The Innkeeper's Song, although it may be that something else is close. But I doubt it.
6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Damned if I remember. It was probably a Hardy Boys book, I was really into those then.
7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Looks like Living Dead in Dallas just misses the cutoff here, as does The Meaning of Ichiro, which means we are left with the Death Note spinoff novel I got from Nicolas for my birthday last year. Man, that was a bad book. I'm glad nothing I've read since the turn of the New Year has been anywhere near that bad. Uninspiring is the worst it's been.
8. What is the best book you've read in the last year?
Hmmm. Looks like this is The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, to date. That was a really good mystery, with a lot to say otherwise about the way the world works, too.
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I seem to be on my way to doing that with The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. But that's a project belonging to
regyt, so I'll stump for Swordspoint, which I've probably given away more copies of, at any rate.10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Well, who do I want to wish lots of misfortune on? It's a general belief of mine that most people who win the Nobel Prize for literature aren't that good, at least when we consider the past, oh, 20 years or so of winners. You go back a while more, and I find people who are good again - Winston Churchill! Hesse! Eliot! Bertrand Russell! - but recently... I mean, I've read Saramago, and bleh. Morrison, bleh. I do sort of like Orhan Pamuk, though. Anyway, I think I'd most like to see Salman Rushdie win - his writing is of a quality that deserves it, and man, the spectacle of the thing!
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
That's not already in production, you mean? I bet The Privilege of the Sword would make a really good movie, but that's just off the top of my head.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
House of Leaves. I mean, the whole point is that it's a book. The story'd be cool either way, but it'd lose quite a lot of value in the transfer.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
You act as if I remember my dreams enough for this. I don't.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you read as an adult?
Living Dead in Dallas, I bet. Brrr. That was a baaad book. But I read my share of Kelley Armstrong and such; that's not high literature, either, but you have to have fun sometimes, too. Plus I still read YA stuff, too. There are good stories to be had there, and you don't always need sex scenes and lots of violence to tell your story.
15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Um. Well. The book I had the hardest time reading was やがて悲しき外国語、 by Haruki Murakami, because, well, it was the first book I read entirely in Japanese. The book I had the hardest time finishing was Count of Monte Cristo, probably. I read the unabridged one, and there's at least 500 pages you can cut out of that without losing any of the main plot. The most ambitiously structured one I've read was probably If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, by Italo Calvino, but it wasn't really that hard, in the end. Which one do you mean?
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've ever seen?
Seen? The Winter's Tale, I suppose.
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The Russians. Boo to the French, really; I don't think I've read any of the great French novels and enjoyed them.
18. Roth or Updike?
Roth by default, as I haven't read any Updike.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I'm not qualified to judge this, although Eggers' recent movie wasn't very good.
20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
How can I not go for Shakespeare, particularly as a linguist? The man invented so many words, and there are more allusions to Shakespeare than anything ever. At least, that's not religious, and I don't see that anyone's set up Shakespeare as a honest-to-goodness god just yet.
21. Austen or Eliot?
As much as I've mixed feelings for Austen, my feelings for Eliot are unalloyedly, unmixedly bad. So, that answers that. Unless you mean T.S instead of George; I certainly like T. S. Eliot more than Austen.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven't read any Dickens, for one. More generally, there's a lot of literature in translation that I haven't read - Spanish, Chinese, etc. There's probably good stuff out there.
23. What is your favorite novel?
Can I still say The Innkeeper's Song, even if it's been a long time since I've read it, and I recognize it's not the best book I've ever read? But it's got all sorts of sentimental ties, and I still do so like the story. I don't think I can change my answer, as yet.
24. Favorite play?
The Real Inspector Hound, by Tom Stoppard. Yep. Take that, Agatha Christie!
25. Favorite poem?
Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot. It's the only one I own as its own separate chapbook.
26. Favorite Essay?
Does this have to be in a book? I read one by John Lanchester recently on global warming that made me want to chuck the whole linguistics thing and go become an electrical engineer, and that's got to be quite powerful. I can't think of much that's essay length in books that I have otherwise, so let's leave it at that. Unless you want journal articles, because I can name a couple of those that worked pretty well, too.
27. Favorite short story?
The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm not a huge, huge Holmes fan, because he's generally not fair play, but I can't say that he hasn't had an effect on me.
28. Favorite work of nonfiction?
Let me be subjective here: Genji Days by Edward Seidensticker made me really come to admire for the first time my all-time academic hero. It's really a very enjoyable read, too, but it's not as pointed as most great works of non-fiction are, I think.
29. Favorite writers?
Peter S. Beagle. Edward Seidensticker (but only in translation, and his non-fiction! His own novel wasn't that good). Colin Dexter, Diana Wynne Jones, Haruki Murakami. I like a lot of people.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Hmmm. Chuck Palahniuk? Overrated's a hard one; is Dan Brown overrated? Is J. K. Rowling? I think people know what they're getting there. But I can't see what there is to Palahniuk at all, and yet he's critically acclaimed. What's up with that?
31. What is your desert island book?
I could probably read The Innkeeper's Song forever, but I'd be very happy to take Good Omens, too. It's got enough to it, it'd probably be quite enjoyable.
32. What are you reading now?
The first volume of Journey to the West, and Made to Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong. There's more seriousness to one than the other, but sometimes it's hard to say which is which.
