Book meme
Self-tagged, from Amy. List 6 book-related things about oneself, then tag six other people. I'm not sure I know six other people, so 86 that part.
I don't read enough books. This is partly due to the annoyances of being a grownup, partly due to reading newspapers and magazines and such, partly due to not being a fast reader. But mostly the first one. A continual regret in my life.
This is an annoying trend. I will always have a list (really, an actual list, not a mental one) of at least 20 books on deck that I intend to read. My system is to not pick my next book until I finish the current one. (Well, sometimes I'm reading more than one book at a time, but nevermind that now.) There's been an annoying tendency the last year or so where I will hear about a movie verson of a book that is due to come out in a few months or next year, and it will be a book on said list. I hate this. Because another rule of mine is that while I'm happy to see a film version of a book I've read, I never read a book if there's a movie version that I've already seen. Because I'm willing to be spoiled in one direction, but not the other. (There are rare exceptions. The Godfather was one, because my dad told me the movie was infinitely better, the book merely "a good trashy novel" as he put it. He was correct. Or I might make an exception for something considered to be a giant of literature.) So when this happens, I can either shun the movie, or make sure I read the book before the movie comes out. And I hate outside events manipulating my reading. It irks. For some reason this is happening alot recently. I did read Watchmen (Simon: you were right, it is deep stuff). I'm currently reading The Road. And I shunned the movie version of Blindness, which helpfully tanked and was gone within a week or so anyway.
I look down my nose at science fiction and, especially, fantasy. Again, there are exceptions. The Road, after all, is a dystopian story (though since it won a bunch of awards the literary community is apparently pretending it's not science fiction; issues much?). Short stories, in particular. And Phillip K. Dick. It's not like a rule or anything. But after reading alot of science fiction in my youth, as I got older I found much of it, well, poorly written. I seem to be much more amenable to science fiction in the mediums of television and movies. Fantasy, the interest was never there. No Harry Potter for me, and Tolkein? Oh hell no. Somehow, Amy is still speaking to me. (Horror is another matter entirely. I like reading horror.)
I was doublecrossed by the Oakland Unified School District. In elementary school, I volunteered to read The Count of Monte Cristo, and did so. It was easily the longest book I had ever read in my young life, some 450 pages, and I was somewhat pleased with myself. Years later, I find out that what I read was a condensed version. Apparently the real deal is like 1300 pages. Man, was I bummed. Stupid Alexandre Dumas.
I keep all my books. I only wish I always had. Among the Gone Forever: my older Star Trek books, and my Peanuts collections. *sigh*
I have no name for this. There's this weird phenomenon that can happen. It's rare, and in fact hasn't happened to me in well over a decade. It's where a book will just have some vibe whereby I can't continue reading it. To try to explain, I'm not talking about a book being bad, or boring. I don't mean I become convinced that I won't like it. It's more like, I just can't get into it, but that phrase doesn't do justice to what I'm talking about. And I don't mean that it's too much of something, like grim, depressing, or violent. I like grim, depressing, and violent. Perhaps some question of tone? I can't really define it. Two somewhat famous titles where this happened to me are Fahrenheit 451 and Beloved. I do plan to go back to them one day and try again.
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