Me, Me, Me, Meme + Books

I blog. I read blogs. I steal things from blogs because nobody tags me for anything. So, here I am, pretending that 50 Books has tagged me with this book related meme-thing. (Her answers are funnier than mine, so just go ahead and click on the link--you'll be glad you did.)

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Paperback, because you can buy so many more of them for the same price.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…

Bentley & Bermondsey's--two great dogs who would really have liked each other if they'd ever been alive at the same time.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…

Today, it's this from Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith: "I will take you back, but there will be, and I cannot emphasize this enough, no singing."


4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…

I actually know some authors, and have had--well, maybe not lunch, exactly, but dessert, or drinks and hors d'oeuvres kind of things. I met F. Scott Fitzgerald's former secretary and his granddaughter. I've had to sneak Kurt Vonnegut out the back of a building to escape his fans (the man smoked worse than a chimney--I'm not certain he actually was able to metabolize oxygen!). I've interviewed, hired, introduced, and met socially several excellent writers. And the sad reality is that they are just people--and the ones that are the most fun to be with are the ones that are the most like my other friends. They are just people I like. So, I guess I'd pick someone who was charming and funny--P.G. Wodehouse, perhaps, or Jasper Fforde.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be…

I never answer this question right. If I was stuck on a deserted island, I'd want to bring a Target. Maybe even a SuperTarget. Although, to be honest, their books section usually sucks. I've thought that the Bible might be decent, since the good stuff is in all those books that you never read. But given my current spiritual crisis, I'd have to pick something else. Maybe an anthology of Agatha Christie books, since by the time you've read a few of them, you've already forgotten what happened in the first ones. Plus, you can read them like eating potato chips--one is not enough.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…

. . .combines audio with a regular book, so that when I have to stop reading to drive somewhere, or make dinner, or any of those things my unreasonable family seems to need, I could just switch over to audio and have the book read to me. But then when I can pick up the book again, it automatically goes to where the audio part left off. Either that, or just get full service household staff so I don't have to set the damn book down.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…

. . .going into my grandparents' basement and finding dozens of books from my dad's adolescence--dozens of books that nobody reads any more. Sad, dead books that even though I feel bad for those books, even I won't read them.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…

. . .Oh, hell, since I'm addicted to Terry Pratchett, I guess I'd want to be Susan Sto Helit--Death's granddaughter, especially in Hogfather or Soul Music.

9. The most overestimated book of all time is…

. . .I'd have to say Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I love the first chapter, and simply cannot read any farther into the thing.

10. I hate it when a book…

. . .is a waste of the time it took to read it. Those are precious hours I won't get back to read other books!