thursday Jan 22 book meme - FINALLY!

Here it is, the meme I've been seeing everywhere and trying to find some time to do....somehow the blowing snow and it being Friday night and the dentist being over, I can finally do this!! This is from Eva at A Striped Armchair:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? The Kite Runner I think the subject matter is boring - I really hate the idea of servants and novels of friendships between the classes. Ugh! I know it is politically relevant now, and illustrates Afghanistan culture and life about which we know almost nothing here in the West, but it doesn't interest me.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be? Thurday Next, from Jasper Fforde's series. I love her! Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She is so lively and always full of opinions and ideas, and she's clever. No dinner party would be boring with her! the last person I'd love to bring alive is Mendoza from 'the Company' series by Kage Baker. She is outspoken, intelligent, and brave beyond belief, and in love with a man who reincarnates each time she shifts time. Her perspective on time and willingness to love each time is inspiring. I would hope to have either an afternoon tea or go on a cruise with these lovely woman characters, it would be fun and engaging discussion and lots of laughter, I think. And we could watch the men!

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Hmm....anything by Charles Dickens, unfortunately. I want to like him, I love the BBC productions - Bleak House this past summer was riveting and was my must-see programming - but every time I pick up one of his books, I start yawning and there is so much description that I yearn for action!!!

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
My entire Victorian Women in Literature course, I'm sad to say. I couldn't get through any of the books......yet I passed with a B, so obviously I learned how to read the first and last bits and listen to what the professor said in class! Now, of course, I occasionally think I might like to read George Eliot - see Middlemarch on my classics/chunkster reading challenges...

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
No, I've actually had the opposite problem - I go to read something I think I haven't read, and it turns out I have! I'm not boasting; I can't remember reading a book thinking I already have read it, only to find out I hadn't. I'm sure I did when I was younger, but now that I keep lists, I find reading simpler!

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
I'd have a selection of books to reccomend, depending on what they like to read - for mystery, Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, and Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt, Ian Rankin - Black and Blue; for science fiction and fantasy, Dune by Frank Herbert, and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip, for fiction: Bridget Jones Diary (it's so funny and what I call brain candy) by Helen Fielding, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and yes, anything by Dan Brown - depending on if the VIP was male or female - and/or Diana Gabaldan. I really think that in this case, as with anyone I meet, I would try to find out first what they've read, and liked, so I would have a good idea of what to buy them, but the above (except for the last two) are my standbys and some of my favourites.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Swedish. Alot of my favourite mystery writers are Swedish, and i would love to read the works in the original language.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick? Hands down, Persuasion. I already read it at least once every two years.......

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I think it's the challenges - they have inspired me to increase my reading. It helps so much to see there are people reading more than I do out there, because in my circle, I'm the bookworm, and yet I don't read nearly enough to satisfy me. The Blogging community has helped me read more, and to think about reading, and books, and the meaning of reading and the pleasure it gives me. I love that so many other people are reading and talking about books, too.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
My ideal library is a house filled with books. Ideally, I have a large room that has three walls filled from top to bottom with shelves, and the fourth wall has two or three large windows for natural light. I have reading chairs with lamps and tables (for tea, cookies, meals, to pile books) beside each chair, and at one end of the room, there is a fireplace set into one of the walls - with bookshelves set all around it- before which is a long sectional sofa, so that my family and friends can gather and talk. Neat ladder things, as Eva says in her blog, oh yes, so that I can get up to the top shelves! The floor is hardwood - everything is natural wood, the shelves are a light green, and there are carpets scattered about for warmth and colour. Some of the shelves do have pictures, but mostly it is books - new books, hard covers, soft covers, some are used copies because they are out of print or I'm collecting an older print series......it is a room devoted to reading and books! As you can tell, I already spend alot of time imagining how soon can I make this room a reality in our house! Plus, there would be bookshelves in every room of the house, but the bathroom.