Book meme

[pbray]

I was tagged by jpsorrow.

1. Total number of books owned: Unknown. I stopped counting when it was over 2,000 paperbacks, and that was more than 15 years ago. But the rate of book accumulation dropped off dramatically when I started writing. I used to buy & read 5+ books a week, now it's closer to buying 5+ books a month, and many books I buy just go to the TBR stack.

2. Last book bought: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff (recommended by jennifer_dunne) and Peoples of the Past: Phoenicians by Glenn E. Markoe were all bought during my trip to Charlotte.

3. Last book read: Peoples of the Past: Phoenicians.

4. 5 books that mean a lot to me:

If I could narrow it down to five, I wouldn't have a house filled with thousands of books, now would I? But five books that spring to mind are:

The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw. It's a vivid historical that makes that time come alive as well as a wonderfully subtle love story.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. When I read these books they were a revelation, like nothing else I'd ever read. At the time I was twelve, and I'd read the science fiction of Heinlein, Norton, Nourse, etc, but these fantasies opened a whole new world for me. For over a decade I would read them once a year, usually in the fall as the leaves started to turn.

A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. The language. The imagery. The way he makes New York come alive.

A Countess Below Stairs or almost any of the adult titles by Eva Ibbotson. She has a gift for making even the most minor of characters come alive, and making the reader care passionately about these people.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The first book I read on my own as a child, it marked the transition from books with pictures on every page to real grown-up books. The archaic Victorian language posed some challenges, so after I read each chapter on my own I would ask my mother about the words I hadn't understood, and she would explain them to me as she read that chapter aloud. After this book was finished there was no stopping me, and I read everything I could get my hands on.

Comments

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Yes, that ability to make every character have, well, character even in the smallest roles is one I really admire (and one I try to emulate). The idea that once the reader's back is turned, the character will go on about his/her own life.