I didn’t have much reading time over the weekend and yesterday when I sat down to blog my mind just went completely blank. It is, therefore, nice to have a new meme to fall back on today or I’d be in trouble again. This one is from Litlove.

1. What author do you own the most books by?

   I had to check my LibraryThing catalog to find out the answer. It is a tie. I own 35 books by Virginia Woolf and 35 books by Marge Piercy. Adrienne Rich comes in a close third with 31.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?

   I don’t have any more than two copies of a book. I have several that I own a first edition and then have a paperback that I have read and written in. My husband on the other hand seems determined to collect every edition of Dracula ever published. He has 4 but since I tease him about how many copies of Dracula does a person need, he hasn’t added to it of late though I have caught him with a “new” edition in his hand several times at the bookstore.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

   It bothered me so little that I had to go back and re-read them to confirm that they ended in a preposition.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

   Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. It also helps that I have conflated the Atticus from the book with Gregory Peck’s Atticus from the movie.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)?

   I think it is a tie between Charlotte’s Web and Pride and Prejudice.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?

   I can’t say that I remember being ten or what I read while I was ten. I was probably in fourth grade though if I counted correctly, so it is possible that if you asked ten-year-old me, I would have said Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

   I have to say The Rising by Brian Keene in October 2008.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

   In the last year? Goldberg: Variations by Gabriel Josipovici. I read it in May of 2008.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?

   Oh goodness, that’s hard because I would never force a book on anyone. But if I had to, it might be Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?

    As I commented at Litlove’s, I would so love to see Margaret Atwood win.

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

    Uh, since I seldom read a book and wish for it to get turned into a movie, this is hard. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Terry Pratchett Discworld book turned into a movie, doesn’t matter which one as long as they can get the right comic actors for it.

12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

    I cringe at books being made into movies but especially a book like W.G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn.

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

    I unfortunately don’t think I have ever had a dream with a literary character in it, not even an author.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?

    One person’s lowbrow book is another person’s height of literary genius but I’d have to say Beatrice Small’s Skye O’Malley. There is a whole story around that one that maybe I will tell one day. I’ll just say that it was billed to me by a coworker as historical fiction but it was more like soft core porn.

15. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?

    That I have made it to the end of? My mind is drawing a blank. I can tell you all kinds of books I gave up on because I was having a difficult time with them, but I have plans on trying them again someday.

16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?

    Is there such a thing as an obscure Shakespeare play? I’ve seen Merry Wives of Windsor, does that count as obscure?

17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

    It all depends on my mood, I like them both.

Roth or Updike?

Since I’ve only read one book by each it isn’t a very broad assessment, but I’ll go with Roth.

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

    Definitely David Sedaris.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

    They are all great but I have to go with Shakespeare.

20. Austen or Eliot?

    I’ve read all of Austen but only two books by Eliot, so in my unfair assessment, Austen.

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

    Name me a time period and a country and I can show you a gap. Is it even possible to fill all of them? Is it better to read broadly—a few books from a country and time period—or deeply? I haven’t figured that out yet so I read whatever strikes my fancy and try not to “mind the gap”

22. What is your favorite novel?

    If ever tortured I could probably manage to claim a number one favorite, but until then, there are too many to choose from

23. Play?

    I could name a number of Shakespeare plays but that seems too obvious. I enjoyed Agamemnon by Aeschylus when I read it last year. I also have a fond place in my heart for Bye Bye Birdie since I was in my high school’s production of it. Please don’t think this means I can sing. I can’t. I never had a solo and was always surrounded by other people who could sing.

24. Poem?

    Book of poems, Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich and within that book, “Transcendental Etude.”

25. Essay?

    Will anyone be surprised if I say Emerson’s essays? In particular I very much enjoyed his book The Conduct of Life.

26. Short story?

    I don’t have a favorite short story or short story writer. Of course, I am now guaranteed to wake up at 2 a.m. with a favorite short story in mind and be angry at myself for forgetting it. Oh, wait! I just thought of one. Margaret Atwood’s “Hairball.”

27. Work of nonfiction?

    This is almost as bad as trying to name a favorite novel. I have many that I rank among my favorites including Alberto Manguel’s History of Reading.

28. Who is your favorite writer?

    That would be Margaret Charles Adrienne Virginia Jane Marge Gabriel Italo Atwood-Dickens-Rich-Woolf-Austen-Piercy-Josipovici-Calvino. Whew, that’s an author who really needs a nickname!

29. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

    I’m not quite sure.

30. What is your desert island book?

    Book? Single? Can’t I have my Kindle and land on an island that is covered by the Sprint network?

31. And… what are you reading right now?

    I am in the middle of way too many books at the moment. The one that is currently getting the most reading attention is Julian Barnes’ Nothing to Be Frightened Of. There are holds on it so I have to read it within my allotted time. Once I finish Barnes I will be returning to P&P&Zombies. Very appropriate don’t you think to go from a book about the undead to a book about death and then back to the book about the undead?

Anyone else want to play?