Genre reading meme
Feb. 3rd, 2009 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyThis is a long one so...
1. What is your name?
Jacey
2. Do you read a lot?
Yes, especially now I'm making more of an effort to both read and write entries in my book log. I managed 10 books in January. I try and read something every day.
3. What's your favorite genre?
Speculative Fiction of all kinds.
+++FANTASY AND SCI-FI+++
4. Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
Fantasy, probably, by a short head over science fiction
5. What's your favorite fantasy book/series?
Book: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: I suppose for sheer force of personality it would have to be Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels - but there are some duds amongst them as well as some brilliant ones. Maybe I should specify his Guards books. I also adore Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Novels and and I cut my teeth on Andre Norton's Witch World novels and still have a great fondness for them. Bujold's Sharing Knife series is shaping up pretty well and, if you can call it a series, I like the three of her 'Five Gods' books that have appeared so far.
6. Who's your favorite fantasy author?
Lois McMaster Bujold, but I also very much like Patricia Briggs, Tanya Huff and I was very impressed with debut author Jaine Fenn (and I'm not just saying that because she's a friend of mine.) Blast from the past would be Andre Norton.
7. What's your favorite science fiction book/series?
Book: Oh, lord, I haven't a clue. Of the books I've read recently I'm very fond of 'A Civil Affair' - one of the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, and I like all Karen Traviss' books but I guess my favourite of her wess'har ones might be 'Crossing the Line'. Going way way back I guess John Wyndham's The Chrysalids.
Series: Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, but I've also been very impressed by Karen Traviss' wes'har novels (as well as her Star Wars Republic Commando novels which are so unlike tie-in fiction to be a case on their own).
8. Favorite sci-fi author?
Bujold, but Karen Traviss is also brilliant.
+++MYSTERY, HORROR, AND THRILLER+++
9. Which do you prefer: a puzzling mystery, or a terrifying thriller?
I don't really read mysteries or thrillers except in the context of SF and then I'm happy to read either as long as it's well written and the characters float my boat. Oh, hold on - if Modesty Blaise counts as thriller than I'll go for thriller.
10. Do you have a favorite mystery novel?
No
11. A favorite horror novel?
No. I really don't like horror - though Clive Barker's Weaveworld was OK and seems to be classed as horror though I'd have classed it as Fantasy. Borderlines are a little wobbly.
+++ROMANCE+++
12. do you read romance novels?
I have done in the past and I like my fantasy liberally sprinkled wth romance.
13. How about gay romance novels?
I haven't yet - unless you count Mercedes Lackey's Vanyel books which I found disappointing, but for reasons other than the gay romance. I have no problem with gay romance if it's within the context of a good book by a good writer and has the requisite characterisation. I don't want to read just gay romance for the sake of writing about gay sex.
14. What is your favorite?
The closest I can get (of recently read books) would be Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife books which are romantic fantasy. Way back I read histoicals such as Watch the Wall my Darling by Jane Aiken Hodge and Juliette Benzoni's Catherine novels - maybe I should revisit some of them. It's been years since I read Georgette Heyer. I did once read a Mills and Boon for a bet. It was called His Serene Miss Smith but I have mercifully forgotten the author. (It was before M & B allowed their protagonists to have sex.) I did also once read a paranormal romance-thing by... oh author-name escapes me but she's very popular... oh yeah, Sherrilyn Kenyon - one of her Dark Hunter novels. It was like there had to be a sex scene every so many pages whether the story demanded it or not, and all their bodies were oh so perfect. Reading one every now and then would be OK, but I imagine too may all at once would be like a diet of sugar candy (nice and possibly addictive but not all that good in the long run.).
+++CHILDREN'S AND YA+++
15. What's your favorite children's book?
There are so many good ones. I guess all the Monica Edwards Romney March books such as Storm Ahead, The Nightbird and No Going Back; The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis, but I loved Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones; The Dark is Rising (sequence) by Susan Cooper; Mantlemass Chronicles (5 books) by Barbara Willard, Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe. Some of those might be creeping into the YA category now, but were written before YA existed as a separate category.
16. Is it the same book that was your favorite when you were a kid?
I certainly first read Monica Edwards's books and the Narnia books starting with (for some reason) The Horse and His Boy and loved them as a kid. I also read corny SF books by Hugh Walters and as many pony books as i could get my hands on. By the time I was 12 I'd moved on to John Wyndham etc.
17. What's your favorite YA book?
So many good ones. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin, but I also love K. M. Peyton's books such as Pennington's Seventeenth Summer and Flambards. Diana Wynne Jones 'A Sudden Wild Magic' seems to be classified as YA as well, I think. Brilliant book, as is her 'Deep Secrets'.
18. Did you actually read it as a YA?
I read YA for the first time in my early twenties when I was a librarian. When I was actually a YA I was reading my way through all the Gollancz (yellow jacketed) SF books in the local mobile library. Stuff like Bob Shaw, AC Clarke, Heinlein, etc because YA fiction wasn't then a separate category and it seemed as though you went from pony books and school stories straight to the then available adult stuff like Dick Francis and Agatha Christie - or strait to SF like I did.
19. In general, do you prefer children's books over grown-up books?
I treat them all as equals. A good book is a good book and books written for the children's market stand alongside books for the adult market any day and I certainly don't think they are more lowly.
+++CLASSICS AND GENERAL FICTION+++
20. What's your favorite classic novel?
I don't really read classics. Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are OK, but I'd rather watch them on TV. I have a sneaking fondness for Charles Dickens 'Hard Times' but I wouldn't say it was something I'd choose pover a modern novel. I hate Thomas Hardy books with a vengeance.
21. What about general fiction?
Not much. I liked Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and I read all the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell and all the dilly Gilly Coopers. Wayback I read my way through Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise books, Wilbur Smith and Mary Stewart plus historical romance like Juliette Benzoni's Catherine books.
22. What classic novel do you just *not* *get*?
Most of them
23. Do you have a favorite play or drama?
Rozencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
24. What do you think of Shakespeare?
Yes, good.
25. Could you pick a favorite poem?
Tam Lin (anon) and Thomas the Rhymer (anon). Mad Old Mike by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe. I guess I'm quite fond of Wifred Owen and ee cummings, but I can't pick out a favourite. I also like some Kipling. I've done some biographical work on Dorothy Una Ratcliffe - a minor Yorkshire poet - whose work I really admire (and have sung when set to music) so I like a lot of hers - possibly because of familiarity. I hate Wordsworth because i had him stuffed down my throat at school.
26. What about a favorite poetry collection?
English and Scottish Ballads (collected by) F.J. Childe
27. Who's your favorite poet?
anon, I guess.
+++COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS+++
28. Do you read comics or graphic novels?
Only when I have to (to complete stories begun elsewhere), but I don't really like the form. I used to read superman when I was a kid.
29. Do you have a favorite series?
Joss Whedon's Firefly and/or Buffy season 8 - can't remember individual names.
30. A favorite book?
As above
+++SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS+++
31. Do you prefer short stories (short novels) over full-length novels?
No
32. What's your favorite short story?
Karen Traviss' 'Suitable for the Orient' which I first read in manuscript at a workshop and it's stayed with me ever since. I think it got published in Asimovs or something similar.
33. Favorite short story collection?
Currently: Fabulous Whitby edited by Sue Thomason and Liz Williams
www.fabulousalbion.com
34. Do you have a favorite short story author?
Karen Traviss, Liz Williams, Jaine Fenn and Sue Thomason in no particular order.
+++NONFICTION+++
35. What kind of nonfiction do you usually read?
Usually books that I need for research, so history, costume, weapons, survival/self-sufficiency and books on writing.
36. Do you have a favorite nonfiction book?
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King had been much thumbed through in the past. By the Sword (Cohen); The Medieval Traveller (Ohl)
37. Read any interesting biographies?
No. I'm not fond of biography at all.
38. History books?
Yes, especially social history
39. Politics?
Not really if I can avoid them.
40. Religious texts?
Gods, no! The nearest I come is The Golden Bough. I've got a Bible and a Qur'an on my bookshelves for reference, but I can't remember the last time I dusted them.
41. How about books on mythology, fairy tales, or other cultural stories?
Yes, absolutely. Katharine Briggs is a goddess. Iona and Peter Opie rock!
+++ELEMENTS OF FICTION+++
42. What's the most important element of a novel? Plot? Characterization? Style? Themes? Happy ending?
Characterisation. Everything else should be informed by it.
43. What kind of plot interests you the most?
Something wrapped around great characters. Action/adventure is always good, but not essential.
44. What kind of characters usually appeal to you?
Imperfect ones who grow and change during the course of a story/novel.
45. What is your favorite book overall?
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.
+++PASS IT ON+++
46. What's the last book you read?
Patricia Briggs - When Demon's Walk
47. What are you reading now?
My bookmark is now in Storm Born by Richelle Mead, but I've only read the first couple of pages so far.
48. What are you going to read next?
I have Stephanie Meyer's Twilight on my reading pile because i want to see what all the fuss is about. I also have Terry Pratchett's Nation standing by, plus Bujold's Spirit Ring and Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles (omnibus edition). I also just got my spiffy hardback copy of Liz William's Winterstrike which I am really looking forward to as I've read a couple of bits of in in manuscript format. After that there are a few older back-titles of Patricia Briggs and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I scored for a couple of pounds in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago. PLenty to keep me going.
49. Is there a book you would recommend to everyone on your friend's list?
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, but I guess a lot of them have read it already, and Hard Contact (a Republic Commando Novel) by Karen Traviss because I'd like those who look down their noses at Star Wars tie-in novels to have their world turned around by a very good writer who takes a book destined to be a shoot-em-up novel for 12+ boys and turns it into a thoughtful and engaging character driven piece which remains accessible to its target demographic whilst asking hard questions about identity, self-determination and human rights.
50. Tag five people to fill out this meme:
No, sorry, but folks are welcome to get it the same way I did. (Thanks Merrie)
1. What is your name?
Jacey
2. Do you read a lot?
Yes, especially now I'm making more of an effort to both read and write entries in my book log. I managed 10 books in January. I try and read something every day.
3. What's your favorite genre?
Speculative Fiction of all kinds.
+++FANTASY AND SCI-FI+++
4. Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
Fantasy, probably, by a short head over science fiction
5. What's your favorite fantasy book/series?
Book: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: I suppose for sheer force of personality it would have to be Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels - but there are some duds amongst them as well as some brilliant ones. Maybe I should specify his Guards books. I also adore Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Novels and and I cut my teeth on Andre Norton's Witch World novels and still have a great fondness for them. Bujold's Sharing Knife series is shaping up pretty well and, if you can call it a series, I like the three of her 'Five Gods' books that have appeared so far.
6. Who's your favorite fantasy author?
Lois McMaster Bujold, but I also very much like Patricia Briggs, Tanya Huff and I was very impressed with debut author Jaine Fenn (and I'm not just saying that because she's a friend of mine.) Blast from the past would be Andre Norton.
7. What's your favorite science fiction book/series?
Book: Oh, lord, I haven't a clue. Of the books I've read recently I'm very fond of 'A Civil Affair' - one of the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, and I like all Karen Traviss' books but I guess my favourite of her wess'har ones might be 'Crossing the Line'. Going way way back I guess John Wyndham's The Chrysalids.
Series: Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, but I've also been very impressed by Karen Traviss' wes'har novels (as well as her Star Wars Republic Commando novels which are so unlike tie-in fiction to be a case on their own).
8. Favorite sci-fi author?
Bujold, but Karen Traviss is also brilliant.
+++MYSTERY, HORROR, AND THRILLER+++
9. Which do you prefer: a puzzling mystery, or a terrifying thriller?
I don't really read mysteries or thrillers except in the context of SF and then I'm happy to read either as long as it's well written and the characters float my boat. Oh, hold on - if Modesty Blaise counts as thriller than I'll go for thriller.
10. Do you have a favorite mystery novel?
No
11. A favorite horror novel?
No. I really don't like horror - though Clive Barker's Weaveworld was OK and seems to be classed as horror though I'd have classed it as Fantasy. Borderlines are a little wobbly.
+++ROMANCE+++
12. do you read romance novels?
I have done in the past and I like my fantasy liberally sprinkled wth romance.
13. How about gay romance novels?
I haven't yet - unless you count Mercedes Lackey's Vanyel books which I found disappointing, but for reasons other than the gay romance. I have no problem with gay romance if it's within the context of a good book by a good writer and has the requisite characterisation. I don't want to read just gay romance for the sake of writing about gay sex.
14. What is your favorite?
The closest I can get (of recently read books) would be Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife books which are romantic fantasy. Way back I read histoicals such as Watch the Wall my Darling by Jane Aiken Hodge and Juliette Benzoni's Catherine novels - maybe I should revisit some of them. It's been years since I read Georgette Heyer. I did once read a Mills and Boon for a bet. It was called His Serene Miss Smith but I have mercifully forgotten the author. (It was before M & B allowed their protagonists to have sex.) I did also once read a paranormal romance-thing by... oh author-name escapes me but she's very popular... oh yeah, Sherrilyn Kenyon - one of her Dark Hunter novels. It was like there had to be a sex scene every so many pages whether the story demanded it or not, and all their bodies were oh so perfect. Reading one every now and then would be OK, but I imagine too may all at once would be like a diet of sugar candy (nice and possibly addictive but not all that good in the long run.).
+++CHILDREN'S AND YA+++
15. What's your favorite children's book?
There are so many good ones. I guess all the Monica Edwards Romney March books such as Storm Ahead, The Nightbird and No Going Back; The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis, but I loved Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones; The Dark is Rising (sequence) by Susan Cooper; Mantlemass Chronicles (5 books) by Barbara Willard, Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe. Some of those might be creeping into the YA category now, but were written before YA existed as a separate category.
16. Is it the same book that was your favorite when you were a kid?
I certainly first read Monica Edwards's books and the Narnia books starting with (for some reason) The Horse and His Boy and loved them as a kid. I also read corny SF books by Hugh Walters and as many pony books as i could get my hands on. By the time I was 12 I'd moved on to John Wyndham etc.
17. What's your favorite YA book?
So many good ones. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin, but I also love K. M. Peyton's books such as Pennington's Seventeenth Summer and Flambards. Diana Wynne Jones 'A Sudden Wild Magic' seems to be classified as YA as well, I think. Brilliant book, as is her 'Deep Secrets'.
18. Did you actually read it as a YA?
I read YA for the first time in my early twenties when I was a librarian. When I was actually a YA I was reading my way through all the Gollancz (yellow jacketed) SF books in the local mobile library. Stuff like Bob Shaw, AC Clarke, Heinlein, etc because YA fiction wasn't then a separate category and it seemed as though you went from pony books and school stories straight to the then available adult stuff like Dick Francis and Agatha Christie - or strait to SF like I did.
19. In general, do you prefer children's books over grown-up books?
I treat them all as equals. A good book is a good book and books written for the children's market stand alongside books for the adult market any day and I certainly don't think they are more lowly.
+++CLASSICS AND GENERAL FICTION+++
20. What's your favorite classic novel?
I don't really read classics. Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are OK, but I'd rather watch them on TV. I have a sneaking fondness for Charles Dickens 'Hard Times' but I wouldn't say it was something I'd choose pover a modern novel. I hate Thomas Hardy books with a vengeance.
21. What about general fiction?
Not much. I liked Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and I read all the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell and all the dilly Gilly Coopers. Wayback I read my way through Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise books, Wilbur Smith and Mary Stewart plus historical romance like Juliette Benzoni's Catherine books.
22. What classic novel do you just *not* *get*?
Most of them
23. Do you have a favorite play or drama?
Rozencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
24. What do you think of Shakespeare?
Yes, good.
25. Could you pick a favorite poem?
Tam Lin (anon) and Thomas the Rhymer (anon). Mad Old Mike by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe. I guess I'm quite fond of Wifred Owen and ee cummings, but I can't pick out a favourite. I also like some Kipling. I've done some biographical work on Dorothy Una Ratcliffe - a minor Yorkshire poet - whose work I really admire (and have sung when set to music) so I like a lot of hers - possibly because of familiarity. I hate Wordsworth because i had him stuffed down my throat at school.
26. What about a favorite poetry collection?
English and Scottish Ballads (collected by) F.J. Childe
27. Who's your favorite poet?
anon, I guess.
+++COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS+++
28. Do you read comics or graphic novels?
Only when I have to (to complete stories begun elsewhere), but I don't really like the form. I used to read superman when I was a kid.
29. Do you have a favorite series?
Joss Whedon's Firefly and/or Buffy season 8 - can't remember individual names.
30. A favorite book?
As above
+++SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS+++
31. Do you prefer short stories (short novels) over full-length novels?
No
32. What's your favorite short story?
Karen Traviss' 'Suitable for the Orient' which I first read in manuscript at a workshop and it's stayed with me ever since. I think it got published in Asimovs or something similar.
33. Favorite short story collection?
Currently: Fabulous Whitby edited by Sue Thomason and Liz Williams
www.fabulousalbion.com
34. Do you have a favorite short story author?
Karen Traviss, Liz Williams, Jaine Fenn and Sue Thomason in no particular order.
+++NONFICTION+++
35. What kind of nonfiction do you usually read?
Usually books that I need for research, so history, costume, weapons, survival/self-sufficiency and books on writing.
36. Do you have a favorite nonfiction book?
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King had been much thumbed through in the past. By the Sword (Cohen); The Medieval Traveller (Ohl)
37. Read any interesting biographies?
No. I'm not fond of biography at all.
38. History books?
Yes, especially social history
39. Politics?
Not really if I can avoid them.
40. Religious texts?
Gods, no! The nearest I come is The Golden Bough. I've got a Bible and a Qur'an on my bookshelves for reference, but I can't remember the last time I dusted them.
41. How about books on mythology, fairy tales, or other cultural stories?
Yes, absolutely. Katharine Briggs is a goddess. Iona and Peter Opie rock!
+++ELEMENTS OF FICTION+++
42. What's the most important element of a novel? Plot? Characterization? Style? Themes? Happy ending?
Characterisation. Everything else should be informed by it.
43. What kind of plot interests you the most?
Something wrapped around great characters. Action/adventure is always good, but not essential.
44. What kind of characters usually appeal to you?
Imperfect ones who grow and change during the course of a story/novel.
45. What is your favorite book overall?
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.
+++PASS IT ON+++
46. What's the last book you read?
Patricia Briggs - When Demon's Walk
47. What are you reading now?
My bookmark is now in Storm Born by Richelle Mead, but I've only read the first couple of pages so far.
48. What are you going to read next?
I have Stephanie Meyer's Twilight on my reading pile because i want to see what all the fuss is about. I also have Terry Pratchett's Nation standing by, plus Bujold's Spirit Ring and Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles (omnibus edition). I also just got my spiffy hardback copy of Liz William's Winterstrike which I am really looking forward to as I've read a couple of bits of in in manuscript format. After that there are a few older back-titles of Patricia Briggs and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I scored for a couple of pounds in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago. PLenty to keep me going.
49. Is there a book you would recommend to everyone on your friend's list?
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, but I guess a lot of them have read it already, and Hard Contact (a Republic Commando Novel) by Karen Traviss because I'd like those who look down their noses at Star Wars tie-in novels to have their world turned around by a very good writer who takes a book destined to be a shoot-em-up novel for 12+ boys and turns it into a thoughtful and engaging character driven piece which remains accessible to its target demographic whilst asking hard questions about identity, self-determination and human rights.
50. Tag five people to fill out this meme:
No, sorry, but folks are welcome to get it the same way I did. (Thanks Merrie)
