Because I found myself inserting my own answers to these questions when I read Lu's responses over at Regular Rumination. I left off the final section, as I've already answered those.
Which author do you own the most books by?
Virginia Woolf is the clear winner here, with 21 books.
Which book do you own the most copies of?
I have a French and an English copy of Proust's A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (translated as Within a Budding Grove) - hopeful thinking that I'll ever be fluent enough to read it in the original! I also have two copies of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: one's a fancy illustrated edition and the other's a Norton Critical Edition. Oh, and I have an extra copy of Conrad's Victory, but the second copy is an old paperback with cover art by Edward Gorey, which I keep meaning to send to a former professor of mine who collects vintage paperback editions of modernist novels.
Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Yeah, a bit. I know it can be technically correct to end a sentence with a preposition, but to my ear, most sentences sound stronger if they don't end in prepositions. I think it's because the reader is left thinking about the content of the sentence, rather than its structure. For example, I'd prefer "Which author has the largest presence in your library?" The reader is left with "library," which is a much more satisfying concept than "by." Or, farther down, "With which literary character are you secretly in love?" leaves me with "love" instead of "with": so much more powerful. But I recognize that it's just my personal preference.
What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I'm not too strong on either end of the chronological spectrum - I've never read The Aeneid, and until about three months ago I had never heard of Neil Gaiman.
Which fictional character are you secretly in love with?
David and I are listening to Sarah Waters's The Night Watch right now, and I have a crush on her character Julia Standing. I think it's that upper-class British androgyny.
Which book have you read more than any other?
Probably either Mrs. Dalloway or Jane Eyre. Although if we're counting audiobooks, then the Jim Dale-performed Harry Potter series would utterly eclipse anything else, as David and I listen to them compulsively and have for years.
What was your favorite book when you were 10 years old?
I'm so bad at remembering the chronology of my childhood...at seven, the Anne of Green Gables books were my favorites, but I think by ten I was probably in my sci-fi phase, reading a lot of Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game? Maybe something like that.
What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
If I genuinely don't like a book, I don't finish it. But in December I read Matthew Gregory Lewis's classic Gothic pot-boiler The Monk, which was TERRIBLE in a thoroughly enjoyable, hilarious, page-turning kind of way. I highly recommend it, actually, but only if you have a sense of humor and an appreciation for the grotesquely clichéd.
What is the best book you've read in the past year?
True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey. Astounding.
What is the worst book you've ever read?
The book I hated the most of any in recent memory was Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook.
If you could tell everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons.
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Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I love both literatures, but if pressed I'd go with the French, primarily for Céline, Camus, and Colette. And Beckett, who was Irish but wrote in French.
Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
What, are you kidding me? Shakespeare!
Austen or Eliot?
I love them both utterly. But if I had to choose, it would probably be Austen.
Roth or Updike?
Bukowski.
David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
A warm bath.
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What is your favorite novel?
Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, although of course it's impossible to choose.
What is your favorite play?
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. An obvious choice, but it's so delightful. "I am greatly distressed, Aunt Augusta, about there being no cucumbers, not even for ready money."
What is your favorite short story?
Eudora Welty's "The Winds." It's not very well-known, I don't think. It's stunning.
What is your favorite poem?
It's so hard to pick. I think it's between Theodore Roethke's "The Lost Son" and H.D.'s "Other Sea Cities."
What is your favorite epic poem?
I think Pope's The Rape of the Lock is endearing and hilarious.
What is your favorite non-fiction?
My favorite non-fiction? Of any sort? It's like comparing apples to existentialism.
What is your favorite essay?
By far, without question or rival, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
What is your favorite graphic novel?
I haven't read enough of them to say.
What is your favorite science fiction?
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I adored it.
What is your favorite fantasy?
The one where I time-travel back to 1924, and I go shopping in London and buy a cream-colored, lace-trimmed flapper dress and a big matching sun-hat, and then wander around Bloomsbury and E.M. Forster sticks his head out an upper-story window and invites me in to tea. (Just kidding! It's Harry Potter.)
What is your favorite memoir?
I don't read much memoir, but my favorite non-fiction with elements of memoir would be William Vollman's Rising Up and Rising Down, which is a series of essays about the role of violence in global society, with case studies from around the world, gleaned from his time as a war correspondent.
What is your favorite history?
Maybe Judith Ulrich's The Age of Homespun, which examines early American history through the lens of specific, everyday artifacts like spinning wheels and unfinished stockings. Extremely thought-provoking!
What is your favorite mystery or noir?
I love surreal mysteries where little is cleared up at the end, like Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.
Who is your favorite writer?
This may come as a shock, but...Virginia Woolf.
Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Well, I haven't read ALL the writers alive today. But I can still say, without a doubt, that the answer to this question is indisputably Harold Bloom. I even made up a limerick about him once. It begins "There once was a privileged white male / Who discoursed on Hamlet at Yale."
What are you reading right now?
Roberto Bolaño's 2666 (obsessively, hungrily); Andrey Kurkov's Death and the Penguin (amusedly, in fits and starts), J.M.G. Le Clézio's Ourania (slowly).
Great answers--especially the ones concerning Bukowski, Céline, and that boring pedant Harold Bloom! By the way, I've got an aging, garish purple and white Grove Press edition of "The Monk" that I've been moving back and forth about the country for the last 15-20 years. I'll get around to reading it one of these days, your attack on it be damned!
Amazing! How long did it take you to answer all these questions and did you have to resort to your bookshelf to answer them?
Richard: After your charmingly snide review of Suetonius, I eagerly anticipate reading any thoughts of yours about The Monk. "Garish" is the perfect descriptor, for cover & innards alike!
Cynthia: Oh, an hour or so. It was a pleasant way to unwind after a hellish week. I looked up the exact cucumber line, but otherwise everything was pretty much off the top of my head. :-)
Good grief. That was so interesting! You really do live, eat and breath books don't you? That gave me so much to think about... and there's so much there I've not experienced. Would you believe I've read not one single piece of writing by Virginia Woolf? Eeek!
I have a copy of "Mrs. Dalloway" that I keep picking up and looking at, and then putting off for later. Knowing that it's one of your favorites makes me think I'll actually read it this month! Also, "The Importance of Being Earnest" needs to be pushed closer to the top of my TBR pile. Thanks for this fascinating list! :)
Oh Sarah, you have a treat awaiting you with The Importance of Being Earnest! I always take it down from the shelf when I've been having a rough day, and it never fails to cheer me up.
Margaret, I can well believe you've never picked up Woolf. I actually hesitate to recommend her to people, because some folks despise her work, although I love it. You might want to give her a try, though!
Hi Emily, Where do you recommend starting with Eudora Welty. I've been meaning to read her for some time.