Since I haven’t done one in a while, I thought I’d do Berry’s ‘Monday Meme’ this week, as the topic is one near to my heart.
Books.
- Are you a bookworm? – I actually joke with friends RL that I’m not a bibliophile, I’m a bibliovore. As often as not, if I’m not at a computer I’m reading something. Anything. Everything. There’s all sorts of things I like about books, but probably most especially the way that squiggles of dark against light can transport you to another world: a world that someone else made up. Perhaps even someone who’s long departed from this world, yet her (or his) writing is just as gripping today as it was a hundred years ago.
- Which do you prefer: hardcover, paperback or electronic? – It truly depends, as far as paperback and hardcover goes. Some paperbacks I have loved into small bits and pieces, while others simply refused to work for me even when the hardcover turned out to be a book I loved like mad.
- Which book is your favorite? – I couldn’t pick one favorite, but a book I come back to regularly is John Crowley’s Little, Big. I love the pseudo-Victoriana of it, I love the way that he mimics the fantasies of a bygone era so well. I also have a fascination with orreries, so there’s that.
- Which children’s book is your favorite? – Well I’m rather fond of the Harry Potter books – however, the Narnia books were ones that opened my eyes, as a kid, to the idea of wider horizons (even if I found the Christian subtext in them a bit hamhanded at best).
- What’s the last book you’ve read? – Last one I read was P. D. James’ Cover Her Face. I’m about two-thirds of the way through Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 at present, and am hating the idea it will end soon!
- Name your top five favorite writers: – Jonathan Carroll, Iain Banks, Evelyn Waugh, Robin Hobb, Haruki Murakami.
- Name a book that had a strong impact on you: – In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
- Favorite & least favorite book genres? – When I was younger I really went in for Science Fiction, but not as much anymore. I’m far more interested in Fantasy; something about that genre really echoes for me with the stuff of dreams, while Science Fiction is far more about the visceral and down to earth. I like Mystery as well, and simply cannot stand the sorts of things that have Tom Clancy’s name on the cover.
- Favorite & least favorite book-to-movie adaptions? – I wanted to hate it, but the adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly amazed me. Much as I liked everyone involved in it, I have to say I thought that The Prestige (a fine book!) was unfilmable when I read it, and the movie only halfway managed to convince me otherwise.
- Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone? – Definitely. There have even been occasions where I haven’t regretted it.
- Where do you usually buy your books? – I haven’t been buying books much at all in the past seven years or so: when I do, they’re used.
- Do you go to the library? – Quite often: it’s on my way from home to many other places (one might say anywhere else I’d want to go), so it’s far too easy to swing in on my way.
- How many books do you own? – 9′ tall, 30′ wide, shelves as close together as possible, and only mostly double-shelved. That’s what, 3000?
- If you were to write a book about Second Life, which topic would you focus on? I’ve thought for some time that Second Life would be a very interesting setting to bring into a mundane story of a murder: it’d make a nice distraction for the reader’s attention while the very cold-blooded evil of murder passes by almost undetected.
Stylecard:
Jacket: Fatewear “Coat – Derrick – Void”
Slacks: Fatewear “Pants – Eddie”
Sweater: Addon for jacket (see above)
Book I’m standing on: Schadenfreude ‘Curious Flora’
Hair: Argrace ‘Itsuki’
Skin: Logo “Eternal Tristan – Pale – Bald’
Hands: SlInk AvEnhance Male Hands – Relaxed
Pose: 3M “wall2_m_02”
