A NEW BOOK MEME

I was tagged for this meme by Alexandra I just love books, as anyone who reads this blog knows. Thanks for thinking of me for this meme.

1) Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

A Christmas Carole by Dickens. Also, his A Tale of Two Cities. When I was in high school I was assigned both these texts. I hated assigned reading, irrationally. I love to read, but detested just about anything that I was assigned to read, except the ridiculously smutty books that were wholly inappropriate for high schoolers, those I loved. Since becoming an adult, I've tackled two Dickens books and completely enjoyed them. Perhaps I should get over my aversion to these two and give them a try.

2) If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Wow! How exciting! I would love to meet Shirley Keeldar (from Shirley by Charlotte Bronte), Lucy Honeychurch (from EM Forster's A Room with a View), and Elinor Dashwood (from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen). I must add Miss Lavish, also from A Room with a View, which absolutely no gathering would be complete without. There are countless others. I would love to go for a walk through a quaint little European town with them, stopping in a delightful shop for tea, and if we happened to witness a crime in the street, all the more interesting!

3) (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

This was harder than I anticipated. I considered Doestoevsky, but he really isn't boring, just prattles on like the mad man he was. Then I thought about math and science books, but deep down inside I think I enjoy a lot of those. I even considered a dictionary, but I enjoy reading them as well! While horror books are not my choice of reading materials , I seriously doubt they are boring. There must be some boring books! Finally I decided to go with something which I've never read, but decided MUST be boring, and for this I tip my hat to new daddy, Claudio. Before I met him I had no idea that people wrote rather large works about the dialects of Indian languages. At first glance this seems interesting, until you think about reading hundreds upon hundreds of pages about how sounds are formed in the throat, phonetic spellings of these sounds, translations of these sounds into English, discussions of the fine nuances between the sounds of the different dialects, etc. No offense to Claudio or anyone else who finds this stuff interesting, someone really ought to look at and study this. But for me, those books would buy me an early grave!

4) Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

I cannot remember ever doing this.

5) You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalize the VIP).

Since the VIP is not a big reader, I'd probably start with a book most everyone is sure to enjoy. I would choose something with a little meat to it, a moral message disguised to sneak up on the reader unaware. Also, something not too difficult to read considering the dumbing down of America these days...I would go with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

6) A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

DEFINITELY FRENCH!

7) A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

Since I can read other things as well, I would say the Bible, because that ought to be read more often!

8) What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

I am not sure I've discovered anything new from book blogging, but I've recently discovered fantasy writing, which I always avoided. My favorite fantasy stories are definitely the Books of Pellinor but I have read and enjoyed others as well.

9) That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favorite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

This room would contain complete works of all my favorite authors, to include original manuscripts, advanced reading copies, first editions, special editions, and inscribed editions. For all other books, there would be beautiful leather bound copies with gilded pages so when you walked into the library, it would smell like books and leather. This room should be a huge room where there was a sliding ladder on each wall to access the uppermost shelves. To counterbalance the effect of walls of leather and cloth, the decorations would have a distinctly feminine flair. There ought to be a fireplace, tiled in a beautiful light colored floral tile, with a tiled hearth. Over the hearth should be a tea kettle, cast iron of course, so there would always be hot tea and coffee on hand. This would require a cabinet to store all the accoutrements required for a fine tea and coffee experience, as well as a place for biscuits. Also inside this cabinet would be a small refrigerator for things like cream, cheese, and other culinary delights requiring chilling. There would be a selection of comfortable chairs and settees as well as various lamps spread about the room, and several small tables for the more formal tea occasions or for when we had readings in the room inviting in famous authors, poets and cherished friends to enjoy the evening. In one small nod to modern comforts the room would be temperature controlled for the preservation of the books.

Oh to dream!

I tag Mary, Mary, Katherine, and anyone else who would like to do this meme. Just leave me a comment!