litlover12

I got this from a message board, and modified it a bit. The idea is simple: Suppose that for some reason you had to pare your library down to 25 single volumes, plus 1 series. You're allowed to read other books, but these 25 (plus 1) are the only books you're allowed to keep or to reread.

(The original meme said 20 books plus 1 series, but that would be inhuman. I think there's something in the Geneva Convention about it.)

You can put the series anywhere in your list, but mark it with an asterisk.

Here are mine . . .


( The indispensables )

So, I'm dying to buy The Paris Wife and The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. But before I do, I really need to read some of the following, all currently on my shelves:

The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824. Beethoven's Letters. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Charles Dickens. Knowing Dickens. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities and the French Revolution. Martin Chuzzlewit. Sketches by Boz. Mr. Dick or The Tenth Book. The Master's Cat: The Story of Charles Dickens as Told by His Cat. Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens's Artist Daughter. Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey. A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg. All but My Life. Sala's Gift. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The Complete Saki. Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker. Walking on Water. Fly Fishing with Darth Vader. The Great Typo Hunt. Studies in Words. Reading Like a Writer. Mockingbird. The Glass-Blowers. Hide My Eyes. London Refrain. Full Dark House. The Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton.  Havah. Almost Heaven. Resurrection. The Heart of the Artist. The Control Freak. Why Grace Changes Everything. God Hides in Plain Sight.

And that's not even all of them.

I need professional help.

New meme:

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

Here are tempestsarekind's questions and my answers:

1. Would you rather hang out with Shawn or with Gus?

I have to say Shawn. Now, I would feel safer with Gus, because he doesn't pull quite as many insane stunts (at least not without giving them careful thought beforehand). But life with Shawn would always be fun and exciting and never dull!

Also, if I hung out with Shawn, I could shake the stuffing out of him and yell, "What are you DOING with Abigail, you dolt?? Juliet is totally the girl for you!"

2. I have not yet seen any of the Sayers adaptations, but I've gathered that there are in fact two separate series. Which one should I watch?

If you watch only one, it should be the one with Ian Carmichael. I kind of hate to say that, because Harriet Walter is such a great Harriet Vane in the other series. However, Edward Petherbridge is too languid as Lord Peter. Carmichael gives him more energy and just plays him as a more multifaceted character in general. I always say that Petherbridge had the right look and Carmichael had the right personality for the role, so together they would have made the perfect Peter Wimsey. But if I have to choose just one, I choose the one with the right personality. And then, I think the Carmichael series is a little more faithful to the spirit of the books and the characters.

3. Related question: What is your favorite film/miniseries adaptation? It doesn't have to be the one that you think is most *successful* as an adaptation--just the one you love most.

That tends to change. Right now I think I love Little Dorrit most. Of course, I haven't seen nearly as many adaptations as most of my LJ friends, which makes me feel quite ignorant. But maybe I'll manage to catch up one of these days.

4. Who is your favorite female character in Dickens?

Miss Betsey Trotwood, because she is made of pure awesomeness. She's strong and kind and funny and she strikes back against the forces of evil, whether they happen to be represented by donkeys or Murdstones!

(Now, if I had to choose a favorite Dickens heroine, it would be Amy Dorrit. She has that core of strength under all her quietness, and she knows what she wants and holds onto it no matter what.)

5. Aside from 19th/early 20th-c. literature, do you have another favorite period?

Ah, there you have me. I gave that a lot of thought last night, and every time I thought, "Well, I like this group of authors," they all turned out to be from the 19th and 20th centuries. :-) I like isolated authors from different time periods (e.g., Dante, Shakespeare), and I like reading history from various periods (especially Tudor history), but as far as literature goes, it seems to be just the one period. However, some of my favorites do extend all the way into the mid-20th. Some members of the group that one of my professors called the Oxford Christian Writers -- Lewis, Sayers, Tolkien, et al. -- were writing well into the '50s. And I have a great fondness for many of the early New Yorker writers, especially Dorothy Parker and James Thurber, who also were still going in mid-century. So that's about the best I can say for myself on that front!

So if anyone wants to be asked five questions about yourself, leave a comment saying "Resistance is futile!"