Nora Roberts. I buy her books at second hand stores and chain stores. I can't get my books from normal stores.... I am too much of a nerd. Which is why I love speciality stores. I own over 100 NR books, and buy a new one every month or so. I also have about 30-50 Dick Francis books.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Pride & Prejudice. I own the vintage one I had as a kid, I used it for uni, so it is full of pencil marks. But that is okay because it is my own old copy, I am never gibing it away, and it is comparable in this instance to a text book. I got 100% on my major essay for P&P. John Gray was going to give me 99.5% for an incorrect quote until I showed him my copy. I am keeping it for prosperity only. Hideous cover by some random low-end publisher. Stephanie at work gave me a complete Jane Austen collection, which is terrific, but it is really heavy and it hurts my hands to read. So I bought a Vintage Classic edition of all her books for ease of access. I am keeping the complete works for when I travel overseas. I've had more in the past. But I think 3 is enough LOL
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Subconsciously.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Secretly? I never keep it secret. If I like a character, the world (even if it is just my little slice of it) will know about it.
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)?
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Madeline Brent’s Merlin’s Keep
Raymond E Fiest’s Magician
JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
David Gemmell’s Waylander and Iron Hand’s Daughter
Charles de Lint’s Ivory and the Horn, Mulengro, Someplace to be Flying, Yarrow.
6. What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?
Either something by Enid Blyton, Tamora Pierce or Isabelle Carmody, or a book in the Dragon Lance or Magic: The Gathering franchises.
7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I started reading The Gone-Away world, but ended up giving it to my brother. He loved it, so it wasn’t a waste. It was a freebie from the publisher.
8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.
9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - because they could get it SO wrong...
12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
There have been some crazy ones… But I can't remember them. I rarely do.
13. What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Are you serious? Have you seen some of the trashy paperbacks I read these days? Some of them are quite lowbrow LOL
14. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
The Sacrifice as Terror - it is a book about the sociology of the Rwandan genocide. Fascinating but brutal.
15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
I've only seen Macbeth, but that was in a warehouse. The witches were made up of 2 people each - the second was on the shoulders of the other. These came apart and cavorted as demons, covered in red body paint, and one kept pawing my leg. It was fabulous, as it was very informal, as in we were in and part of the set. I had a place at court LOL Lady MacBeth had this gorgeous red dress that had laces on the back, sort of a cross between an evening dress, a sundress and a medieval gown.
16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I haven't read any Russian authors.
17. Roth or Updike?
I've not read either author.
18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I've not read either author.
19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Hard one!! I love Shakespeare, Milton is fascinating, but I have to say Chaucer has a place in my heart. I love Middle English. I still need to refer back to a ME dictionary for some words though, so it isn't the sort of thing I can read on the train unless I take a bag of references with me LOL
20. Austen or Eliot?
Austen. I have an obsession. However, I just bought Middlemarch, so I will finally start reading Eliot.
21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
1984.
22. What is your favourite novel?
Just one? Refer above to question 5.
23. Play?
Macbeth, Peer Gynt or Doll's House.
24. Poem?
Oh, hard question! Either Henry Kendall's Bell Birds or Last of his Tribe, most by William Blake, La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats or Robert Browning's My Last Duchess. There are just so many! I also have a fascination with haiku and eastern poetry.
25. Essay?
Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.
26. Work of nonfiction?
Anything on archaeology which was written by an academic author (i.e. not the mush published by non-academic publishers)
27. Who is your favourite writer?
Charles de Lint, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jane Austen, Raymond E Fiest, David Gemmell, Dick Francis, Charlotte Bronte, Madeline Brent, Victoria Holt, etc
28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Dan Brown.
29. What is your desert island book?
Complete Works of Shakespeare or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Langland's Piers Plowman. They are the sort of books I can mull over for years.
30. And… what are you reading right now?
Way too many books!!!!!! About ten, including books by Lillith Saintcrow, Lora Leigh, Susanna Clarke, Rachel Caine, Amber Benson, JRR Tolkien, Simon R Green, Anne Rice, and Emily Bronte.
