10 Titles

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Stranger by Albert Camus
 Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1 edited by Robert Silverberg

A-Z Bookish Survey

A-Z Bookish Survey

AUTHOR YOU’VE READ THE MOST BOOKS FROM:

It's a little bit embarrassing to me because I have a hard time reading his novels now. When I was 10-12, Piers Anthony was the greatest. I read 15+ Xanth books, the Tarot books, 7 Apprentice Adept books, 7 Incarnations of Immortality books, and a few standalone titles.

BEST SEQUEL EVER:

Earthquake Weather. It is satisfying as a sequel to both Last Call and Expiration Date.

CURRENTLY READING:

Empire by Clifford D. Simak

DRINK OF CHOICE WHILE READING:

Depends when I’m reading. In the morning, coffee. Before bed, I’m probably either drinking black & tan or lime seltzer.

E-READER OR PHYSICAL BOOK:

Physical book. I’ve tried and tried to embrace the e-reader and can’t do it.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL:

Um, this is a silly question. I don’t know.

GLAD YOU GAVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE:

The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington. I bought it based on the cover art. I’m still a little ashamed by its relentless naughtiness, but its emotional impact has stuck with me long after the memories of many other novels have faded.

HIDDEN GEM BOOK:

The Mystery of the Giant Footprints by Fernando Krahn

Karhn's wordless children's picture books are unjustly out of print. This one made me laugh out loud.

IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR READING LIFE:

Finding a copy of Breakfast of Champions on a table at the Center Moriches library.

JUST FINISHED:

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

KIND OF BOOKS YOU WON’T READ:

I don't know. I like all kinds. I generally avoid romance, but I'd make exceptions and read the worst looking Fabio-covered trash if someone I trust recommends it to me.

 

LONGEST BOOK I’VE READ:

Probably Lord of the Rings.

MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER BECAUSE OF:

I'm still recovering from the oppressive bleakness of Fred Chappell's Dagon.

 

NUMBER OF BOOKCASES YOU OWN:

Fourteen, not counting other shelving for books.

ONE BOOK YOU HAVE READ MULTIPLE TIMES:

Knights of the Cornerstone by James P. Blaylock. This is a current “comfort book” for me. It makes me feel good.

PREFERRED PLACE TO READ:

Bed, couch, floor, toilet. Not necessarily in that order.

QUOTE THAT INSPIRES/GIVES THE FEELS:

"And I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle." -Kurt Vonnegut

 

READING REGRET:

Unfinished series: The Wheel of Time. The Dark Tower. All 300 issues of Cerebus. I hope to return to and finish each of these before I die.

SERIES YOU STARTED AND NEED TO FINISH:

See reading regret above.

THREE OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS:

Treasure Island

Macbeth

The Stranger

 

UNAPOLOGETIC FAN FOR:

Golden Age SF

VERY EXCITED FOR THIS RELEASE:

The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction by R.A. Lafferty

WORST BOOKISH HABIT:

Spending more time reading blogs/book news than reading books

X MARKS THE SPOT: START AT TOP LEFT AND PICK THE 27TH BOOK ON YOUR SHELF:

Oversight: Short Stories 1990-2005 by Phillip Hester

 

YOUR LATEST BOOK PURCHASE:

A Hidden Place by Robert Charles Wilson

 

ZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK:

I've been reading Strahan's Year's Best 6 before bed, off and on, for months now.

READY FOR THE NEW WORLD

Now a child is the very sign and sacrament of personal freedom. He is a fresh free will added to the wills of the world; he is something that his parents have freely chosen to produce and which they freely agree to protect. They can feel that any amusement he gives (which is often considerable) really comes from him and from them and from nobody else. He has been born without the intervention of any master or lord. He is a creation and a contribution; he is their own creative contribution to creation. He is also a much more beautiful, wonderful, amusing and astonishing thing than any of the stale stories or jingling jazz tunes turned out by the machines. When men no longer feel that he is so, they have lost the appreciation of primary things, and therefore all sense of proportion about the world. People who prefer the mechanical pleasures, to such a miracle, are jaded and enslaved. They are preferring the very dregs of life to the first fountains of life. They are preferring the last, crooked, indirect, borrowed, repeated and exhausted things of our dying Capitalist civilisation, to the reality which is the only rejuvenation of all civilisation. It is they who are hugging the chains of their old slavery; it is the child who is ready for the new world.
-G.K. Chesterton, from "Babies and Distributism"