I pushed off the post I was going to write for today because Sarah Glassmeyer posted a link on Twitter to Steve Lawson's Fifteen things about me and books and it looked like fun.
1. I don't really collect books, but my tastes are so odd I feel compelled to keep lots of books for fear of never being able to find certain titles again.
2. In first grade, they sent me to second grade for "reading class" because I read too fast for everyone else.
3. In sixth grade, I had to read and give an oral report on 'The Yearling.' I hated it so much that I stopped halfway through and just winged the report.
4. The only non-assigned book I've ever given up on was J.R.R. Tolkien's
'The Silmarillion.' It reads like The Bible, only more confusing.
5. I say the above as someone who has read The Bible, cover to cover.
6. When I worked in my junior high library, I was the first person who checked out a newly released biography on Ernie Davis, the school's namesake. I was very excited to be the first person to check out the book although I wasn't a football fan. I think I was just interested in learning about the person whom the school was named after.
7. I can't remember the last time I read a novel. I've been reading non-fiction books almost exclusively for several years, though I do read short stories. (OK, make that a non-Harry Potter novel-I read those).
8. I read the book '1984' in 1984. I probably didn't understand all of it, but the book had a profound influence on my thinking about a lot of things.
9. A book with an even more profound influence on my thinking was Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.' I thought the worldview of the person behind that book had to be very interesting, indeed.
10. The book is always better than the movie. The only one that comes close is 'Goodfellas.'
11. While most of the fiction I've read comes from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the book store, very little of it is actual Science Fiction. It's always seemed so dry.
12. I'll read an autobiography written by just about anyone if they look like an interesting person.
13. I found so many of the novels I was required to read for school boring (still can't read Steinbeck and Hemingway), but the short stories (and sometimes the poetry) very interesting.
14. When I was in high school and my family took summer vacations, while everyone else was swimming I would be sitting on the beach with a book.
15. I read Douglas Adams' 'The Salmon of Doubt' very slowly because I knew it was going to be the last one of his I would ever be able to read.
Fifteen things about me and books
Posted by
Johnny B
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
- Meg Kribble January 6, 2010 at 9:51 AM
-
4. I slogged through the Entire Damn Silmarillion. I'm still not exactly sure how or why--beyond some faint notion of geek cred. There were a few sections that I enjoyed, but mostly it was about futilely attempting to keep straight all the characters whose names began with F. Or maybe it was P. Ugh.
- Johnny B January 6, 2010 at 6:46 PM
-
@Steve Lawson: That's true. Some things, in the right hands, translate very well to film.
@Meg: All those names... I got so lost, I couldn't take it any more. I think I got a little past a third and gave up. I did read all of the appendices, though and enjoyed them.
3
comments:
Posts
Fun to see people picking up the meme--I was inspired by John Scalzi's post from something like five years ago.
I think movies can be "better" than the book when they are something other than a slavish copy of the book. Blade Runner is one example. I also think that I would much rather watch A Room With a View than read it.