The booky meme

With thanks to Barbara's Bleuggh where I first saw these questions....

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Soundings

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

Last read was John McGahern's The Leavetaking, Current read is the Davy Byrne Short Stories, lining up next is Kafka's The Castle.

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?

Can't think of any example - I don't tend to hate books really... in films I was frustrated by AVATAR - could have been amazing... but then it had a few fatal flaws that ruined it.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

Kafka's The Castle

5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"

Something with Large Print - or read out on a tape - but haven't quite decided what it will be.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Always wait

7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

I rarely look at them, unless they're very short, or cleverly put somewhere that fools me into thinking it's part of the book.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

None of em - good characters tend to have tough traumatic lives - no thanks !

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

House of Leaves - reminds me strongly of living in a messy room (of my own making) in Arklow.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

Won a copy of The Snow Princess - my first ever writing success for a short story competition as a kid.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I bought "the intimate history of humanity" for a lot of people I cared about, just thought it was a beautiful book, so wanted to share it.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

Brought the brilliant "Shantaram" with me to Brazil and Argentina. It's a book set in Mumbai - and I met a Mumbai guy, who knew of some of the main characters, in Brazil. It's the furthest travelled anyway. Don't bring alot of books out and about with me that much - probably went most places with books of childhood - babysitters series - wouldn't have left the house without a book when I was younger.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

Some of Shakespeare's Sonnets - hated because we were forced to learn them off even though they weren't actually on the syllabus. Grateful now to that English teacher - she knew what she was at.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

Bits of grass - nothing very strange.

15. Used or brand new?

New books make me giddy - especially if they have special paper - like a copy of Armageddon in Retrospect recieved as a present. Second hand are lovely too tho - and a nicer price...

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

Liked him in my teens. Haven't checked him out lately. Probably a bit of a genius of some sort - most rich people are?!? As Titus recently pointed out - he did write The Stand, before The Road was written, so he was definitely pretty good.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

The Neverending Story - though I saw the film long before I ever read the book.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

The Butcher Boy? Just remember it being a gut wrenching read, there was so much going on inside the head of the main character - it was impossible to get it all across outwardly in a film.

19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

The Road -- the bit where they found the apples - I wanted an apple.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

My reader friend is Sarah - famous from her appearance on the Sunday Scrapbook - she knows what she's talking about when it comes to books.

I don't know how or why I have those white boxes by the way - another bloggy mystery...