The Book Geek Quiz

For those of you not on Facebook, and because I get tired of all the stuff associated with Facebook apps, here's a quiz that Kaye Barley posted on her Meanderings and Muses. I'm fried from a day of census enumerator training preceded by a tense night wondering what upset-tummy Rusty might deposit on the carpet (he is getting better and with late-night and early-morning walks by each of his people, did no damage last night) and this is about all I can manage. Feel free to copy and do your own or respond in comments.

What author do you own the most books by?
Probably Charles Dickens, since we bought a nearly-whole matched set of the Oxford Illustrated and filled in with paperbacks of Bleak House and Edwin Drood. However, for authors purchased book-by-book, I bet it's Patrick O'Brian, because I have the complete Aubrey-Maturin series.
What book do you own the most copies of?
Um. The Bible. Lots of different translations and editions. I'm a little bit of a Bible study geek as well.
Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
That rule is a piece of arrant nonsense up with which I shall not put, as I believe Winston Churchill once said.
What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Richard Sharpe from Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels.
What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)?
Probably A Christmas Carol.
What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I'd say of books I finished, it would be Peregrine by William Bayer, an Edgar winning best novel. I just hated it.
What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Like Kaye, I find it hard to choose. I thought maybe I could pick one fiction and one non-fiction, but even then.... For non-fiction, I really liked, was moved by, and highly recommend Take This Bread by Sara Miles and Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup. For fiction, An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear and City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. These are all from my 2008 reads.
If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. Or maybe Deep Economy by Bill McKibben.
Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Terry Pratchett. What a hope. Wouldn't it be cool, though? Imagine the acceptance speech!
What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
A Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif.
What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Same one I picked as "Worst Book" -- for the same reasons.
Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I usually can only recall my dreams for a few minutes after awakening. And they usually involve people I know in odd situations rather than anyone I don't know.
What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I read plenty of "lowbrow" books but I'm not going to mention any names, not because I'm ashamed of reading them, but because the authors' feelings might be hurt.
What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
I'm still reading it, and probably will be all year: The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross. New Yorker music critic views twentieth-century serious music and history together. I know little of this music and not much about music theory at all, so it's slow going, but intriguing.
What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
Well, I've watched the video of the BBC's Titus Andronicus.
Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The Russians I guess, since I know so little of the French beyond The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo!
Roth or Updike?
Updike I guess, but I sure haven't kept up with either.
David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris!!
Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, but Chaucer a close second.
Austen or Eliot?
Austen, no contest.
What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I've read only very short things by Henry James and William Faulkner.
What is your favorite novel?
Pride and Prejudice, a sentimental favorite because it was the first Austen for me, although I love the others too.
Play?
The Importance of Being Earnest.
Poem?
Very hard to choose just one. Right now I'm thinking of Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Tomorrow it might be different. And then there are the ones that come unbidden into my head, like Animal Crackers and Cocoa to Drink by Christopher Morley, or many of Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.
Essay?
An Affix for Birds by St. Clair McKelway, from A Subtreasury of American Humor ed. by Katherine Angell and E. B. White. At least I think it's an essay.
And... what are you reading right now?
The Winter Widow by Charlene Weir, The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, White Protestant Nation by Allan Lichtman, and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.
What's the best title for a book ever (you don't have to like the book).
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Haven't read it yet though.
Kaye put a lot of nice pictures in her blog, but I just don't have the gumption this evening.

Can't Resist a List: Help Me Make a Midwestern List!

In my exploration of "Top 100" and even "Top 1000" lists, I found several regional lists from the U.S. For my home state of Maine, I found a book, The Mirror of Maine, which was actually a catalog of an exhibit. The Agee Films website has a list of 125 Great Southern Books (of which I've read 32 -- I like me some Southern writin'!) And the San Francisco Chronicle invited readers to submit selections for a couple of Western 100s -- one for fiction and one for non-fiction. At least one of the Chronicle selections caused me to wonder whether anyone had actually read the book -- for whatever the title may suggest, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is about Wisconsin.

And that brings me to the project I want your help with -- a Midwestern booklist, since I couldn't find one on the Internet. This idea had been percolating in the back of my mind for a while, and came to the fore when Onkel Hankie Pants inquired whether the Guardian's list of 1000 Novels included Ole Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth. No, said I. Humph, said he. And I agree, it should be in there. But even more so, it deserves to be on a list of books to read for a sense of the Midwest and its literary riches.

I could make a pretty good list off the top of my head, but some states might get short shrift. I could do a little better by trolling the Library of Congress subject headings. But I think a better list would come from a variety of people, so I'm asking my blogreaders and other friends to weigh in. Please send me, in comments or, if you just can't figure out comments, by email, your list of Great Midwestern Books. Here are a few rules:

1. The Midwest shall be deemed to consist of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. No arguments please. This list is attested both by Midwest Living magazine and by Joel Mabus, whose song is at the top of the page. States on the edges do partake somewhat of their neighboring regions, but they're still "hopelessly Midwestern".

2. The works submitted should actually take place in/be about the Midwest, no matter where the author was born. For example, take Ernest Hemingway, born in Oak Park, Illinois. A Farewell to Arms? Nope. "Big Two-Hearted River"? Ya sure, you betcha.

3. Any type of "bound printed material" qualifies -- novels, short stories, poetry, non-fiction. (Poetry should be specific -- for example Sandburg's poem about Chicago, or Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology, not just "the poems of X"). We're leaving out songs and screenplays and movies this time, OK? But I guess stage plays are OK too.

4. Please include a brief annotation, with the state with which the work is identified and a little about why you'd include it.

5. Submit as many as you want. I don't have a preconceived idea of how long the list will be. Don't worry about duplications -- votes will be counted.

Just to get you started, here's an example of what I want:

SOUTH DAKOTA: Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Long Winter. My favorite of the "Little House" books describes the trials of the Ingalls family and their neighbors in De Smet during an exceptionally hard winter. Lots of ups and downs, from the abject misery of twisting sticks of hay to burn in the stove to the joy when the train finally gets through and the missionary barrel of Christmas gifts is opened, give a realistic picture of the life of the homesteader.

Let the list begin!

Friday Five: Time Out Edition

Sally in the UK, writing for RevGalBlogPals, reminds us:

Holy Week is almost upon us, I suspect that ordained or not, other revgal/pals calendars look a bit like mine, FULL, FULL, FULL.....

Jesus was great at teaching us to take time out, even in that last week, right up to Maundy Thursday he withdrew; John's gospel tells us he hid! He hid not because he was afraid, but because he knew that he needed physical, mental and spiritual strength to get through...

So faced with a busy week:

1. What restores you physically?
Sleep. I have to remind myself to get enough, which really means going to bed at a reasonable hour. Sleeping in just doesn't work for me. Naps can be useful, but in a busy week, they normally can't happen.
2. What strengthens you emotionally/ mentally?
Reading breaks! My busy week will be coming after Easter, when Onkel Hankie Pants and I will be training for census work. It will be my first 40-hour work week in several years. I also expect it will be fun and interesting, but you know I will have a paperback in my purse to read at lunchtime!
3. What encourages you spiritually?
Thinking about the RevGalBlogPals who are actually "RevGals" and all they do.
4. Share a favourite poem or piece of music from the coming week.

Well, this is the one that has to be sung on Maundy Thursday. Another time I posted the Johnny Cash and the Carter Family version; here's another quite different, an 8,000 voice Welsh male choir. I sure do love those Welsh choirs!

But I couldn't resist adding another one; this is an instrumental version of a song I sang in my only choir experience, at the Sunday school in the fire station back in 1958.

5.There may be many services for you to attend/ lead over the next week; which one are you most looking forward to and why? If there aren't do you have a favourite day in Holy week? If so which one is it?

Actually there are just three, and I only have to attend them, no other responsibilities. Of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter, each has its special moments, but over the past many years my favorite has been Maundy Thursday. Last year I attended that service for the first time since I moved and joined a new church. It was different from what I was used to; a fairly small attendance, and a more meditative feel, less traditional. But I liked it. My problem with Easter at this new-to-me, much larger church, is that even with two services instead of the usual one, it's very, very crowded with C&E attenders, and I can expect all seven (!!!) musical groups to perform; it's one of the days when I feel more like a spectator than a worshiper. The Maundy Thursday service is just the opposite.

Deep Thoughts, or maybe not so deep

1. Maine has a relatively low price for vanity license plates, so it seems a lot more people have them here. Just now walking Rusty we heard barking coming from a car. I knew what kind of dog was barking before we got abreast of the car, because the license plate said LAB NOIR.
2. That reminds me to give you a link to a hilarious YouTube video by one of my favorite humorous mystery writers, Jeff Cohen. On the DorothyL list, we're always talking about the different subgenres of mysteries -- Jeff lays it all out for you here.
3. We just came back from a benefit supper for my 2nd cousin's husband, who was in a car crash about 3 weeks ago. They are among the many, many un- and underinsured as far as health insurance (and probably carried the minimum legal car insurance too, to save money). I wish we didn't have to have this kind of thing, but at least it was heartening to see the large number of people who attended, worked on the supper, donated raffle prizes and bought raffle tickets. This is the third such supper we've attended since we've been here -- the others were for people we knew slightly. Long lines out the door are common at these events. Everyone knows it could be them or their loved ones another time.
4. Kind of a grey, gloomy day, but then again it's 38 degrees out at 7:30 pm, I was able to walk Rusty wearing just a fleece jacket over my Norwegian sweater, and no hat, mittens, or special footgear was needed. When I hear about blizzards in Colorado, the skies opening up in Florida and Georgia, and possible flooding in Fargo, I can't complain at all about our weather here today.
5. Now it's time to go watch the remaining two episodes of Planet Earth that are on the disc, so I can review it on my other blog. I hope there is less "Nature red in tooth and claw" on these two than on the first one.
   

Friday Five: Blogroll Spotlight

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Mary Beth remarks:

"On my blog sidebar is a list titled, "Blogs I Read Every Day." After my mother became a blogger, she asked me how I could possibly read that many blogs daily!? I had to confess it then: Okay, I don't read them all every day! I have over 100 on there! But I have favorites, and you do too.Some of you probably use feed readers to let you know when your favorite bloggers have posted...not me, not yet. I just have folks who are part of my day-to-day.So for today's Friday Five, give us five blogs you visit regularly, and tell us briefly WHY you like them. These can be RevGal and Pal bloggers and others ... or news sites, knitting sites, etc. Who are you showing the love to on a pretty constant basis?Hopefully we will all get to know some new bloggy friends this way!"

Well, oddly enough, I already did a very similar post earlier this week when I got around to responding to the Fabulous Blogger award I got from Kaye, a fellow mystery-reader who blogs at Meanderings and Muses. However, there are also some other blogs I follow, so here goes:

1. Rick Horowitz and I both went to A Host at Last U, and both worked on the student newspaper. Rick pitched for the baseball team and was the Sports Editor, among other things; and a couple of years after graduation gave me a fleeting moment of fame when he mentioned my name in a column he wrote for the New York Times which was widely syndicated. He actually makes a living writing, and his trenchant remarks on politics and other current events are well worth reading. He also appears sometimes on Wisconsin Public TV, for you lucky Cheeseheads out there.

2. Julie Bowe is Onkel Hankie Pants's cousin, and has also been making a living writing for quite a while. She's published two good children's books and I think the third is not far off. I like to keep up with what she's doing -- a post a while back about making aebleskiver with her son was especially great. Hmm, both my first two choices live in Wisconsin!

3. Crimson Rambler is a RevGalBlogPal and gives us the Canadian Anglican viewpoint. I think maybe we are kindred spirits and I just love the way she puts things. I'd read her every day if she posted every day, but I know she is very busy.

4. Celeste is a friend of my elder daughter's with whom I've spent only a few hours of facetime a couple of years ago. She's currently the stay-at-home mom to "the cutest baby ever" (according to my younger daughter who got to visit with the family recently) and as always, an artist who amazes me with her unending creativity. She also sells some of her art on Etsy, which is a site well worth looking at.

5. Poe's Deadly Daughters is just one of several group blogs I read, all connected with mystery/detective fiction in some way. I chose them because I won two books in one of their recent giveaways (never let it be said I can't be bribed!) They're all good writers and they also occasionally have guest bloggers or interviews with other mystery writers. They're quite entertaining even when they aren't writing mysteries.

Thanks, Mary Beth, for this Friday Five. Many of the blogs I read and love came to my attention through other people's blogrolls!

Announcing My Second Blog!

In case anyone is interested, I've started a second blog just for keeping track of the films I see. I'll review them, too, of course. It's called Queuing Up and has two posts so far. Check it out if you have a mind to.

Can't Resist a List: Update and Comedy

Since I last wrote on this subject I've read several more books from the Guardian's list of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (It's actually closer to 1100 if, as I do, you count multi-volume sets as the separate books they are rather than as one novel.) Here's what I've added to this particular Life List:
4 of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series: The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort, Equal Rites
Jack London: The Call of the Wild
Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell): A Dark-Adapted Eye -- this was a twofer as it was also an Edgar winner for Best Novel
David Lodge: Changing Places
If I keep up at this rate I shall be well ahead by the end of the year. I've reviewed all these books on Goodreads, where I am also known as Auntie Knickers.

I had promised a list of my Top Ten favorites from each of the Guardian's categories, and now I come to Comedy. Oddly enough, although this list includes some of my favorite books, it was also one in which I had read remarkably few of the books listed. One might attribute this to the Anglo-centricity of the list, were it not that nearly all my favorites are British books! So here they are, in order of publication:

1. Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). 1889. This will be a difficult list for those who dislike or don't "get" British humour. The tale of three friends (and don't forget the dog) on a boating trip on the Thames is a true classic, as enjoyable today as when it was written. After you read this one, go get Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog -- she is a fine writer of science fiction/fantasy and I only wish she wrote faster.

2. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows. 1908. As the Guardian editors point out, "Comedy" doesn't mean that you will laugh uproariously on every page. There are certainly laughs in this lovely book, but there are also passages of astonishing lyricism (the chapter The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, for instance), loving descriptions of the English countryside, animal characters in whom we can see ourselves, and one of my favorite Christmas chapters (Dulce Domum).


3. E. F. Benson, Queen Lucia. 1920. I saw the adaptations on Masterpiece Theatre years ago and immediately had to read the books (this is only the first). Benson details social life among the wealthy provincials of Riseholme with all its teapot tempests; as ridiculous as the characters often are, we still care about them, and that is why the books are still read.



4. Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm. 1932. This is one of my favorite books of all time, in fact, I might even take it to a desert island. It parodies a certain style of book that is no longer much written or read (although The Beans of Egypt, Maine comes close), but it transcends parody. The plot? Bright Young Thing Flora Poste pays a visit to her country cousins, the Starkadders. Hijinks ensue and she sorts them out good and proper. I have to agree, you must read this book.


5. P. G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves. 1934. There are several Wodehouse books listed in the Guardian's 1000 Novels -- in fact he got his own sidebar. I've chosen this one as it is the first novel about Jeeves, and it was the Jeeves and Wooster books that introduced me to Wodehouse. I must say that one thing I enjoy about Bertie Wooster is that, silly ass though he may be, he constantly makes literary allusions (quite often Biblical, as he won the prize for Scripture Knowledge at school), and it's fun trying to identify them.

6. Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One. 1948. Before Jessica Mitford and her non-fiction work, The American Way of Death, there was Evelyn Waugh and his darkly humorous novel of Hollywood and Forest Lawn Cemetery (called Whispering Glades in the book). Very funny but will also give you many points to ponder.



7. Barbara Pym, Excellent Women. 1952. Or anything by Pym, actually. However, of the two books chosen for the Guardian list, this is my preferred volume. As are many of Pym's heroines, Mildred Lathbury is a high-church Anglican spinster, one of those "excellent women" who serve on the Altar Guild, organize the jumble sale, and show up for every special service and Evensong. Some new people come into her life and changes occur. Pym's plots are not known for high drama, but her characters are drawn as perfectly as Jane Austen's.

8. Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City. 1978. This is actually another case where the Guardian listed several books as one. Tales of the City is the first of a series about the lives of a number of San Franciscans with many different "alternative lifestyles." You'll laugh, you'll cry, you won't be able to put it down.



9. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 2003. Narrated by an autistic teenager (probably with Asperger's syndrome), is this comedy, mystery, coming-of-age novel? The narrator's voice is one of the most individual I have read in some time.





10. Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader. 2007. What if the Queen were to stumble upon the Palace bookmobile, and out of noblesse oblige, to check out a book? What if she then discovered the joys of reading and reflecting on what she read? How would it change her, and how would those around her react to the changes? This charming little book raises a number of interesting questions such as those, and is entertaining as well.