book meme - responses part 3

[orangerful]

My goodness this is a LONG list of questions LOL. But we are all having fun, right? I feel like we've had some great conversations with this meme. Booknerds are awesome.

21. Have you ever read a book series because you were pressured? requested by ragnarok_08
A whole series? I don't think so. I've had books suggested to me and tried them, but I can't think of any that I read because I felt pressured to. (the thing is I know I am guilty of pressuring people into reading books LOL)

23. Who is your favourite author of all time? requested by chocolate_frapp
SO HARD TO PICK ONE! My default answer has been Douglas Adams and Michael Crichton for a long time, but I feel like I should probably mention Jeff Lemire now as I have read almost everything he has done (there are a couple brand new books I haven't picked up yet). OH! And A.S. King. Yeah, she is on the list now for sure. Even if her last few books were just so damn surreal I could barely understand them.

24. How many bookshelves do you own? requested by rogueslayer452
Oddly enough, not very many and most are filled with action figures. There's the star wars shelves, the whedon shelves, the movie shelves, and then the shelf in the guest room that actually does have books on it. We have a bookshelf in our bedroom too though that is mostly Tim's books. I'm a librarian, so I rarely buy books until I feel the need to collect them for fandom reasons. So what was that? 4? 5? Yeah, not an impressive number.

26. What is your favourite non-fiction book? requested by brunettepet
ANOTHER HARD ONE! OMG! To pick just one!!! I will say that Stephen King's On Writing is a book I refer back to a lot. Part autobiography and part how-to, King is honest and to the point. I listened to the audio too and he reads it so it was like driving around with him in my passenger seat, listening to him ramble about writing.

BUT right now I would pick The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix, a beautifully illustrated book about Deitrich Bonhoeffer and the plot to assassinate Hitler.

27. What is your favourite children’s/middle-grade book? requested by teragramm
AAAAAAAAAH ANOTHER DIFFICULT ONE! I read a lot of middle grade fiction for fun so I have SO MANY to point to. I already mentioned 'Gregor', I LOVE the 'Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales' series. I was really impressed by Adam Gidwitz's 'The Inquisitor's Tale'. That book did NOT talk down to kids and covered some heavy topics but somehow managed to stay engaging and fun. And apparently if I had listened to the audio book, they got some medieval band to sing one of the songs that plays at the tavern.

32. What was the most expensive book you bought? requested by graveexcitement
This is tricky because the most expensive book I *own* I got as a present. This would be a book of all the songs The Beatles ever performed, transcribed into sheet music, every single part. I think it might have retailed for at least $100 when it came out and when I got it. But my parents got it for me as birthday present.

So personally...hm...probably one of my Buffy academia books because those are small presses and not cheap.

33. What is a book you read after seeing the movie/TV series? requested by rogueslayer452
SO MANY! Right now, I'm slowly reading THE EXPANSE book series. I actually don't want to catch up to the show because I'm enjoying watching it all unfold. I'm really impressed by how close the show and the books follow each other. Makes sense because I know the authors are heavily involved.

The worst was JAWS. That book is AWFUL! DO NOT READ! Throw it into the ocean and watch the movie. BLAH!

35. What three books are you most looking forward to reading this year? requested by meathiel
THE TOLL - book 3 in The Arc of the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman. NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!
Major Impossible - Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #9 by Nathan Hale DECEMBER!!!!
Network Effect - Murderbot Diaries #5 - this one isn't out until 2020.

36. What is a book you love that has a terrible trope? (Love triangle, etc) requested by ragnarok_08
Probably most YA books LOL. I LOVE the Unwind series, but there is definitely some love triangle/teen angst tropes in there. Same with Scythe. But not enough to distract from the action.

37. Have you read a book in a different language? What was it? requested by doomdays
Estamos en un libro/We are in a book - (Elefante y Gordita/Elephant and Piggie) by Mo Willems. It's an easy reader book so about my level. I did a Spanish/English storytime at the library.

40. What is the weirdest book you have read? requested by qwentoozla
(I have six pages of books tagged as "weird" on my GoodReads)
The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer was so very strange, I'm not sure I would have made it through if I hadn't seen the movie and just wanted to know more.
Demon by Jason Shiga is weird and WRONG.
Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson was so strange I couldn't figure out how to booktalk it.
Anything by A.S. King is weird in that magical realism kind of way. Strange things happen but they could just be tricks of the mind or metaphors or something. I don't even know sometimes.

43. What book did you buy because of its cover? requested by teragramm and rogueslayer452
I don't buy books BUT I do check out a LOT of books because they have cool covers. Most recently, I picked up 'Wilder Girls' off the return cart because look at this:

It's sitting on my desk at work now. Someday I might even read it!

I can barely read the books I check out from the library, buying books would be futile because they have no due date so why would I ever actually read them?

45. Do you own a poetry anthology? What is your favourite poem from it? requested by meathiel
My copy of Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is still at my parents' house. The two poems I remember from it as favorites is the one about if they make you wash the dishes, drop some of the floor so no one asks you to wash the dishes anymore. And another one about Captain Hook remembering to not pick his nose. HIGH ART PEOPLE!

As an aside, I really enjoy YA books written in verse. Solo by Alexander Kwame is REALLY GOOD.

47. Do you own any historical fiction? requested by author_by_night
I'm sure I do. I must! ...wait, do I? I'm trying to think of some historical fiction I have read recently but it was all from the library.

50. What book got you into reading? requested by doomdays
I'm going to say Jurassic Park is the one that brought me back to reading. I read as a kid but then all the damn books with dead dogs and dead children turned me off of reading for fun **glares at Bridge to Terabithia** But I was really excited about the Jurassic Park movie and my Mom made a comment that was sort of like "Books are always better than the movies" so I got the book and read it. Then I listened to it. Then I saw the movie. Then I made my aunt read the book with me. Then I put the audio on in the car and made my parents listen to it. And then I read all the other Michael Crichton books I could LOL.

Second place goes to Douglas Adams because I had about given up on reading in Middle School when I found HHGTTG in the basement while working on homework. (I've told that story many times though)

AND THAT IS THE END! HUZZAH! Thanks for playing! And thanks for reading!

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

Okay, I somehow missed the initial post with all the questions, but like three of my friends are doing this GIGANTIC book meme and I wanna play!

24 - You have more shelves than I do! Then again, my number of shelves is based on how many I can fit into my one room, and also my stepdad commandeered one for his office, but I only have two right now. (The CD tower does not count.)

33. Okay, I'm legit impressed that you read Jaws, even though you hated it!! I've heard that it's bad and the movie improved on things, but I'm still curious to see just *how* bad.

42. The Southern Reach trilogy is SO GOOOD. Granted I've only read the first two, and by the third I was kind of exhausted by it, but I read the first one twice and I absolutely love that one. Once you get away from the biologist's POV it isn't the same. (Also loved the movie, even though it was very, very different in some places.)

43. OMG WILDER GIRLS IS AMAZING YOU HAVE TO READ IT!!!! I'm a little over 100 pages in right now and had to give it back because there are so many holds, but GoodReads is holding my place. :)

[orangerful]

I kept reading JAWS, waiting for it to get better, and it never did but it's also not that long of a book and I was 12 and didn't know any better LOL. Everyone in the book is an asshole. EVERYONE. The shark is the most decent character.

LOL yeah I put myself on hold for Wilder Girls. Of course, the new Stephen King just appeared on my desk today so I'm going to try and speed read the books I'm in the middle of (I technically have 6 days to check out a hold so I'm going to not check this out until next week to give myself time).

[rhoda_rants]

LOL oh dear! Yeah, sometimes horror stories--well, the bad ones, the ones I have little patience for--make it VERY easy to root for the villain. The original Friday the 13th was like this for me. Cannot understand why that became a classic, it's tedious.

Although, it does amaze me just how many blockbuster films were formerly books. Did you know "The Meg" was a book? Like a whole series? Written by Steven Alten. We have several of them at our branch. Totally bizarre.

(Okay but seriously, how do I play this book meme? Where's the "ask me questions" post?)

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[orangerful]

Here ya go, ya goober:

https://orangerful.dreamwidth.org/1334646.html

[rhoda_rants]

Yay, thank you!

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