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]

I've read several titles by Ibbotson that I quite liked (adult titles - I haven't read any of her children's books). I don't think I've read A Countess Below Stairs. Perhaps I should check it out at the library!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

A Countess Below Stairs is well worth searching out. It may have been one of her first books, or if not one of the very early ones, and yet in it she displays all the charm that makes her writing unique. I'm in awe of how she makes each character unique and distinctive-- there are no spear carriers or stock players in her works.

[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.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

The one I remember particularly is the one about the woman who is a hatmaker? Can that be right?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm confused on the titles myself, but I believe Madensky Square was about the dressmaker in Vienna. The Morning Gift was WWII era, A Company of Swans was about the ballet dancer, and I know I'm forgetting others. A Countess Belowstairs was the charming post-WWI story about the Russian emigre who had fled to England after the revolution and found employment in the house of an earl, as one of the servants hired to get it ready for his upcoming wedding.

As an author she gets my highest praise in that every time I try to read one of her boooks to study her craft, I find myself completely sucked in by the storytelling instead, and I wind up reading for pleasure.