A Bookish Meme

A little over a month ago, Barbara H tagged me in a bookish meme. And now that I’m back to blogging (easing my way back in, apparently :-P), I figured it’s high time I answered Barbara’s questions!

Do you remember the first book you read or really liked?
I don’t remember the first book I read, but I do remember the first book (er…series) I was completely obsessed with. I LOVED the Little House books and read them dozens of times when I was maybe 7 or 8. I remember my older sister and I lying on the floor in our room, reading the Little House books in the thin crack of light that came in from the hall after our bedtime.

How did your love for reading come about (grew up in a reading family, a certain book captivated you, etc.)?
I suppose it’s because I grew up in a reading family. My mom was a voracious novel reader and, although I don’t know if I ever saw my dad just sitting and reading a book that wasn’t the Bible, he was all about information and was always looking up soemthing in an encyclopedia or dictionary. I was maybe four or five when my grandma bought us three different sets of Encyclopedias: a Children’s Encyclopedia, the Compton’s Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia Brittanica. We loved those – for reference, sure, but also for reading (the “cows” article and the “American Indians” article in the Compton’s Encyclopedia are wrinkled and stained from much love from a pre-adolescent Rebekah.)

What is your favorite genre to read?
Right now, it appears to be nonfiction of the practical sort: how to make curtains, how to raise a reader, how to have a baby, etc. But I’m not sure that’s really a genre. I’ve historically been pretty eclectic, but have fallen into something of a rut over the past couple of years – one that I’m aiming to get out of with my reading resolutions.

What genre do you avoid reading?
I’ve often said that I avoid reading “genre fiction” – science fiction and fantasy, romances, westerns, mysteries. But that’s not quite accurate. I love C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, both fantasy series. I read Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances rather often, and Christian romances not infrequently. I have recently very much enjoyed reading a couple of Agatha Christie mysteries. So maybe westerns are really the only genre I really and truly avoid?

What is your favorite movie based on a book?
The A&E miniseries of Pride and Prejudice. I love the book – and the movie’s reliance on dialogue from the book. I love the period costumes and dancing. I love Elizabeth as played by Jennifer Ehle and Mr. Darcy as played by Collin Firth. Really, I love it.

What’s your least favorite movie based on a book?
Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley. Skipping entire plot lines while spending five minutes of precious screen time on a lovesick Elizabeth mooning on a swing? Ugh!

What is your favorite time and place to read?
I don’t know that I have a favorite, unless maybe in bed before a nap on a Sunday afternoon. I do most of my regular reading while marching in place to music between sets of weights in my living room.

Are you in any “real life” book clubs or discussion groups?
My church has a monthly book club that I participate in. We read mostly fiction, but the occasional nonfiction item as well. Since I don’t read a whole lot of fiction, the club helps me to broaden my horizons.

How many bookcases do you have?
I have five full-sized bookcases and three half-sized ones. I only have two of the full-sized and one of the half-sized currently set up and full, since we’ve decided we’re going to do things right and brace our bookshelves before we fill them here at Prairie Elms (and we haven’t done so with the basement ones yet.) Of course, that’s not counting the shelves full of library books in our entertainment center.

What is a favorite quote about books or from a book?
It’s a bit hard to pick favorites… but a quote that I come back to frequently is from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Thanks, Barbara, for tagging me in this – it’s so fun to talk books!

1 thought on “A Bookish Meme”

  1. I’m glad you were able to participate! I loved looking through encyclopedias when I was young, too – I think we had the World Books. I loved the A&E Pride and Prejudiced, too. I didn’t totally hate the Kiera Knightley one, but I did get frustrated with it, especially that it had the family looking and acting unkempt (awful hair, animals roaming in and out of the house, etc.). They may have been “cash poor” and unconventional, but they weren’t “backwoods.”

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