Book meme! Day 27
Oct. 2nd, 2010 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwYes, I know that the 30-day meme is taking me something like 3 months to finish. I accept my own procrastination.
Not necessarily *embrace*, but accept.
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
I used to say that if a book contained "bad-ass near-sociopathic women with magic who occasionally kill folks" then I would absolutely read it. Unfortunately, I recently read a book that contained exactly that... and I hated it. It had so many of my favorite things! Great world-building, political intrigue, borderline-sociopathic hit-girls with style... and yet, no.
Books that contain griffins (or gryphons, or griffons - I'm not fussy) are an almost instant win for me. Frankie! set my interest way back in childhood, and then there's the excellent short story by Frank Stockton, The Griffin and the Minor Canon (and I just found out yesterday that there is a Maurice Sendak illustration of this, and I want it!). Also, of course, there is Diana Wynne Jones with the perfect Dark Lord of Derkholm and the extremely charming Year of the Griffin.
Griffins as lead fantasy characters tend to be a safer bet than dragons - all of the majestic size, magical strangeness, and fabulous impossibility - less of the heavy epic fantasy freight. (When dragons are set in a different scale they can be quite wonderful - Tea with the Black Dragon is one of my very favorite books.)
It used to be true that if a book contained girls dressed up as boys, I was almost sure to want to read it. This probably started with Beth Hilgartner's A Murder for Her Majesty, and continued through the Tamora Pierce Alanna books and on into Georgette Heyer with The Masqueraders and These Old Shades. Bloody Jack was the turning point for me there - nowadays I tend to prefer that girls have their adventures while being open about their female identity - as Jacky Faber does in her later books. I think this is partly just a factor of my age though - and partly because books where girls are dressed up as boys to have their adventures tend to be books full of exceptionalism - books where the girl-dressed-as-boy is the only girl getting to have any fun. Nowadays I want a world where lots of women and girls get to be part of the action - one is not enough.
Romance novels with assassins will almost always get me to pick them up, but fantasy novels with assassins are iffy for me.
For picture books, I'm a sucker for (not necessarily together): the moon, monkeys, pirates, robots, pigs, elephants, hippopotami, alligators (anthropomorphized only), and witches.
Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now
Not necessarily *embrace*, but accept.
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
I used to say that if a book contained "bad-ass near-sociopathic women with magic who occasionally kill folks" then I would absolutely read it. Unfortunately, I recently read a book that contained exactly that... and I hated it. It had so many of my favorite things! Great world-building, political intrigue, borderline-sociopathic hit-girls with style... and yet, no.
Books that contain griffins (or gryphons, or griffons - I'm not fussy) are an almost instant win for me. Frankie! set my interest way back in childhood, and then there's the excellent short story by Frank Stockton, The Griffin and the Minor Canon (and I just found out yesterday that there is a Maurice Sendak illustration of this, and I want it!). Also, of course, there is Diana Wynne Jones with the perfect Dark Lord of Derkholm and the extremely charming Year of the Griffin.
Griffins as lead fantasy characters tend to be a safer bet than dragons - all of the majestic size, magical strangeness, and fabulous impossibility - less of the heavy epic fantasy freight. (When dragons are set in a different scale they can be quite wonderful - Tea with the Black Dragon is one of my very favorite books.)
It used to be true that if a book contained girls dressed up as boys, I was almost sure to want to read it. This probably started with Beth Hilgartner's A Murder for Her Majesty, and continued through the Tamora Pierce Alanna books and on into Georgette Heyer with The Masqueraders and These Old Shades. Bloody Jack was the turning point for me there - nowadays I tend to prefer that girls have their adventures while being open about their female identity - as Jacky Faber does in her later books. I think this is partly just a factor of my age though - and partly because books where girls are dressed up as boys to have their adventures tend to be books full of exceptionalism - books where the girl-dressed-as-boy is the only girl getting to have any fun. Nowadays I want a world where lots of women and girls get to be part of the action - one is not enough.
Romance novels with assassins will almost always get me to pick them up, but fantasy novels with assassins are iffy for me.
For picture books, I'm a sucker for (not necessarily together): the moon, monkeys, pirates, robots, pigs, elephants, hippopotami, alligators (anthropomorphized only), and witches.
Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now
