elderberrywine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elderberrywine) wrote2008-07-03 09:41 pm
elderberrywine) wrote2008-07-03 09:41 pm
And a last one.
Really! I promise! But it was all about boooooks, you see, and, well, OK.
1. A favorite book!
Oh, hey, there's this trilogy you might have heard of. And The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Afraid those two have been first and foremost for a very, very long time.
2. A book that affected you in your YA years
*points above* What it says. Other guilty pleasures too numerous to mention, but I can't forget my two favorite romances, Ramona and Lorna Doone.
3. A favorite fantasy novel
Well, besides the obvious, The Gormenghast Novels. And Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin probably qualifies here as well.
4. A favorite sci fi novel
I was very much into sci fi in my teens, especially, but it was mostly the anthologies, the short stories that I enjoyed the most. I remember a lot of the stories, but not the names or authors. I do, however, remember being quite fond of Cities in Flight by James Blish.
5. An awesome book (possibly a favorite) you think not many people around you have heard of/read. Oh, this is hard. I really have no idea. Heyer? I'm a recent convert to her deliciously snarky historical romances - much to love there.
6. A book you own more than one copy of
LOTR. I have my Ballantine paperbacks, and my deluxe version, last year's Christmas present from my husband. He doesn't get it, but he knows obsession when he sees it. :*
Otherwise, whenever I have a duplicate, I give it to my mom.
7. An author whose every single book you own/will buy
Dickens. Austin. Any one of the Brontes. Turgenev. Eliot. Collins. Hardy. Wolfe. Renault. E. Forester. Gogol. Heh - I guess that's enough to give you the general trend. *is classics girl*
8. The worst book you've ever read
The Golden Bough, Fraser. The first time ever I had to stop reading a book half way through, and I love mythology! Man knew how to grind a perfectly good tale absolutely into the ground. Boring and insanely repetitive.
9. A book you dislike that lots of other people you know like
*hides behind sofa* Wrinkle in Time. meep.
10. The most difficult book you've ever read
Easy pick. That Advanced Differential Equations textbook from my senior year in college. OMFGWUT! The trauma is still with me. The first time math was ever really, really hard for me.
11. Tell me what kind of books your mom reads/read
Anything and everything I read, minus the slash. ;). She'll be 80 in about a month, and is still going strong. Whenever I talk to her, at least half of our conversation is about what we are each reading. I owe my weird library habits to her as well - both of us work our way around the library, taking a book out of each Dewey decimal category. (I'm in the 540's now. Oooh, chemistry!) We trade good stuff.
12. What have you read so far this year?
OK, checking my reading LJ, back to January, I've got David Thewliss, Flora Thompson, Gavin Wright, Janet Caird, AS Byatt, Paul Davies, Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Walter Scott, Tamora Pierce, Rick Reilly, Charles Dickens, and James Wilson.
13. What are you reading now?
Just about finished with Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks: The Spirited History of Physical Chemistry, by Cathy Cobb, and The Cossacks and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy. Have also just started Dragon Prince - Book 1, by Melanie Rawn.
14. What are you reading next?
Whatever's at the top of my multitude of piles. Right now, that looks like The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, Belchamber by Howard Sturgis, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne. But that could totally change.
Books! Whee! *is obsessed*
*and has just started summer vacation :D*
1. A favorite book!
Oh, hey, there's this trilogy you might have heard of. And The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Afraid those two have been first and foremost for a very, very long time.
2. A book that affected you in your YA years
*points above* What it says. Other guilty pleasures too numerous to mention, but I can't forget my two favorite romances, Ramona and Lorna Doone.
3. A favorite fantasy novel
Well, besides the obvious, The Gormenghast Novels. And Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin probably qualifies here as well.
4. A favorite sci fi novel
I was very much into sci fi in my teens, especially, but it was mostly the anthologies, the short stories that I enjoyed the most. I remember a lot of the stories, but not the names or authors. I do, however, remember being quite fond of Cities in Flight by James Blish.
5. An awesome book (possibly a favorite) you think not many people around you have heard of/read. Oh, this is hard. I really have no idea. Heyer? I'm a recent convert to her deliciously snarky historical romances - much to love there.
6. A book you own more than one copy of
LOTR. I have my Ballantine paperbacks, and my deluxe version, last year's Christmas present from my husband. He doesn't get it, but he knows obsession when he sees it. :*
Otherwise, whenever I have a duplicate, I give it to my mom.
7. An author whose every single book you own/will buy
Dickens. Austin. Any one of the Brontes. Turgenev. Eliot. Collins. Hardy. Wolfe. Renault. E. Forester. Gogol. Heh - I guess that's enough to give you the general trend. *is classics girl*
8. The worst book you've ever read
The Golden Bough, Fraser. The first time ever I had to stop reading a book half way through, and I love mythology! Man knew how to grind a perfectly good tale absolutely into the ground. Boring and insanely repetitive.
9. A book you dislike that lots of other people you know like
*hides behind sofa* Wrinkle in Time. meep.
10. The most difficult book you've ever read
Easy pick. That Advanced Differential Equations textbook from my senior year in college. OMFGWUT! The trauma is still with me. The first time math was ever really, really hard for me.
11. Tell me what kind of books your mom reads/read
Anything and everything I read, minus the slash. ;). She'll be 80 in about a month, and is still going strong. Whenever I talk to her, at least half of our conversation is about what we are each reading. I owe my weird library habits to her as well - both of us work our way around the library, taking a book out of each Dewey decimal category. (I'm in the 540's now. Oooh, chemistry!) We trade good stuff.
12. What have you read so far this year?
OK, checking my reading LJ, back to January, I've got David Thewliss, Flora Thompson, Gavin Wright, Janet Caird, AS Byatt, Paul Davies, Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Walter Scott, Tamora Pierce, Rick Reilly, Charles Dickens, and James Wilson.
13. What are you reading now?
Just about finished with Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks: The Spirited History of Physical Chemistry, by Cathy Cobb, and The Cossacks and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy. Have also just started Dragon Prince - Book 1, by Melanie Rawn.
14. What are you reading next?
Whatever's at the top of my multitude of piles. Right now, that looks like The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, Belchamber by Howard Sturgis, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne. But that could totally change.
Books! Whee! *is obsessed*
*and has just started summer vacation :D*
no subject
I have read or know only the 'classic' you listed, I have to confess, but I'm a book addict too.
I love non-fiction books. Do you recommend Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks: The Spirited History of Physical Chemistry, by Cathy Cobb?
And I agree with you about 'Advanced Differential Equations'. :)
no subject
I would definitely recommend the physical chemistry book if you have some background in chemistry. It's actually more of a book on the physics of chemistry, I'd say. But the historical bits are very fascinating.
Boy I tell you what, that math class was killer. Only grade of D I ever got in my life, and I was more than happy to take it and run. :D
no subject
Now I'm reding at the same time Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in woman over fifty by Jean Shinoda Bolen, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery Ender's game by Orson S. Card.
I have definitely a background in chemistry (http://estelanui.livejournal.com/5833.html#cutid1)! :D
Are you a chemist too or a physicist?
no subject
Nope, a math teacher, now, after a few decades as a banker. But I started college as an English major, and then very nearly changed to chemistry, because I loved it so much. But ended up as a math and music major. At the very last minute, I snuck in another English class (I was just dying to read a book for homework!) so I ended up with only the Math degree.
It's a fun book, with a lot of fascinating background on the various historic figures involved, and very clearly written by a woman, which I'm sure we can both agree is a Good Thing. It's a lot more in the valiance bond area, and electromagnetic forces, etc., than the periodic table type thing I was expecting, but that's OK. Only downside, she goes a little overboard with analogies, IMHO, but that's because she has a background teaching to secondary school, as well as at a university level, so that's understandable.
Those books you have lined up sound quite interesting as well!