Revenge of the Book Nerds

A couple of writers and readers whose blogs I frequent have been answering a book meme (something to displace what they should be doing, obviously. Ask me how I know this.)

So I thought, you know, I can displace as well as anyone. So here goes:

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Besides myself because my publisher sends them to me? Mmm, probably Tony Hillerman. Or Jane Donnelly. I have collected sets of both. I think, actually Jane D wrote more books. But they're both definite faves.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
I have too many books to own mulitple copies of any except by accident. Ye gods, the mind boggles. I do have, by accident, two copies of The Structure of Cornwall if anyone is interested in the other one. Just let me know.

3. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

Luke whose last name I can't remember from Lisa Gregory's The Rainbow Season.

4. What book have you read more than any other?
Persuasion, I think.

5. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The 13th is Magic by Joan Howard which I wrote a blog piece about a couple of years back. It's still a wonderful book.

6. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
The worst book I read is one I am sure I didn't finish, so I'm not even talking about it.

7. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Any of the C S Harris books about Sebastian St Cyr. They were all dynamite reads. Also the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik. And Joanna Bourne's Spymaster books.

8. If you could tell everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton. It's readable, has a compelling albeit reluctant hero, and it captures a sense of American history and self-identity in a short space.

9. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Maria by Jorge Isaacs, because most of it was about the jungle (or if it wasn't, God help me) and I didn't have the vocabulary because it was in Spanish, and I hate reading description and skip it in English, but there was no way to skip this. So I plodded through. But I didn't enjoy it.

10. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Neither.

11. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer?
Not Milton. Shakespeare probably, though what I've read of Chaucer I've liked. I was a Spanish major. Ask me about Cervantes or Pio Baroja.

12. Austen or Eliot?
Is there a choice? Austen, hands down.

13. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
All of Stephen King, Jane Eyre and Silas Marner and The Mill on the Floss. And if you consider it an embarrassment -- which I'm not sure I do -- the Russians and the French.

14. What is your favorite novel?
Oh, there are too many. Persuasion, probably. But I think Jane Donnelly's Behind a Closed Door ranks right up there.

15. Play?
Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr.

16. Poem?
The one about James James Morrison Morrison by A A Milne.

17. Essay?
Any of the ones in Jean Kerr's Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Or most anything by Corey Ford.

18. Short Story?
I don't read a lot of them, but I used to find good ones in the women's magazines my mother subscribed to. I can't remember the authors, though. And Corey Ford wrote some good fishing and hunting ones in my dad's old Field and Stream mags.

19. Non Fiction
The World We Have Lost, by Peter Laslett

20. Graphic Novel?
Dunno.

21. Science Fiction?
The Temeraire books by Naomi Novik, and Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey.

22. Who is your favorite writer?
Hard to limit it. How about Jane Austen, Tony Hillerman, Elmer Kelton, C S Harris, K M Peyton?

23. Who is the most over rated writer alive today?
That's a matter of opinion.

24. What are you reading right now?
Rumour Has It, by Jill Mansell.

25. Best Memoir?
Seldom Disappointed, by Tony Hillerman.

26. Best History?
The World We Have Lost, by Peter Laslett.

27. Best mystery or Noir?
When Serpents Sleep by C S Harris.

Now I need to get back to working on Demetrios. He needs help and if I'm not there to give it to him, no one is. Seb will be here Friday to blog.

And I will be blogging on the I Heart Presents blog tomorrow (Thursday). Please stop by and say hi or ask questions.

If you want to do the Book Nerd meme, I hereby tag you. That means you, especially Kate Walker, who has finished her book, but probably doesn't have many brain cells left to do anything really creative.

Just cut and paste and fill in the blanks. And link back so I can go read your answers. Maybe I can find more books I want to read. More displacement. Poor Demetrios.