book meme

[42itous]

Some may have noticed that I try to stay away from memes, but I've been tagged! by eetmewithtoast so I must proceed accordingly.

1) I own about 120 books, ballpark.

2) The last book I bought was How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and How to Listen So Kids Will Talk

3) I finished rereading A Separate Peace earlier this week, and immediately wrapped it in the Sunday comics and mailed it to Ijpe, wherever he is.

4) Five books that mean a lot to me:
1. The Riverside Shakespeare (it's two volumes, but I could have bought it in one so it counts as one)
2. Many Moons, by James Thurber
3. Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney
4. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
5. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

And I'm supposed to tag five people, but I figure if you want to catch this meme from me, you'll help yourself.

Comments

[nubianamy.livejournal.com]

I love Miss Rumphius. =)

Books

[sphillips.livejournal.com]

I grew up with Riverside Shakespeare. My mother still has it. :)
Cryptonomicon is pretty good, but read Snow Crash and The Diamond Age if you haven't yet...also try Ilium by Dan Simmons, I think you'll like it...and Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. :) Oh, and the Dragonriders of Pern, of course. :)
I could go on for days...

-SP

Re: Books

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's funny. Snow Crash was too fast-paced and gratuitously mean for me, and The Diamond Age was really good except for the last 50 pages or so, which I hated. Cryptonomicon's ending wasn't impressive, but at least it didn't suck (fizzled out instead of tanked). The reason I liked Cryptonomicon, I think, is the way he combines historical figures with vague folk legends (Bobby Shaftoe) and pure fabrications so that you can't quite tell which is which. I also think that Stephenson has finally learned how to make a character accessible to the reader (I didn't care about any of the characters in Snow Crash, and only the title girl and her brother in Diamond Age).

Thanks for the recommendations. :)

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

I love Many Moons, and am always surprised that no-one has heard of it; I used to think it was a book like Winnie-the-Pooh, that everyone was exposed to in childhood. I haven't tried to come up with a personal list of 5BtMaLtM, but if I did, Many Moons is definitely a good candidate.

I saw an opera made from this Many Moons a few years ago. It worked quite well in that form, though I still prefer the original.

[(Anonymous)]

I absolutely loved A Prayer For Owen Meany.

If you don't mind my asking, who are you? I see from your userinfo that you're part of the NPL...

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

That last comment was me. Sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't logged in.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

My nom is 42itous. I live near Boston. We sort of met at last year's con. We were in the same group to learn to solve flats, and then on the Sunday we both went on Eric's "witch hunt" (walking tour of the North End).