Chocolate-munching Day

[taotrooper]

And a happy Friendship Day to everyone, even if that's an addendum for us who don't have a couple and don't want to feel left out :D

This day has been lousy IRL, so since the only two novelties in my life are that I started a Princess Tutu rewatch, and I'm obsessing with Pokémon again (but that's for another post, I'd say), have a book meme instead.

1) Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

2) What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
I'm currently with Runemarks by Joanne Harris, which I'm enjoying a lot. I'm also selective-rereading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (mostly the Leo-centric parts). The last book I read was Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. By this, you can conclude I'm in a LOL NORSE MYTHOLOGY BUTCHERY phase, right? :'D
The next one will be either The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or a Chrestomanci book. Or retake American Gods to follow the LOLNORSE trend, or continue my Percy Jackson reread. IDK, I have a lot to choose from recently.

3) What book did everyone like and you hated?
Anna Karenina, bleh. Also Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea, which was slumber-inducing. I think most of the books I hate aren't universally liked? XD I have read some books I was pretty indifferent by the end or thought they were good but overhyped by my friends, but it's not haaaaate. But now that we're at it, HOW THE FUCK IS KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS A CLASSIC? UUUUUGH OH MY GOD I LOATHE THAT BOOK.

4) Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
The Iliad LOL j/k Probably Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes because I'm too lazy. Maybe an abridged version for children?

5) Which book are you saving for "retirement"?
Who the fuck saves books for retirement?

6) Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
Sometimes I peek a little. Guilty.

7) Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
They're interesting for the related people. I don't think they're a waste (actually, it's sweet when they thank people) but I don't care much for them either.

8) Which book character would you switch places with?
Considering most of my books are YA, fantasy, or adventure where Shit Gets Real very often, I don't think I want to switch places with anyone in my books :'D I'm too much of a wuss.
INB4 OMG SOMEONE DOESN'T WANT TO BE LIZZIE BENNETT. Welp nope, I don't really crush on OOOOOH MISTER DARCYYYYYYY.

9) Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings remind me of my first uni.

10) Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
The weirdest thing is my mom's shelves when I was little, sorry.

11) Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Unless ebooks count, no.

12) Which book has been with you to the most places?
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I always have a copy in some legible language next to me.

13) Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
Sorry, they still suck. If anything, I think I've grown to dislike the ones I enjoyed. I apologize to García Márquez but I groan at his name now in retrospective.
I do want to reread short stories of Horacio Quiroga to see if they get creepier or lulzier years later.
(As you see, my school was all Latin American Authoooorrrrrrssssssss at us, which I hated because I haven't read a lot of universal classics because of that.)

14) Used or brand new?
Brand new. I rarely find books I like in second-hand bookstores.

15) Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
I-I actually love some books of him? He has some good ideas sometimes. I wouldn't call him a genius but I don't think he's a total hack either.

16) Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
I don't read enough to say, but... The Fellowship of the Ring. Not so sure about the rest of the trilogy, but I swear to God that this one got so much improving without pages of redundant forest description. Dunno, it was just more dynamic and it spun Boromir jokes because Sean Bean's face is hilarious.

17) Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
If you're not going to get it right, don't touch anything Earthsea. The one chance to have cool fantasy POC magicians that aren't "magical negro", and you never follow. Jesus.

18) Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
I can't think of one.

19) Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
fujurpreux.

Comments

[sha-chan.livejournal.com]

Para mí siempre ha sido día de la amistad primero :D/

feliz día, Kiri :3 *reparte chocolatitos*

[sha-chan.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAH EL VIEJO Y EL MAR DDDDDX

Also ugh ugh metamorfosis DDDDx

Y I feel you con lo del Quijote o.ob

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Eso del amor y la amistad no lo añadieron hasta que yo era teen :'D *munchea sus chocolatitos*

Ugh Viejo ugh cucaracho

[sha-chan.livejournal.com]

Aún recuerdo el día que volví de leer Metamorfosis en clase y anduvimos todas 'aaah Dx' en el chan xD

♥

[fujurpreux.livejournal.com]

I actually dislike Hemingway's style so much I cringe whenever I have to read something of his. |D

HOW THE FUCK IS KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS A CLASSIC?
That's a rhetoric question, right? Because I think I could try to justify this one. <<;;

I'll ask around for a good abridged edition of Don Quijote :D/ */helpful

I agree with you about Stephen King. Several of his short stories left me wondering what in the world he was drinking, the ending of Needful Things is very baffling and then there's stuff like The Green Mile and. Yeah |'D */rolls around

I do think Horacio Quiroga is rather creepy. :O But let me know what you think once you've re-read him. :p

*/rolls around with you

Re: ♥

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I've only read that one, but sooooooo dullllllllll.

Rhetoric. But it doesn't prevent me from hating that depressing piece of giant cockroach poop any less!

I bet there is one or two between the used books my mom's cousin-in-law threw on my brothers. Just too lazy either way.

The first King book I read (borrowed, when I was a preteen) was a short story compilation, one more bizarre than the next one. There's a lot of "x is alive and trying to kill meeeeee" novels and those are dull, but I enjoyed The Green Mile and The Stand quite a lot. My favorite of him, though, is an obscure fantasy piece called Eyes of the Dragon that actually has a happy ending and is quite non-King.

He is, even more than Poe IMHO, but the jungle stories at least were amusing in a "what the fuck is he smoking" kind of way.

[fujurpreux.livejournal.com]

OMG Eyes of the Dragon :D I remember that one! With the wanna-be Rapunzel in his tower making a rope out of napkins (?) and I remember loving the concept of the wizard who doesn't make himself invisible, but only becomes unnoticeable.

...Now I want to read it again :| */bites you

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

PERO DON QUIJOTE ES DIVERTIDO DDDD=

[fujurpreux.livejournal.com]

*/co-signed.

Pero a veces hay que irlo inyectando de poquito <<;;

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Y sí, eso sí. Y supongo que siempre se pueden saltear las novelitas internas. Pero. DON QUIJOTE D=

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Y LARGO COMO LA MADRE QUE LO PARIÓ /lazy

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

PERO DIVERTIDO. ;___;

Aunque me también me gustan Quiroga y Kafka así que no me tomes la palabra |D ALGO EN LO QUE NO COINCIDIMOS OMG WEIRD.

[song-of-truth.livejournal.com]

I vote you read the Chrestomanci one next. :'D I need to acquire my own copies of those, stat, for a reread...

Wait, everyone else liked Old Man and the Sea? Huh?!

And the Little Prince! I try to collect a copy of it in all the languages I want to learn someday -- I don't have it in English and have never read it before, actually. I'm going to piece it together from my Japanese and Latin versions. ♥

I hope your tomorrow is less lousy!

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the Chrestomanci in order of release, so the next one is Conrad's Fate. I'm pretty excited because it's flashback book! But I'm not sure because I read like two-three DWJ books in a row this winter and I don't want to be burned out.

I have no idea! Most of the old classics I'm not sure if they are because people still like them or they used to one-two centuries ago.

I only have it in Spanish, English, and Galician (the local language, I don't speak it but I want to learn/practice with a book I know well). I'm sad I can't speak French or I'd read the original. Japanese and Latin sounds so hardcore!

Thanks ♥

[kirarakim.livejournal.com]

Yeah Yeah I know Elizabeth is an unoriginal answer. XD

I also didn't like García Márquez but then I only read 100 years of Solitude so maybe I am not giving him a fair shot. I really didn't care for that book though.

Part of me thinks I should read American Gods again. It was the first Gaiman book I ever read and I didn't like it so it took me a long time to read anything else by him, now I am a fan. But not for that book.

Name of the Wind however I didn't care for. It started off well and is generally well written but it comes off as typical fantasy fare with a pretty boring protagonist. A lot of people do seem to like it though so I guess that's just me.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

It's legitimate, if you like Darcy! My problem is that my book crushes would be insufferable as a love interest IRL, so I'm not sure I'd trade places with their wives(/husbands)/girl(/boy)friends/lovers/whatever.

In my school they had us reading one book of García Márquez per year (understandable, because Colombia is our neighbor country and it's the closest Big Author we have). So I read a big variety of his works, not only magical realism. I don't blame you for not getting into 100 Years because most people can't, it's just fucking confusing and redundant. I sort of liked it when I was 15, but I doubt I could stomach it again. I actually had to memorize the characters' names for the reading comprehension exam in order to pass.

I didn't like American Gods itself, but I find the setting fascinating. I'd probably skip to the parts about the gods because the main character is bland as fuck.

I've seen people either loving or disliking Name of the Wind, so I still want to check it out to see it for myself. The paperback was quite cheap for its size.

[lunelight.livejournal.com]

I agree with #16 so hard. My cycle with LOTR kind of went like this:

1) Tried to read Fellowship in middle school, made it to Bree before I had to take it back to the library.
2) Uncle took me to see movies. Loved the movies.
3) Made a bet with Uncle last year that I'd read LOTR and he'll read Harry Potter.
4) Fellowship spends six months in Rivendell because I gave up and started A Song of Ice and Fire. :|

(I'm in Moria now but not moving very quickly. LOL.)

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Heh XD I think I managed to go on because the book was borrowed and I had to return it before the owner -my uncle's neighbor's son- was back from his holidays. I'd say skip or fast-read the Blair Witch Project forest parts, and the songs too if they aren't your kinda thing.

[outou.livejournal.com]

You didn't like Anna Karenina?! For shame! ...Seriously, though, I can understand why anyone wouldn't like it. It's difficult to figure out why Anna fell in love with Vronsky, the segments with Levin and Kitty alternate between insufferable and overly moralistic (even if the morals are actually understandable and well-thought-out), and in the end Karenin inexplicably becomes a religious fanatic. What?

I, too, have a big block of Don Quixote waiting for me at home.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Yup, I agree. I get the feeling it was mostly because everyone was so... either unlikeable or too bland to form opinions. And then her dumb death made half of the novel pointless. But... yeah, I need to like at least a character in a work of fiction to get sucked in, even if it's someone minor.

Good luck with Quixote!

[lepluvium.livejournal.com]

HOW THE FUCK IS KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS A CLASSIC? UUUUUGH OH MY GOD I LOATHE THAT BOOK.

HOW THE FUCK INDEED!!! Guuuh what a god awful book DDD: Tanpoco me gustan los libros de Jane Austen, son tan aburridos T____T

"I actually love some books of him" should be "some books of his" or "his books"*shot*

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Gracias!

Eww, Metamorfosis D: Sólo he leído Orgullo y Prejuicio (Pride and Prejudice) de ella así que no puedo opinar. Me entristece que no me encantara porque todas mis amigas lo adoran (dos que hicieron el meme querían ser Lizzie, incluso), y de hecho me gustan los pairings con banter. Debe ser el ambiente OMG OMG GET MARRIED OMG que me aburrió, o que era como predecible.

Oh, una regla de spelling útil: antes de b y p, siempre va m; si no, va n. Por ejemplo: tampoco, también.

[lepluvium.livejournal.com]

Yo también sólo he leído Orgullo y Prejuicio, pero ugggh fue lo suficiente para convencerme de no leer sus otras obras. Lol oops... Pero en defensa de Austen: ella escribió sus historias con un fin predecible de propósito. Supuestamente ella estaba más preocupada con los acontecimientos entre el comienzo y el fin. Lástima que ellos no son muy interesantes XD Pero me gusta la película con Kira Knightley. Visualmente es una película linda, y me encanta el soundtrack haha.

Gracias! FUN FACT: se hace la misma cosa en portugués :3 Y ahora me siento muy estúpida aaahhhh

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

I feel that way about everything Hemingway wrote.

I've tried to read Don Quixote multiple times and I could never get past the first 15-20 pages of the book. Several people have told me it reads better in Spanish, but I don't know any so I'll never know.

The saving books for retirement question is serious wtf?

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd read anything else by him to find out, fff.

Uh. I guess it's YMMV because this was written in the 1600s. So in Spanish it's a little like reading Shakespeare in English: it is readable of course, but the language is full of old words and dead sounds and ancient pop culture references that only academics would get. Some would manage well, some would find it torture. So in English, I suppose it depends of the translation and how it adapts ye olde style? Plus, tl;dr.