LITERARY MEME

IN WHICH I REVEAL MY LITERARY SHALLOWNESS...

A literary friendly blogger sent this to me so I shall answer as best I can.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Equal numbers of books by James Rollins, Steve Berry & Clive Cussler

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I don't own multiple copies of any book.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
HUH? No.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Dirk Pitt - described as over 6 feet with ebony hair and aqualine eyes.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)? 84 Charing Cross Road and 100 Million Francs (see below)

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
A Hundred Million Francs by Paul Berna.
Berna's most famous book Le Chevel sans tête, (The Horse without a Head) usually known in English as A Hundred Million Francs, was published in 1958. It concerns the adventures of a gang of street urchins from the slums of Paris whose plaything, a headless horse on wheels, is used as a hiding-place by train robbers. It has been translated into several languages, enjoying great success in Britain and the United States. In 1963, the Disney Studios in Britain filmed the book as The Horse Without a Head: The 100,000,000 Franc Train Robbery, scripted by T. E. B. Clarke and starring Jean-Pierre Aumont and Herbert Lom.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Zero Tollerance - by Toller Cranston - the Canadian skater.
It was so impersonal I could not get past the 3rd chapter.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Hang on - have to look through my blog to answer that.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
None really. I dont like forcing myself or my favourite book onto anyone

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I'm gonna say the guy who wrote The Kite Runner - if he hasn't already won it.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Any of James Rollins or Steve Berry's adventure novels.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
When I am sleeping, I don't dream - at all.
My fantasy dream involving books is to write the ultimate historical novel a la James Michener.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
None that I can think of.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Any shakespeare play - especially HAMLET

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
none obscure - have seen all the well known ones - as films or on TV

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French

18) Roth or Updike?
WHO??

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
WHO??

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer - at least he wrote decent stuff that tells us about history.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen - if I absolutely had to choose.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I seldom read the classics. I dont read them for fun.
I am not fond of the old fashioned language. Jane Austen, Shakespeare etc

23) What is your favourite novel?
You mean NOW? None specifically.

25) Poem?
I HATE poetry unless it rhymes. Silly I know, but if it does not have rhythm or rhyme, I cant read it. The only poems I like reading are those of Australian poet, Banjo Patterson. He wrote classics like The Man from Snowy River. This poem was made into a movie in 1982 - The Man from Snowy River

26) Essay?
The only essays I have read in the last 12 months, were those on the Art of Writing, by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch. And that was only because Helene Hanff loved them so much. I had to read them online.

27) Short story?
I don't read short stories.

28) Work of nonfiction?
Anything mentioned in this blog. I LOVE reading NON-Fiction.

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Just one? Impossible.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Don't know. I probably wouldnt read them anyway

31) What is your desert island book?
If I am stuck on a desert island I will be wroting down those stories I can rememebr so I can keep my mind busy. I hope I have pen and paper.

32) And... what are you reading right now?
The Bookseller's Apprentice - this one if I haven't already read it.
The Summer Book (cookbook) - this would be second
How to Identify Prints - NO
The Encyclopedia of Ephemera - NO
The Making of a Marchioness - NO
The Children who Lived in a Barn - NO