Look! I'm a Book Maven!

Most of you are not Facebook friends and so you haven't seen this yet. Therefore I'm going to share here too and you can take it and fill it in on your blog or Facebook or whatever. Sorry for being lazy tonight. I do have a report to share with you all on the Virginia Festival of the Book events that I attended - that's coming in the next couple of days! In the meantime...enjoy.


"Book Maven" Quiz

You have received this note because someone thinks you are a literary maven. Copy the questions into your own note, answer the questions, and tag any friends who would appreciate the quiz, including the person who sent you this. Don't bother trying to italicize your book titles.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Unquestionably L.M. Montgomery. I have owned every book ever published that was written by her since I was probably 11 or so, and I still have them all. That's a lot of books; I doubt I'll ever own more than that by any other author just because I doubt any of my living favorites will be that prolific.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I don't *think* we own more than one copy of anything at the moment except two books that I have both as hardbacks and as audiobooks (Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield).

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really. If I had been in editing mode for some sort of textbook or nonfiction, I would have corrected them, but since most people talk and write that way in casual conversation, I'm used to it and it doesn't really bother me.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
That's a hard one for me. Maybe Philip Marlowe (from Raymond Chandler's books)?

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)?
Definitely Little Women.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Again, definitely Little Women. That probably contributes significantly to #5's answer...

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
The Land That Never Was: Sir Gregor Macgregor and the Most Audacious Fraud in History by David Sinclair. BO. RING. And that's even worse because it *should* have been an interesting story to tell.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Oooo, really tough call for me. I have five that I really really loved, and I'm not sure I can pick just one so I'll give you all five: The Black Tower (Louis Bayard), The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield), The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Joshilyn Jackson), The Used World (Haven Kimmel) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon).

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Yeesh, I dunno. Possibly just because I've been thinking about it lately and planning to re-read it, the comic book series Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no idea. I don't even know who's won...ever, maybe. I tend to like some of the Booker and Pulitzer winners, though!

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Playing in my mind right now: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Well, they're already making a movie of this and I'm terrified of what it's going to be like. I really think it might ruin the story. And that would be The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenneger.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don't know that I've ever had a weird dream about a writer, book or literary character.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I absolutely have to agree with Moon Rat on this one - Twilight. Hands down. Even though I enjoyed it.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Anna Karenina. It was awesome, and I loved it, but it took a long time and a lot of concentration to get through.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
That I've seen performed? Probably Taming of the Shrew, which is not a terribly obscure play, but there's not a whole lot of variety in performances (Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Nights Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth; rinse, lather, repeat).

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Russians I suppose. I don't have a whole lot of experience with the Russians, but I have even less with the French!

18) Roth or Updike?
I'm about to start my first ever Updike book - we're reading The Witches of Eastwick for my book club, and I'll probably be starting it tomorrow or Monday. I've never read any Roth to date.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I'll pick Sedaris. I read one of his books for book club and I enjoyed it. I read Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work...(blah blah blah) and hated it; I thought it was incredibly and terribly pretentious.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen. I've actually never read Eliot (*ducks*).

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
There are lots. There is not enough time in life to read everything. I answered a question similar to this a few months ago, and I said A Tale of Two Cities because I started it when I was about 12, hated it, never finished it and never went back to try to read it again. And it's Dickens - I really should have read it.

23) What is your favorite novel?
Dear God. How on earth am I supposed to pick a favorite? Crap. Well, for today, I'll pick Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

24) Play?
I saw Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in college once, and it was amazing. Fave Shakespeare is The Tempest, other faves are Hedda Gabler and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

25) Poem?
"Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas.

26) Essay?
Er...not much on essays, so I'm inserting my favorite memoir here, which would be A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel.

27) Short Story?
I think The Killers by Hemingway.

28) Work of nonfiction?
Well, I'm still reading it, but I think A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is awesome.

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Generally, my answer would be Hemingway.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
There are probably quite a few, but not the ones I like the most. Of the ones I've read, I'd say Dave Eggers. (Side note: My mom-in-law answered this with Nicholas Sparks and I went, "Ooo, I wish I'd said that!")

31) What is your desert island book?
Still Life with Woodpecker, Tom Robbins.

32) And... what are you reading right now?
The afore-mentioned Short History of Nearly Everything and Deception by Denise Mina.