Literary memememememememe

memememememe swiped from Kirsty


1) What author do you own the most books by?

(Because of how prolific she is) Margaret Atwood

2) What book do you own the most copies of?

Sylvia Plath - Ariel

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

Ha, nope. I am the anti grammar.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

None that I can think of. Plenty I'd like to go for a beer with though.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)?

The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway so I can remind myself the writing I aspire to.

6) What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?

I may have been 11 but I remember thinking "My darling, my hamburger" by Paul Zindel was the hippest most happening book ever written!

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

Depressingly there are so many. Reviewing books means I have little say in what I get sent to read, and 9 times out of 10 it's a bit rub. However, I'm too polite to trash other writers. Usually.

8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

Thoroughly enjoyed Curtis Sittenfeld "American Wife". Lovely to read a book that wasn't a struggle at all.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?

The Trick is to keep breathing Janice Galloway

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?

Margaret Atwood? (I'm agreeing with Kirsty who was agreeing with someone else!)

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

None. I usually loathe books turned into movies.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

All of ‘em. See above.(This is Kirsty's answer, I'm just gonna keep it for me too!)

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

Well, I dreamt that I had the answer to a dilemma I had with my novel. It was to have all the characters wear a different coloured hat. That was odd, and I wrote a blog post about it that I can't find at the mo, and then wrote a flash piece, that has had a couple of rejections.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?

A hideous chick lit frothy thing that I reviewed.

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?

You know, that's an odd thing to define as its entirely personal. I struggled with Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, and found it strange because I usually gulp her words down.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?

I have seen plenty of the big ones, none obscure.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

Russians.

18 ) Roth or Updike?

My uniformed pick would be Updike, though I have read more Roth.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

Dave Eggers

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

Shakespeare.

21) Austen or Eliot?

Eliot.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

Oh, my gaps are huge and far too numerous to mention.

23) What is your favorite novel?

The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway (who'd have guessed eh?)

24) Play?

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

25) Poem?

Les Murray "The Last hello's"

26) Essay?

I don't have a favourite essay.

27) Short story?

Impossible to choose. Something by Lorrie Moore probably.

28 ) Work of nonfiction?

Again, impossible. A juicy biography? Something by Germaine Greer? A staggering work of heartbreaking genius by Dave Eggers?

29) Who is your favourite writer?

Janice Galloway.

I have a holy trinity of Janice Galloway, Lorrie Moore and Ali Smith. I also adore Douglas Coupland, Dave Eggers and Charles Bukowski.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Ian McEwan. Fucks sake people, stop buying him.

31) What is your desert island book?

I suppose the Collected Works of Shakespeare for length. Or, being a writer and it all being about me me me a blank notebook and pen so I could attempt to stay sane.

32) And… what are you reading right now?

I am reading One More Year by Sana Krasikov.