BBC Literacy Questionnaire

[viscousmemories]

At least a dozen of those books were required reading in grade school, so this is biased against us dropouts.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by Megatron

btw, am I the only one who will read for a while then just STOP for a year or two before I pick up a book again?

No. It took me two years and three attempts to finish Brothers Karamazov. Did Crime and Punishment in one go though.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

At least a dozen of those books were required reading in grade school, so this is biased against us dropouts.

Yeah...One of the things I wondered about was, if the average Brit has read only 6 of these...do they not assign any of these as school reading? If they do, like American schools do, how did so many Brits get out of reading so many pieces of literature.

And...I just realized that Henry Fielding is not on that list. I spent entirely way too many weeks of my sixteenth year reading Tom Jones to think that it would be left off that list, while The Da Vinci Code is included.

[LadyShea]

Only two books on that list were required for me (and I graduated from the college prep program even), To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

[Qingdai]

The only thing I think I've noticed about that list is they might be considered important if you were British and had to pick up cultural references. That's the only explanation I can think of for including so much Dickens, Bridget Jones and the Davinci book.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Ladyshea

Only two books on that list were required for me (and I graduated from the college prep program even), To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

Damn where'd you go to school, Alabama?

[godfry n. glad]

Really...No Shakespeare?

[Qingdai]

We read mostly excerpts in high school, so none of those books were required. Just bits of them with all the juicy parts knocked out. Also unless you majored in English, it was rare to get required fiction reading.
Unless you took anthropology, then we read works of fiction from the area we were studying.

[Megatron]

Heh, school was the only reason I even attempted The Great Gatsby... I had to use cliff notes (and got a D because of it) because that book was seriously fucking horrible.

[Qingdai]

Yet I read it for fun, and to see how he portrayed his wife.

[LadyShea]

We read Romeo and Juliet my junior year, but that's not on the list. I had to read The Mosquito Coast (excellent) in 9th grade...not on the list. I had other required books, but can't remember them because I didn't like them. In elementary school we could read any Newbery Award winners.

Maybe some areas have modernized their required reading lists?

And I went to school in Colorado, Buttmunch

[Megatron]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Buttmunch

[Celsus]

1 Pride and Prejudice
2 The Lord of the Rings X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy X
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare: X
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret MitchellX
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy X
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy X
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini X
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie X
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute X
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables — Victor Hugo X

Total: 48

That list is so American/British biased. Oh well.

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Damn. Frank Herbert (6), Arthur C. Clarke (5? 6?), Asimov (6-7?) Dawkins (6), Amartya Sen (economist - 4), John Gribbin (7?). I think it might be Gribbin. It's not really fair if you like a series and go and get the whole lot by the same author. I have a shitload of books, at least for my age :/

2. What book do you own the most copies of?

The Bible; I've got 4 or 5 I think.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

No but I wouldn't do it myself.

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

I think the last character I secretly was in love with... hrm was when I was a young teenager so I'll not try to answer that :p

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?

The Bible

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? Sorry…I don’t remember any.

Narnia chronicles, probably Prince Caspian or The Horse and His Boy of the lot

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?

I don't tolerate bad books, I'd never finish one and I'd be able to tell before I bought it just from browsing.

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year?

The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins

9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?

The idea revolts me.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

100 Years of Solitude, Marquez

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

100 Years of Solitude, Marquez (I fear they'd butcher it)

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

I once dreamt I was Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress. When I reached the River of Life opposite stood the dazzling brightness of the city of God. My parents and brother got into the boat but I couldn't bring myself to do it. The bright light turned out to me my dad turning the lights on in my room to wake us up for school. I was 8. I never ever did get on that boat.

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?

This is a trick question to show what elitist snobs we really are right? Well hrm, I tend to appreciate even the worst in a book and don't think I've come across anything I'd really call 'lowbrow'. Hm do tabloid magazines count? Oh oh I know, I thumbed through a tribute 'book' to Michael Jackson that had so much pictures and so little text I'd read the entire thing cover to cover in 15 minutes in a bookstore. God forgive me if I can't remember the title.

14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read?

Probably all of Kant. Or maybe Rorty. They both suck.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?

I've only watched pretty mainstream Shakespeare plays. Probably The Tempest.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

In what respect? I'd rather having someone French knocking on my door in the dead of night than a Russian, unless it was Anna Kournikova I spose.

17. Roth or Updike?

No idea

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

No idea

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

Milton

20. Austen or Eliot?

Eliot

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

Dickens. I just find him boring.

22.What is your favorite novel?

Dune, Frank Herbert

24. Poem?

Farewell to Youth, Siegfried Sassoon

25.Essay?

The Author and his Interpreters, Umberto Eco

26.Work of nonfiction?

The Selfish Gene, Dawkins

27.Who is your favorite writer?

I have none. Maybe Chinua Achebe or Frank Herbert

28.Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Hm. Rick Warren?

29.What is your desert island book?

Dune

30.And... what are you reading right now?

I'm reading about 3 different books right now. Contemporary Conflict Resolution (Miall, Woodhouse, and Miall); Postmodernism, Economics & Knowledge (Cullenberg); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?: Africa and China (Ampiah and Naidu); Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security (Duffield)

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Megatron

Heh, school was the only reason I even attempted The Great Gatsby... I had to use cliff notes (and got a D because of it) because that book was seriously fucking horrible.

But it was so short!

For school I had to read The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Not on the list were A Separate Peace and Julius Caesar. I never had to read Catcher in the Rye, so I never did. Is it any good?

[Sock Puppet]

Not particularly. Mildly interesting in its use of unreliable narrator, but it's sort of a proto-Emo yarn for the most part. Sensitive kid tries to cope with various emotional defense mechanisms, all of which fail to differing degrees. It doesn't seem like he learns much from any of it. The end.

[Ensign Steve]

Wow, no wonder my already depressed friend got even more depressed during that semester.

[Adam]

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Do comics count? Because...uh...in that case it would be either Chris Claremont or Larry Hama. I read a lot of X-Men and G.I.Joe when I was a kid and I still have them all in longboxes somewhere.

If comics don't count, then it's probably Stephen King. The Dark Tower books alone put ahead of most of the other authors on my shelves.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?

Probably Good Omens. Between losing and lending, I've bought this one three or four times.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

No. Prescriptive grammar rules make me want to punch someone in the throat.

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

I assume this is books only? I had a thing for Eowyn when I read LotR in high school, partly because she was badass, but I think mostly because she was being set up as the love interest and then I got to the end and WHO THE FUCK IS ARWEN???, so I felt badly for her being hooked up with Faramir as sort of an afterthought. Casting Miranda Otto for the movie didn't do anything to discourage me.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, probably.


6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Probably whichever L'Engle book I had most recently read at that age.



7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?

The Sunrise Lands, S.M. Stirling. If your once engaging sci-fi series is starting to get stale, just genre morph it into hack fantasy, what could go wrong?

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year?

Anathem, Neal Stephenson. Or maybe The Gone Away World, Nick Harakaway. I feel almost guilty that all I read lately is fiction.



9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?

If I'm being given the ability to to force people to read things, I'm writing a religious tract instructing them to give me all their worldly possessions.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

I'd love to see China Mieville's New Crobuzon on the big screen, but I doubt that anyone in Hollywood can be trusted to make a decent Perdido Street Station film.

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

Does it matter? It's not like anyone is going to force me to see it.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

I once dreamed that I had to escape a ruined library in a post-apocalyptic world on a bullet train running along a double helix railroad track , taking the last male child, last female child, and all the books I could fit in the cab with me, so as to restart the human race and preserve knowledge. Does that count?

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?

I dunno....probably some of the hack fantasy.

14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read?

Probably The Golden Bough. It's fascinating, but huge expanses of the text are just catalogs of very similar myths and rituals from around the world. I fell asleep in the library with my face in this one a couple times.


15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I have never seen a Shakespeare play.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

The French have better food, but the Russians will mail me a bride if I give them my credit card number. Advantage Russia.


17. Roth or Updike?

Don't care.


18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

I don't even know who Eggers is.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

Chaucer.

20. Austen or Eliot?

Eliot, although Austen, like most things in life, is greatly improved by the inclusion of zombies and ninjas.


21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

I dunno. I haven't read a lot of the classics, I guess. I have a hard time getting into fiction from certain eras, because the dialogue always sounds forced and made up.


22.What is your favorite novel?
Various.

23. Play?

I don't care for plays.


24. Poem?

Various.

25.Essay?

People have favorite essays?

26.Work of nonfiction?

Probably The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins.

27.Who is your favorite writer?

Various

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Hell if I know.

29.What is your desert island book?

The Complete Works of Shakespeare. For a desert island you want a big, thick book with lots of pages to use as kindling.

30.And... what are you reading right now?

haw haw haw

I'm not actually reading anything right now, although Michael Polan's The Botany of Desire is on my coffee table daring me to pick it up.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Celsus

Frank Herbert...Dune, Frank Herbert...Frank Herbert...Dune

[Megatron]

Originally Posted by Adam

20. Austen or Eliot?

Eliot, although Austen, like most things in life, is greatly improved by the inclusion of zombies and ninjas.

[Watser?]

Here's my part two. There are some stoopid questions there. Oh well.

1. What author do you own the most books by? Terry Pratchett, no contest. Not even if I count comics.

2. What book do you own the most copies of? Why would you have more than one? I do however have 2 copies of 1984 and Animal Farm as I have them separately and as a part of the collected works of Orwell. Oh and there are some books I have in Dutch as well as English.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? No, whatever.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Can’t think of anyone. I am sometimes while reading a book, but not long afterward.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)? No idea.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? No idea.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year? Dunno. Probably tried so hard to forget that succeeded.

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year? Guns, germs and steel, probably.

9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be? No idea

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie? The Koran.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character. Can’t think of any. Don’t think I ever had any.

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult? The Da Vinci Code?

14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read? Also Sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? Never seen any.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians? What kind of a stupid question is that? I have read quite a lot of the 19th century Russians though, like Gogol, Dostoyevski, Chekhov. So them I guess.

17. Roth or Updike? Haven’t read any of either.

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Never heard of Sedaris. Started A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Beauty by Eggers and found it wanting, didn’t finish it. So, neither?

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? I have read Canterbury Tales, never finished any Shakespeare, never started any Milton.

20. Austen or Eliot? Read neither.

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? I guess that would be our own national poet Vondel.

22.What is your favorite novel? I really like Beggars in spain by Nancy Kress, I should reread it to find out if it was really as good as I remember it.

23. Play? Don’t really read those. Well, except Waiting for Godot.

24. Poem? Don’t really read poetry. I have an album by John Cooper Clarke though.

25.Essay? Ehm…

26.Work of nonfiction? I loved The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages by Norman Cohn. I’m planning to reread it soonish.

27.Who is your favorite writer? I really like Terry Pratchett, but I dunno about favourite writer. I suppos he will have to do.

28.Who is the most overrated writer alive today? I thought Wild Swans by Jung Chang was one of the most badly written books I ever read. Considering the number of people who recommended it, I guess she is/was.

29.What is your desert island book? I saw liv give the perfect answer to that. That one.

30.And... what are you reading right now? Reading 3 at a time now. Bein el-Qasrein (Palace Walk) by Naguib Mahfouz (reading that in Dutch), The Dark Side of the Sun by Terry Pratchett and Controlling the State by Scott Gordon.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Ladyshea

And I went to school in Colorado, Buttmunch

Well then it's no wonder. I've never even heard of Buttmunch, Colorado.

[Janet]

I've decided upon reflection, and figuring out what literary character I am secretly in love with, to do the second half.

1. What author do you own the most books by? I was going to say either Tanith Lee or Robert Rankin, but then I remembered my complete works of Guy de Maupassant. I'd have to go home and actually count to be sure which of the three it is.

2. What book do you own the most copies of? Either The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Dracula or Alice in Wonderland. I know I have three each of Shakespeare and Alice, but I might have more Draculas if I didn't give them away.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? No

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? This should specify literary characters, but I'll assume that's what they mean. I am in lust with Dracula, but that's no secret. In love would have to be Tanith Lee's Cyrion, at least I fantasized about him quite a bit when I read the book.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)? The first 6 of the Chronicles of Narnia. I stopped reading The Last Battle after my twelfth time, and stopped counting on the other six when I hit fifteen.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old? Either D'Aulaire's book of Greek Myths or Greek Myths by Coolidge, or the third one whose author I can't remember. I checked three books on Greek mythology out of the school library once each spring and once each fall every year I was in elementary and middle school.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year? Nothing leaps out at me as having been horrible this year.

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year? Probably Necrophenia by Rober Rankin, only because I'm not sure if Revengers Tragedy was more than a year ago and it's a play.

9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be? Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. That woman seriously needs to write a new book before I resort to begging and weeping in public.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? If Hayao Miyazaki made Fox Woman I would die of happiness.

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie? Any Alan Moore comic or graphic novel that has not been tarnished yet.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character. Too many to remember. I have countless weird dreams every night.

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult? I guess it would have to be the porn book a friend gave me because the title was "Janet, Librarian". Best joke gift I've ever gotten. I'm still impressed that she found it.

14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read? The Tale of Genji, but only because I hated the main character so much that I had to stop reading it. All he did was seduce women, dump the women he had seduced and whine about the women he failed to seduce. And he was supposed to be the cream of manhood? No, thank you.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen? Henry VIII, but only half of it. It was a really unpleasant experience. First off, I had a terrible bout of stomach trouble throughout. Then someone collapsed about 15 minutes into the play and the director stopped the actors while they got a doctor. And the usher didn't want to let me out to go to the bathroom during the delay. On top of that, it's a poor and boring play, so we left at intermission.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians? French, definitely. I'm an Anglophile yet somehow my favorite poet is Baudelaire and my favorite author is Guy de Maupassant.

17. Roth or Updike? Neither

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? Also, neither, though I should vote for Sedaris because he's spoken at the American Library Association conference.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer? Shakespeare, I am an unrepentant Shakespeare-geek and have been since the age of nine.

20. Austen or Eliot? Austen

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading? No Dickens. I really should do something about that.

22.What is your favorite novel? Battle Royale is the best novel I've ever read, but I doubt I'd ever want to read it again.

23. Play? Richard III, no question, if Fahrenheit 451 came true, I would be Richard III.

24. Poem? I really love The Dark by Byron, or anything from Les Fleurs du Mal

25.Essay? Probably something by Baudrillard or Barthes.

26.Work of nonfiction? It is so hard to choose, perhaps Myths and Their Meanings by Max Herzberg, or The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters or, if cookbooks count, The Village Baker's Wife by Gayle Ortiz or Year of the King by Antony Sher. See, too many to choose from.

27.Who is your favorite writer? Guy de Maupassant

28.Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Neil Gaiman

29.What is your desert island book? The Chronicles of Narnia box set

30.And... what are you reading right now? Weekend Wodehouse, but I am waiting for a book of Tanith Lee short stories from Amazon and I will dump Wodehouse like a used rag when it gets here.

[lisarea]

I just realized I left off at 16, so in the interests of making Chuck scroll moar, here are the rest of my answers:

17. Roth or Updike?
Updike

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Probably Eggers, but I don't love him.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
MILTON! I fucking love Milton.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Assuming that's George Eliot and it's a question about lady novelists, Austin. If it means T.S., then him.

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I have no shame. Except for not finishing Ulysses, I guess.

22.What is your favorite novel?
Today, I think it might be Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun. Other days, it might be 100 Years of Solitude or something else.

23. Play?
I used to read plays, but I haven't for a long time. I think I'll say Ubu Roi just to be a douchebag.

24. Poem?
If Paradise Lost counts, then that. If not, maybe The Wasteland or The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, but that might just be because I'm thinking about Eliot because of that other question.

25.Essay?
Maybe Civil Disobedience or something by Buckminster Fuller. Can't decide.

26.Work of nonfiction?
I will think of an answer after I hit poast.

27.Who is your favorite writer?
Sometimes Marquez, sometimes Rushdie, sometimes other people.

28.Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I don't know. I guess that Dan Brown guy.

29.What is your desert island book?
Ulysses. I'll finish that motherfucker yet!

30.And... what are you reading right now?
Nothing, really. I just finished Redemption by Nathan Winograd, and I have recently started to read William Gaddis' Agape Agape and Zadie Smith's On Beauty, but I don't remember where I left the former, and the latter's been sitting untouched on the nightstand for a few days.

[ChuckF]

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Nabokov.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin by George F. Kennan because I keep finding copies for a quarter.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Definitely not Dolores Haze.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
1984. I used to read it every summer.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
?

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
One of those Brian Herbert Dune sequels.

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Probably The Great Fear of 1789 by Georges Lefebvre. I know, non-fiction nerd itt.

9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Lolita or Master and Margarita. I offer a choice because of benevolence.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Zamyatin's We. Inexplicably unadapted.

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Stupid question.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
No.

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Probably that dumb shit Dune prequel.

14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Tempest.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Sophie's choice here.

17. Roth or Updike?
Eh, Updike?

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer but only in Middle English. Else Shakespeare.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Eliot.

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
The 19th century.

22.What is your favorite novel?
Lolita.

23. Play?
Hamlet.

24. Poem?
Pale Fire. I was the shadow of a waxwing slain by the false azure in the windowpane.

25.Essay?
Um, there are some foundational essays in post-communist politics that I like, but weird.

26.Work of nonfiction?
Oh gosh.

27.Who is your favorite writer?
Nabokov.

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Cormac McCarthy.

29.What is your desert island book?
A la recherche du temps perdu, yes, in French. I can build a house of it, or it will drive me to suicide.

30.And... what are you reading right now?
High Noon in the Cold War: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis by Max Frankel.

[Qingdai]

1. What author do you own the most books by? [/I]
David Foster Wallace

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
The Book of the Subgenius because I keep finding copies for free!

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
I save my love for real people.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
The Annotated Alice.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
That Madeleine L'Engle book, A Wrinkle in Time.
7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year? Malinche by Laura Esquivel.

8.What is the best book you've read in the past year?
World War Z

9.If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
The Dictionary of the Kzars. I'm mean.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
My Childhood by Maxim Gorky. I don't know why.

11.What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
No clue.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
As I said, real people maybe characters, not so much.

13.What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Harry Potter
14.What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
The Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, because it was long and became hard to keep track of all the characters.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Taming of the Shrew.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
French

17. Roth or Updike?
Updike?

18.David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Austen

21.What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Well, I haven't read any Dickens, but I don't think there is anything I'm embarrassed by.

22.What is your favorite novel?
The Anvil of the World.

23. Play?
The Ruling Class.

24. Poem?
What Happens to a Dream Deferred. By Langston Hughes
25.Essay?
Politics and English Language by George Orwell

26.Work of nonfiction?
Right now, "The Omnivores' Dilemma."

27.Who is your favorite writer?
Just one? Bah.

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Just one? Bah. Pick a modern popular series.


29.What is your desert island book?
Complete works of Mark Twain.


30.And... what are you reading right now?
Not a damn thing, I keep running out of books.