When it comes to dead wrestlers, nobody messes with The Crusher, the wrestler that made Milwaukee famous!As we established last week, I never read 'The Stranger'. I have no shame about this, and don't feel I must make an effort to rectify the matter. Though I might pick up Sartre's 'Nausea'. Because hey, Camus liked it.
One of the guys in my office was reading last week's quiz and offered up that he never read Camus, either. As we discussed taste in authors and genres, he indicated that his wife has set before him a reading list of classics and important works, and the next day he informed me, following discussion of my blog with his wife, the list has now been updated to include both The Stranger and a Vonnegut to be named later. No need to thank me. That's me, ruining people's joy since 1971.
A long time ago (and originally only the day before KV passed away), it occurred to me that I may be an odd reader because:
A) I have books that I have re-read so many times the pages are falling out, books that make me laugh even before I get to the parts that make me laugh, and yet I still enjoy reading them again and again, like old friends.
B) When I got my last library card, I checked out three books from the library to read, even though I was already reading three fiction, one biography, two cookbooks and two non-fiction books already, and I alternate between books without just finishing one before picking up another - think of it as channel-surfing in print form.
I never gave this much thought, but I know this isn't normal, because Lori reads far more than I do, and she reads cover to cover before ever picking up another book. She even reads books she can't stand this way, because not finishing would be wrong. She once struggled through a book (I think it was Crighton) and declared at least twice an hour that it was the worst book she had ever read, but she wouldn't put it down. With rare exception, I don't believe she has ever read the same book twice. We both have a few authors we truly enjoy, few, if any, of them overlap.
So here are my questions, my little turkeynecks:
1) Do you have a favorite book? What is it?
2) How many times have you read your favorite book?
3) How many times would you read a book you enjoyed, if it wasn't your favorite?
4) Do you have a favorite author or authors, or do you pick books at random?
5) Do you read cover-to-cover, or do you jump from book to book (to book...) before you finish the original book you started reading?
6) Do you read for yourself and the joy of it, or because of a task or challenge set forth before you?
6 comments:
1) Lord of the Rings
2) Eight times now
3) A couple. I'd probably refamiliarize myself with why I liked it.
4) Tad Williams, but I've been going the "pick by random" or "read a set by such-and-such author" or I just pick things topically.
5) Nope, cover-to-cover, though I will, occasionally, lose a book behind the bed by happenstance and start something out because I'm too lazy to fish it out.
6) I read for myself, either to learn, to entertain, or to get back into the topic I'm writing about.
When I was little my absolute FAVORITE book was "I wish that I had duck feet".
My mom read it to me so much it fell apart.
Larry McMurtry is my absolute favorite arthor.
HAVE to finish a book before I start a new one.
I will reread anything by David Sedaris over and over. In fact, most of his books are in my bathroom. I can pick any book, any page, and know exactly what's going on.
I go cover to cover, and my idea of heaven is doing so in one sitting.
I read because I love to, and only select books that I think I'll enjoy. But, like Lori, even if I'm hating it I must finish it.
1) fave is currently "the brain that changes itself' by norman doidge. when i used to read fiction it was 'sacajawea' by anna lee waldo
2) the brain book: once. sacajawea: maybe five times
3) once. unless i had to read it for a course
4) random, based on subject matter
5) cover-to-cover, but i will stop a bad book partway through and never finish it
6) i read for the joy of it. i love learning, so i am reading lots of science books (but mostly science mags cuz i have no attention span)
1) I have several favorites, the one I actually own is The Scarlet Mansion
2) I've read it several times
3) I don't usually read books more than once. If the book was good I'll remember it way too clearly to enjoy it a second time. I like to be surprised at how it turns out :)
4) I have several favorite authors that I read, also random choices.
5) Cover to cover, but I will abandon a book if I don't like it
6) I read because I feel like my brain needs to eat words to live. And enjoyment.
1) The Axeman Cometh by John Farris.
2) Less than a dozen times. I'm afraid of overdoing it; it's a short book.
3) Ugh, it's pathetic. Like 2-20 times.
4) Pretty random, although some favorites are William Gibson, Tim Dorsey, Jay Lake, and Stephen King before he was hit by a van.
5) Cover to cover, but multiple books at once.
6) I mostly enjoy it, although sometimes I do it because my better half orders me to.
Post a Comment