Favorite Books

1. Fiction: Ok, we already know my favorite book of all time is Ender's Game, so I'll pick a different book. Carrie by Stephen King. It was the first Stephen King novel I read and it led me to read only Stephen King for a period in middle school. Except for Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which I kept under my bed because it scared me so badly. It was easy to (sort of) connect with a character that gets picked on and mistreated, who falls for a boy she could never have, etc. And then she turns all evil and gets sweet revenge.



2. Nonfiction: I like memoirs a lot, so this one is tough. So I'm gonna stick with the last memoir that I read that really struck me: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Thoroughly depressing from an adult standpoint, but an excellent portrait of resilience in children. Also it's not an overly "woe-is-me" memoir, as Walls points out the things that were good and happy despite the hard times her family was constantly entrenched in.


3. Autobiography: Errr....I hate autobiographies. But I do have Mark Twain's on my to-read list. Only because he's brilliant and witty.

4. My choice: So a couple of weekends ago I went frantic because I couldn't find these books I used to read in middle school. And gloriously, they were found (in a random box, in a random room) and out of nostalgia I've started reading them again. Before there was Twilight and Stephenie Meyer, there was The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike (6 books) and Secret Circle (3 books) and Night World (9 books) by L.J. Smith. Vampires! Witches! Werewolves! Soulmates! Smith's work tended to be more chaste, while Pike's series dealt with more heavy duty stuff as in AIDS and sex. So yeah, I didn't pick a single book for this option, but each of these books are short enough for several to be read in a single day.

My turn

I am on page 86 of my current read (hence to be known as the book that is attempting to break the Twilight cycle - but between reading stuff about the coming movie and the elections, I haven't been able to get beyond page 86). I will reveal all here when I finish it.

So in the meantime, as well...

SHORTEST BOOK I'VE READ: Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Gardner. I thought this book would be more clever and funnier than it turned out to be. It was so short I finished it in probably five whole mintues.

LONGEST BOOK I'VE READ: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. It's a good thing I already knew how it ended, or else I would have been really pissed, faithfully slogging through all those pages only to be left hanging at the end.

BOOK I'VE READ THE FASTEST: I am usually a fast reader, so it's probably a tossup between a whole bunch of books, but the most recent one is New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. I beat Alissa by 24 hours with her Breaking Dawn.

BOOK I'VE READ THE SLOWEST: My current read as well. I can't get out of page 86. It's a really, really fascinating book and I love the subject matter, but I keep getting distracted. (See: elections, Twilight movie.)

Meme part deux

Yeah, I Know This Much is True is crazy crazy crazy long. I will hopefully be able to finish it this weekend during the ride to my cousin's wedding in Jerz. So in the meantime...

SHORTEST BOOK I'VE READ: Probs Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. It's that or one of the Harry Potter "books" that Rowling wrote. Not the actually Harry Potter book, but one of the books she wrote that was one of Harry's schoolbooks.

LONGEST BOOK I'VE READ: The Game of Thrones aka A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin are pretty long. So was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

BOOK I'VE READ THE FASTEST: Gotta be Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. Less than 48 hours. I wouldn't have mentioned it if I wasn't tagged for this particular meme, so Karmela only has herself to blame.

BOOK I'VE READ THE SLOWEST: There's a number of books that I would have read a lot slower than I did if it wasn't for those readings tests in high school. Let's see, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and I want to include The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Last one is more teach-y, but whatevs I totally hated it.

On a sad note, Michael Crichton passed today. Karmela describes him far more eloquently than I can, so I'll just direct you over to her post.

Short Book Meme

I swear to god, I'm almost finished with the book I'm reading. In the meantime, here's a book meme:

SHORTEST BOOK I'VE READ: Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Yes, THAT Steve Martin. He also turned it into a movie starring him and Clare Danes, remember that? It was actually pretty good.

LONGEST BOOK I'VE READ: It's a toss-up between The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber.

BOOK I'VE READ THE FASTEST: Got to be the latest John Grisham (The Appeal) which took me about 48 hours, although back in my high school/college days I plowed through those Harlequin novels in less than a day.

BOOK I'VE READ THE SLOWEST: Hmmmm...not counting textbooks? I would say my current read, Countdown by Michelle Maddox. But only because I haven't had the time to read lately!

I now tag my co-bloggers Hazel and Alissa.