Book Meme, Continued

[selenak]

23. Made to read at school.

Well, a lot of those, actually, but I suspect the question aims at books I probably would not have touched otherwise, so, say, Lord of the Flies is out. (That was the first book-ordered-by-school which I not only read but read immediately because kid!me was stunned, shocked and thrilled; I was just at the right age to recognize a lot of the school story/stranded on an island patterns turned upside down.) Well, there was no book I had actually hated while reading. I mean, I wasn't too keen on Hermann Hesse's Unterm Rad, which is very depressing (student's spirit is systematically crushed by school and society), but also very short. After having to write three essays in a row about Homo Faber by Max Frisch (you might have seen the film version, titled Voyager in English, starring Sam Shephard as the world's least likely native of Switzerland) for my various younger relations (come on, you're the one who is good at literature! etc.), I was heartily sick of the book, but I was okay with it before that.

Oh, I know! Something from my university days. Die Angst des Tormans beim Elfmeter by Peter Handke. (English title: The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.) Had to read it for a seminar on German literary mystery novels. Hated it on sight, never stopped hating it. Dreary dreary dreary, awful characters, and it put me off Handke long before he started fanboying Slobodan Milosevic.

24. Hooked me into reading.

No such thing. As in: since I had loved the books my parents and grandfather read to me or told me stories from during my early childhood, I started reading as soon as I could. Karl May's Winnetou (first volume) was one of the earliest books I read, sure, but not the only one, and I can't say it made me read more than any of the others, though I certainly imprinted on it in other ways. (Apaches good, white settlers not so much, drunken cowboys are the worst, enemy-to-best-friend stories rock, and so forth.) But given I had enjoyed hearing the stories so much, there was never any question to me as to whether or not I would also enjoy reading them.




1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or tv tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Second hand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite Fictional Father
16. Can’t believe more people haven’t read it.
17. Future classic
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite Cover.
21. Summer Read
22. Out of Print.


25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

My French classes had to read far too many plays by Quebecois playwright Marcel Dube, whose usual theme is “protagonist rebels against their strict Catholic upbringing, makes a bid for happiness, fails utterly.” Actually, that seemed to be the theme of pretty much *all* the French-Canadian literature we read, which is a pity, because there’s apparently at least one French-Canadian work out there whose theme is “infighting among rival drag performers.”

[selenak]

That does sound like a far more entertaining theme. :)

[trobadora]

Well, there was no book I had actually hated while reading.

I totally envy you that! OMG, I hated Effi Briest so much. Not the book's fault, of course - that teacher could have made anything an awful experience - but it took me forever to stop flashing back to that class whenever poor Effi was mentioned.

[moon_custafer]

At least Le Grand Meaulnes wasn’t bad, though it didn’t really end happily for anyone, either; and Jeanne, Fille du Roy was basically a Harlequin Romance that happened to be set in seventeenth-century New France.

[kalypso]

Ah, The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty. Never read it, I confess.

[selenak]

You didn't miss anything, believe me.

[selenak]

*can't resist* Arme Effi, du hattest zu den Sternen zu lange emporgesehen.

Anyway, an awful teacher really can damage or ruin something, that is true. I just lucked out re: books at school in that regard. Had to go to the university before really hating a book I had to read...

[moon_custafer]

Oh! Wuthering Heights! I hated that one!

[selenak]

I didn't, but tastes differ, etc.:)