Reader's meme!
Apr. 16th, 2009 06:39 pmI think I may need to apologise to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tree_and_leaf , who had barely posted her version of this one when I swooped down and bore it off delightedly. I did read her post through first, I swear (and enjoyed it besides).
1) The worst reading experience that you have ever had?
A thriller called Birdman, which I gacked off the 'New' shelf at the bookstore whilst between mystery series. The first chapter in I was already dry-heaving, but I kept going out of some vague belief that ugliness must somehow = sophisticated. I must've been nuts. Just an utterly vile string of sexual vilenesses, beginning with the random subplot in which the hero lives across the way from the paedophile who he suspects - but cannot prove - raped and murdered the hero's younger brother years ago. No, really. They trade Dark Looks over the fence each evening before bed.
2) The best reading experience you have ever had?
No question. I was ten or so, and it was the end of a long day delivering flyers for the current family business. I'd been hoarding one of the Blish novelisations of Star Trek TOS all the while; which one I forget now, only that I'd recently discovered the series, and regarded them as treasure. Shoemom had bought us candy necklaces in payment - a commodity second only to FunDips on my preteen NASDAQ - and I remember riding home in the fading light of the backseat clutching them and finally, finally cracking open the coolest book ever. Thinking to myself: 'Years from now, when you're Very Very Old, you will look back on this as A Perfect Moment.' And I became very solemn, slurping on sugar beads and contemplating the rarity of perfection. It was wonderful.
3) Which book has affected or influenced you the most so far?
The Bible. From the secular POV, probably any one of the numberless humourists I devoured as a kid. PG Wodehouse and Dave Barry especially, for making me realise it was possible to really, seriously, make someone laugh out loud with words.
( In which I reveal myself as either a bibliophile or crazy or both... )
tree_and_leaf , who had barely posted her version of this one when I swooped down and bore it off delightedly. I did read her post through first, I swear (and enjoyed it besides).1) The worst reading experience that you have ever had?
A thriller called Birdman, which I gacked off the 'New' shelf at the bookstore whilst between mystery series. The first chapter in I was already dry-heaving, but I kept going out of some vague belief that ugliness must somehow = sophisticated. I must've been nuts. Just an utterly vile string of sexual vilenesses, beginning with the random subplot in which the hero lives across the way from the paedophile who he suspects - but cannot prove - raped and murdered the hero's younger brother years ago. No, really. They trade Dark Looks over the fence each evening before bed.
2) The best reading experience you have ever had?
No question. I was ten or so, and it was the end of a long day delivering flyers for the current family business. I'd been hoarding one of the Blish novelisations of Star Trek TOS all the while; which one I forget now, only that I'd recently discovered the series, and regarded them as treasure. Shoemom had bought us candy necklaces in payment - a commodity second only to FunDips on my preteen NASDAQ - and I remember riding home in the fading light of the backseat clutching them and finally, finally cracking open the coolest book ever. Thinking to myself: 'Years from now, when you're Very Very Old, you will look back on this as A Perfect Moment.' And I became very solemn, slurping on sugar beads and contemplating the rarity of perfection. It was wonderful.
3) Which book has affected or influenced you the most so far?
The Bible. From the secular POV, probably any one of the numberless humourists I devoured as a kid. PG Wodehouse and Dave Barry especially, for making me realise it was possible to really, seriously, make someone laugh out loud with words.
( In which I reveal myself as either a bibliophile or crazy or both... )