Book Meme: Third and Final Part

[selenak]

35: Name a book you consider to be terribly underrated.

This and the next question always begs the addition "by whom?". There are some books completely trashed by reviews and despised by every critic which still manage to be bestsellers and loved by thousands, nay, millions. (No, I'm not going to argue for the underratedness of the Twilight novels, not least because I haven't read them. The point stands, though.) Also, this is the internet. As soon as you declare you're probably in a minority by liking X, at least a dozen people are bound to show up and declare their love as well. With all these caveats said, I'll go with Raphsody of Blood by Roz Kaveney and have just linked my review which tells you all about why it's great and should by read and reviewed by everyone.


36: Name a book you consider to be terribly overrated.

See above for the qualifiers, plus an additional one: it's tempting to go with "book I just don't like" in this category, which isn't the same thing at all. (Case in point: I never could warm up to The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, but I'm not about to declare it, or TM in general is overhyped as a writer, much as I personally have not much sympathy for him. ) My go to example for this question which happens to combine "I can't stand it" with "also I don't believe it deserves its good reputation" used to be "Die Angst des Tormanns vorm Elfmeter" by Peter Handke, which managed to became part of both my school and university canon (and I couldn't stand it either time).... but this was decades ago, when Handke was a critical darling and hadn't yet ruined his reputation by stanning Milosevic. So this one doesn't work as an example anymore, either. Hmmmm. Okay, he got the Nobel Prize just recently, and not for his recent works, either, so I'll still go with that one.



37: How many books are actually in your bookshelf/shelves right now?

Let me put it this way: the last time I moved was about 25 years ago, from my tiny student flat to my current one. Back then, the family and friends who helped me move already voiced the suspicion that my student flat must have had TARDIS like abilities on account of all the books and boxes that were necessary to transport them. I acquired a lot more books since then.

38: What language do you (most often) read in?

English on the internet; book wise, German. I read a lot of books in English, too, but still more in German.

39: Name one of your favorite childhood books.

Winnetou, volume I, by Karl May. It was literally the first novel I ever read.

40: Name one of your favorite books from your teenage years.

See the first post in this meme: The Mists of Avalon, when I was thirteen.

41: Do you own a library card? How often do you use it?

I own several, for the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek, the Münchner Stadtbibliothek, and the Bamberger Stadtbibliothek. And I use them every few weeks for leisure purposes, more often than that when I'm actively researching something, especially the first two. The last one is mostly to support my hometown library and also to have an alternative when I'm with the APs.

42: Which was the best book you had to read in school?

Oh good lord, here we go with the categories again. Look, part of my assigned canon in school included - here I'm waving at cahn - Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller and Faust (I) by Goethe. Both of which I had seen on stage before I ever read them, and was fannish already. So if the question goes for books I had not already read before getting them assigned, I'm going with Lord of the Flies by William Golding. (Also several short stories by Edgar Allen Poe in the same year.) Yes, absolutely, I was that kind of kid who reads a book that turns the adventure novel formula around to make a very dark point about humanity in general and children in particular and goes "wow". (In Stephen King's and Peter Straub's novel "The Talisman", Jack remembers how he felt when reading Lord of the Flies for the first time. I identify.) (Possibly because I was a very unpopular nerdish kid and quite ready to believe my classmates would kill me in that kind of situation, but I don't think just for that reason.)

43: Are you the kind of person who reads several books at once or the kind of person who can only read one book at a time?

I can read more than one, and started to do that at the university when reading for research purposes, which means I do it fairly often to this day. However, if I read a book just for the pleasure of reading it, I tend to be focused on this book and this book only and finish it before starting the next one.

44: Do you like to listen to music when you read?

No. I find it terribly distracting. I love listening to music, don't get me wrong, but never when I'm either writing or reading.

45: What is your favorite thing to eat when you read?

Chocolate, which isn't good for the book or my figure, so I try to limit it.

46: What is your favorite thing to drink when you read?

Tea. Any variety.

47: What do you do to get out of a reading slump?

Haven't had one yet, so couldn't say.

48: Where is your favorite place to read?

On the couch in my living room, rather unoriginally.

49: When is your favorite time to read?

Always. Up to and including when taking a bath.

50: Why do you love to read?

What is the point even if you can't?

Comments

[cahn]

Heh, I was also that kind of kid who read Lord of the Flies and was really impressed by it (not even for school!) though I could not have at all articulated at the time why I thought it was so good. Edgar Allan Poe stories just scared me, though (though I also read those earlier in life, when I was arguably not quite old enough to handle it).

(This is reminding me that I need to turn my Don Karlos DVD into a format I can watch, which I still have not done, gah. Also read Faust, which I think got stuck in the middle of my TBR pile and I need to move it to the top. So, thanks for the reminder :) )

[selenak]

Don Karlos: I have another brief trailer for you, this one from an open air performance, from 2019, i.e. in the last pre pandemic season. I'm amused that someone in the production team did their research and unearthed the historical Princess Eboli wore an eyepatch due to having lost an eye in a duel, and incorporated this, since I did as well in my story.

[cahn]

:D I especially am tickled by the letter handoff! Also ha to Eboli's eyepatch, which I'd known about before your story because when I was mainlining Verdi, one of the productions I watched had Eboli in an eyepatch (though I can't remember which one now).

[selenak]

The letter handoff is priceless. I'm reminded again of my Posa/Katte switch idea, which would involve an overcomplicated scheme of Rodrigo's in which he tells FW all about Fritz' English marriage plans by showing him the Fritz-to-Caroline letter in order to disguise the escape attempt plans.

Do tell me whether you manage to convert the DVD and watch it.