Bookish Questions

I just rediscovered a link I had kept on file where someone tagged me in a book-related meme. Thanks to Dancing Books for tagging me, and I apologize for taking so long to respond. I’m afraid I had totally forgotten about it.

According to her post, these are in conjunction with a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award, and the rules for it are as follows:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
2. Put the award logo on your blog.
3. Answer the ten questions sent to you.
4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Nominate ten blogs

I don’t usually do blog awards here any more, for various reasons, but I am doing these mainly for the bookish questions. Dancing Books’ questions for me were:

1. If you were stranded on a desert island with no hope of ever returning, which male or female character would you want to be stranded with?

That would be very hard to say, but off the top of my head, Elinor Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility comes to mind. She’s resourceful, knows how to economize, isn’t flighty, and we’re similar in personality.

2. Who is your favourite villain?

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables. He thinks he’s on the side of right. He stands for the good causes of righteousness and justice but forgets forgiveness and mercy and compassion. He reminds me somewhat of the apostle Paul who persecutes Christians because he thinks they are sinning against the God he thinks he is serving, yet unlike Paul, who is brought prostrate and converted when he is brought face to face with the truth, Javert can’t face it, can’t comprehend it, and sadly destroys himself.

3. Would you prefer to watch the TV show/movie or read the book?

Read the book. Most books take many more hours to complete than a movie, so there’s more time for plot and character development and nuance. The exception would be long classics. Sometimes they’re too daunting to read, or too wordy (by today’s standards), so sometimes a film can give you the essence of it and then help you know whether you’d want to explore the book further.

What’s your preference, eReader or physical books? Why?

Physical books – there’s so much more to the reading experience than just dragging eyes across words. However, now that I have gotten used to an eReader, I do like it a lot. I like the sheer number of books I can put on it, the free or cheap deals I can find for it, and the fact that I can search for a word or phrase. I also like that I can pull up a list of all the places I highlighted – nice for reviewing or reminding myself of them.

What is your all time favourite book? Why?

Oh, that’s such a hard question. As a Christian, naturally the Bible is my ultimate favorite – not just because it’s “supposed” to be. I love reading it and I love its effect in my life. But other than that, probably A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens or Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Though books set in France or around the French Revolution aren’t my favorites, both of these have a beautiful story line overall plus wonderful individual scenes.

Thinking about your all time favourite book, what would be good songs to listen to while reading it?

I can’t listen to music while reading, but music from the Les Miserables musical would go with either one.

Think about your favourite book again, if it was made into a movie, what character would you want to play?

I’d probably like to play Lucie Manette from Two Cities, but I’d “fit” Miss Pross better. 🙂

If you woke up and found an elephant in your back yard, what would you do?

OK, this is pretty random. 🙂 I’d call animal control and stay inside. Maybe fill up the kiddie pool with water so it would have something to drink.

What’s a funny joke related to books or reading?

Here are a few from Pinterest:

Aside from reading, what else do you like to do in your spare time?

Write, make cards, cross stitch, organize, decorate, sew…there are too few hours in the day!

Here are my ten questions for others:

1. Do you remember the first book you read or really liked?
2. How did your love for reading come about (grew up in a reading family, a certain book captivated you, etc.)?
3. What is your favorite genre to read?
4. What genre do you avoid reading?
5. What is your favorite movie based on a book?
6. What’s your least favorite movie based on a book?
7. What is your favorite time and place to read?
8. Are you in any “real life” book clubs or discussion groups?
9. How many bookcases do you have?
10. What is a favorite quote about books or from a book?

My nominees are:

1. Carrie at Reading to Know
2. Monica at Adventures in Everyday Life
3. Melanie at Simply Amazing Grace
4. Lou Ann at In the Way
5. Bekah at bekahcubed
6. Susan at Girls in White Dresses
7. Rbclibrary at By the Book
8. Lisa at LisaNotes
9. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story
10. Tori at My Home Away From Home

If you don’t like to do these things, my feelings won’t be hurt. Some love them and some don’t. And if you’d like to and, due to the limit of ten, I didn’t name you, please feel free to do them anyway or answer them in the comments if you’d rather not on your blog. Hope you have fun with them. Let me know when and if you do these and I’ll be happy to come read your answers.