wildcard_47 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildcard_47) wrote2008-03-13 10:06 pm
wildcard_47) wrote2008-03-13 10:06 pm
meme answer #1
I know you love to read...so tell me more about your favorite authors or books (besides JKR and Harry Potter.)
Oh, what a question. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with books. Considering I’ve been reading since I was two years old, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Hm….I’ll start the list with a few of my all-time favorites and then add some of my current ones.
To begin: when I was in the second grade (yes, I do remember this vividly, LOL) my dad came home with an armful of books he’d found at a yard sale. I don’t remember all the ones he brought, but there were three sets which caught my eye and since then, have been read more times than I can count.
First, there’s the classic Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think what I loved most about this book was Laura’s travels and experiences on the frontier. Plus, the stories always amazed me because her family lived on practically nothing and was still able to be perfectly content, no matter how hard things got. I also liked the fact that Laura was really spunky and refused to take crap from anyone. That was pretty admirable. And who could forget about Almanzo Wilder, when he started taking her for buggy rides in the countryside? Like I said, classic.
The Anne of Green Gables series, by L.M. Montgomery, was also one of my favorites. It was probably my all-time favorite series, until I discovered my love of sci-fi and fantasy. I think I loved these books so much because I identified with Anne COMPLETELY. Wildly imaginative (and probably too much so?) Check. Disdainful of immature boys? Check. Anne was a writer, an actor, and a daydreamer, which made me adore her. She was reckless, too, and was always making huge mistakes because of it; I appreciated that. I didn’t want a character who was perfect, but I did want one who was happy, and who (eventually) could grow to be content with who she was, and wouldn’t change for anybody.
The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, was the catalyst which sparked my love of fantasy and science fiction. I remember we read “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” out loud in class one year; I was fascinated by the details and the creatures that Lewis had created. After that, I had to read the rest of the books; I couldn’t stand not to know the entire story. Before LWaTW, I’d read fairy tales, and had loved the magical aspects of those, but this was like seventeen fairy tales rolled into one. Plus, it was better than a fairy tale! This was complicated, and fantastical, and didn’t just revolve around a princess in a tower.
Although I was in sixth grade before I found this one, The Amber Spyglass (by Philip Pullman) is probably my favorite of all of fantasy books, save for Harry Potter. Actually, HP was the reason I stumbled onto it; my friend and I had finished reading PoA, and having no more to read, we were looking for something different. A mutual friend gave us Pullman’s books – but she could only find the last two of the trilogy. Despite starting in the middle and having no idea of the backstory and what was going on, I fell in love with the trilogy, especially Amber Spyglass. Mostly because I loved the idea of characters like Mrs. Coulter. Mrs. Coulter is nasty, but she’s not completely heartless. She’s cold, sinister, calculating, and self-serving, but she’s not your “typical” villain, because she’s got a little bit of good inside of her. It manifests itself in weird ways, and only towards Lord Asriel, the golden monkey, or toward Lyra, but it’s still there. Simultaneously, Will and Lyra, though they are “good”, have done their share of bad things in order to continue their quest. I loved how complicated the books were. They blew my mind and made me think, which made the world Pullman created so much more real.
Those are probably the most-read of my giant collection of books. For fun, I’ll toss on a couple lists of favorite books:
Wicked, My Sister’s Keeper, Pride and Prejudice, Catch-22, Hamlet, A Voice In The Wind, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Secret Garden, Sense and Sensibility, Daughter of the Forest, Rebecca….er….I recently finished Elizabeth Strout’s “Abide With Me”, which was pretty good. I think I’m going to read “Atonement” next, or perhaps pick up some Terry Goodkind again.
These authors could write grocery lists worth reading: Anne Lamott, John Cheever, Jane Austen, Maya Angelou, Dave Barry, Timothy Zahn, Bill Bryson, Sherman Alexie, Stephen King.
I’m also a big poetry freak. Walt Whitman, Shel Silverstein, Christina Rosetti, Lord Byron, Andrew Marvell, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are some of my favorites.
That enough of an answer for you?
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Lucy Maude is one of my all time faves, her characters kept me company for many years. Funny thing is, I couldn't get in to Anne the first time I tried to read it. Think I was 7 or 8 when my mom gave me the first book? I don't know what was wrong with me, but the beginning was just too slow, and I set it aside. I never put books down unfinished, so it's weird. (Had already discovered CS Lewis by then.)
Then one day I picked up Emily of New Moon, and after that I couldn't get my hands on her books fast enough.
Could comment on lots of your other picks, but I'm about to fall asleep and would end up with keyboard imprint on my forehead. Again.
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Need to read Emily of New Moon. As well as L.M.'s other books. I've been dying to do that for awhile, but our local library is pretty paltry and either doesn't have the books, or they're always loaned out. I may have to resort to buying them on Amazon (which would probably be best in the long run, anyway.)
Don't faceplant into the keyboard! That can't get you a restful night of sleep. :)
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I loved A Wrinkle In Time, but I think Many Waters (with Sandy and Dennys) was always my favorite L'Engle book.
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