timepiececlock | (no subject)

mrthursday gave this meme....

Please keep in mind, I've not had decades worth of reading. So some of my answers are limited by my experience, as there's a lot out ther for me to read yet. But some answers I doubt will change.

First Real Book I Ever Read:
Desiree, by Annemarie Selinko
(god, I can't even remember how young I was when I read this. But it was young. Elementry school young. ah...Napoleon. Josephine. Desiree. Romance & betrayal & politics. Fond memories.)

Best Loved Children’s Book:
The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
(I've warn out my copy or his stories. 2nd: Black Beauty)

Best Loved Children’s Author:
Marguerite Henry
(the only I can think of now, though there were others)

The First Book To Change Your Life:
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
(off the top of my head-- I'm not at home right now and I really can't answer these properly without my bookshelf as reference)

Most Overrated Book:
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
(I think I'm the only woman on the planet who WASN'T impressed by this book. I hated the main character, and the way the supposedly feminist-minded author had her character behave. On my grouch list right behind this is Tess of the D'Urbervilles.)

Most Underrated Book:

Another Underrated Book:

Best Loved Novels:
(in no particular order, these are just the top)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King
The Waste Lands, by Stephen King
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
(may add more to list later)

Best Loved Short Story collection:
The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling

Best Loved Science Fiction Authors:
Douglas Adams
Ray Bradbury
Orson Scott Card
Anne McCaffrey

Best Loved Fantasy Authors:
Stephen King
J. R. R. Tolkien
David Eddings
Vivian Velde

Best Loved Comic writer:
(is this a.] comedic writing, or b.] comic artists?)
a. Douglas Adams
b. Gary Larson, Rumiko Takahashi

Best Loved History Book:

Best Loved Book On Magic(k):
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, by Bruce Coville
So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane
(there's more, but my brain has fizzled right now-- these are children's books I read a long time ago)

Most Right Wing Book I Have Ever Read:

--Would books by George Orwell be right wing or left wing? I've only really discussed Animal Farm in a class before, and I know that seriously disses Socialism and Communism, as does 1984, but my political concept of "right" and "left" as labels is rather fucked up (why I'm taking poli-sci), so I don't which would apply.

Most Left Wing Book I Have Ever Read :
see above

Books I am Reading Right Now:
A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shakespeare (2nd time)
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaimon
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

(there's like 5 more, but this is on the top of my head, because i'm always reading several at once)

I'll answer the questions that I left blank later, when I've thought about it some more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Most Overrated Book:
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

I would encourage you to go back and read it again in a few years - seriously, when I was in high school, I loved Wuthering Heights and really disliked Jane Eyre. When I reread both books a couple of years ago, it was the exact opposite. (Another book that I think I didn't fully appreciate when I first read it was Anna Karenina, which I now adore ;))

Maybe I'll read it again in a few years. I thought Wuthering Heights was more interesting and the better of the two books, but even it wasn't quite qhat I'd qualify strongly as "like". I got bored at the melodrama of it, and thought Heathcliffe was an asshole. But it didn't annoy me quite as much as Jane Eyre.

when I was in high school, I loved Wuthering Heights and really disliked Jane Eyre.
I was exactly the same way. Still am that way, 5 years post-diploma. Never read Anna Karenina, but from what I understand it's one of those books you either love or hate.

Heh. I agree Jane Eyre is highly overrated. I've never met anyone yet who understands or agrees with my deep abiding hatred for that book. Especially when I had to spend an entire year of in-depth study of it in high school for Acadec. Ugh.

And a question on the Neil Gaiman you're reading. Is that the one where there's a girl who's a star who gets knocked out of the sky? I think that's the one, but I'm not sure. I remember I really liked it though, it was a great story.

I've never met anyone yet who understands or agrees with my deep abiding hatred for that book.

I wouldn't call it "deep, abiding hatred", rahter "intense INTENSE dislike." But it's nice to know I'm not alone. Most of the guys in my AP english class last year were kind of so-so about it, but i kept wantign to tell them "This is not how all women behave! Don't think this is what women are like!"

And a question on the Neil Gaiman you're reading. Is that the one where there's a girl who's a star who gets knocked out of the sky?

Nope, I don't know that one. Neverwhere is about a man who finds a girl injured on the street and takes her home to patch her up, but as soon as she is well and leaves, his life starts disappearing. And he discovers that she comes form a sort of alternate world underneath the London streets that co-exists with ours, but we can't see it.

Hmm... that plotline sounds oddly familiar as well. I think I may have read that one too. Found out the book I was thinking of was Stardust. It's a very charming little story.

I understand your deep abiding hatred for Jane Eyre. And Thomas Hardy! They are evil!

Do you like Dickens?

Oh and on comic writer, I meant person who writes for Comics. I am a bit of a comic geek!

Finallly a quick guide to left wing –right wing politics:

Left wing = Socialist, Communist ideas. The Democrat party is a off centre left party.
Right wing = Fascist, capitalist ideas, The republician party.

Obviously it is a continuum so some parties people are more left wing than others etc. The Republician party is not as right wing as the nazi’s for example but it is still right wing. Equally the Democrat party is not as left wing as the communists (or even the British Labour party).

Orwell himself was a left winger, but the two books you mentioned are indictments of the way communism was enacted in Russia. He was dying as he wrote 1984 and rather bitter that the dream he had hoped for was turning into a nightmare.

That about exhausts my knowledge of politics. I did a Psychology degree after all!

Thank you very much for the quick-definitions.

I think I'm very mcuh in the middle, but slightly more left than right. Well, I know I don't like the Republican party, but I do like capitalism.

That bit about Orwell was interesting...

(no subject)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Re:

Re:

no subject

Re: