I could shower and get ready for a party...

But I'm procrastinating. See below for post on showers/hatred.

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

Between Chris and I, it's John Updike- Rabbit Series and a few other of his novels. Also some David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris, loads of Ali Smith and Tom Wolfe.

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

Again, fused together Chris and I both have copies of Dave Eggers Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and Ali Smith's the Accidental.

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

No because this isn't formal, it's conversational. Therefore preposition endings are technically allowed.

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

Disappointingly, I can't think of one. But I do tend to sympathise with every lead character in a novel, whether they're a likeable protagonist or not.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?

I've read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast twice and probably the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe more than twice, but none others. I think I'm going to reread A Complicated Kindness. I read it for university 3 years ago but because it was in that framework, it seemed more a chore than pleasure although I remember really enjoying it.


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

I loved the Chronicles of Narnia but also lowbrow stuff like Wayside School.

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

Please don't assume I'm pretentious, but I usually tend to read literary fiction now and for the foreseeable future, however back when I was 16, I read the Pilot's Wife by Anita Shrieve (I think?) and that has to be the worst book I've read in recent history. Still though, it really wasn't that bad...

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

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was so beautifully written and the story was so engaging. It was rich but accessible.

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

Well I know my ladies are already interested in reading Charlotte Roche's Wetlands (from quite a few blogs past). Most already know my opinion on it, and while it decorates the vagina in an enigmatic yet engaging way, I didn't find it graphic, pornographic or raunchy. But yes at parts, I gauged.

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

I think John Updike is a beautiful writer, beit a bit misogynist. He did just die and had an enviable career. He's won the Pulitzer, let's give him the Nobel.

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

J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. He refuses to sell the film rights to the book even though it is still so relevant today and would make an excellent film (which by today's standards are few and far between).


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

A.M Homes Music for Torching. I just finished that this week and whilst it reads like a screenplay, it's good that its only distributed as a novel. If it crossed medias, I'm sure the divorce rate would skyrocket. Either that or make couples uncomfortably introspective. All that being said, it would still be a great movie but it would come with cultural weight.

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

The Road by Cormac McCarthy made me have scary dreams. The words of the book were this incendiary literary landscape, an image that I couldn't shake from my mind before I went sleep (after I had put the book down). Terrifying, but so incredible.

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

I've read a few silly books one being Iris Bahr's Dork/Whore. If you've watched Curb your Enthusiasm, Iris plays the daughter of the orthodox Jew who happens to be the head of the kidney consortium. They get stuck on the ski lift together. Essentially this book was her memoir of traveling through south-east Asia trying to lose her virginity.

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

Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. It's so rich and dense I believe in a very positive way. The religious allegory was tricky to follow and I needed to look a lot of references up and ask my parents. Plus all the controversy surrounding the novel needs to be considered. But I believe it's a long standing testament to the battle of censorship, and this book demonstrates the power of fiction. Rushdie is in my mind the master wordsmith. This book reads as if it's sliding off your tongue, like chocolate cake. Sometimes it's too rich and you need to take a break and digest.

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

I've seen so much Shakespeare (again not a pretentious admission but I was a Theatre major). I've seen Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Love's Labour Lost, Midsummer Night's Dream and have even performed in Othello.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

I value both for different reasons. I love the French because there is a certain kind of new wave philosophy surrounding all modern French literature, a joie de vivre so to speak which can be enchanting even if there's something disheartening. However the Russians have the whole tragic, love scorn, suicidal, cold, almost gothic implanted throughout. They're a tricky two to compare.

18) Roth or Updike?

John Updike. His descriptions are both poetic and realistic without ever harbouring on cliched.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

Tough call. They're such different writers I think as Sedaris writes essays versus Eggers who writes novels and memoir(s). I love Dave Eggers post-modern style, capitalising on every published page in the book and Heart Breaking Work is one of my favourites and Sedaris is so poignant and celebrates these universal truths that in turn become hilarious. I guess they both sort of do that but in very different styles.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

Not to get up onto my literary high-horse but I have indeed read and studied all three in depth. I think Chaucer is my favourite as Canterbury Tales is so provocative considering it was written in the middle ages, long before Shakespeare. Plus Chaucer was post-modern centuries before it was even a movement, even a thought process. It's a struggle to read and I had to put on a fake Scottish accent in my mind whilst reading but if you can make the effort, it's really worth it.

21) Austen or Eliot?

I've only read Jane but George seems like she was a righteous babe. She's amongst our classic literary fiction repertoire which I am slowly cracking into. Middlemarch will be read soon.

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

Margaret Atwood. She's female and she's Canadian. I grew up with the pretense set in my mind by my mother that she's a bit of a fuddy-duddy. Then when I was about 15 my mother properly read Handmaid's Tale and then she decided she actually quite enjoyed her. That's a gap I'm longing to fill.

23) What is your favorite novel?

Tough call. I'm looking up at my bookshelf and can't pick out just one.

24) Play?

So many to chose from. Loads of Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, now I'm drawing a blank but they're out there I'm sure.


25) Poem?

Funnily enough a poem by Margaret Atwood called You Fit into Me. It's very short, here it is:

you fit into me like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye

26) Essay?

Agreeing with Chelsea on David Sedaris. The hilarity certainly ensues. I can't think of a specific example but they're all terribly enjoyable.

27) Short story?

I love Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill, It's lovely and charming then has a stabbing ending. I also really love Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. Again, extremely shocking ending. Honestly, totally out of left field.

28) Work of non-fiction:

Ernest Hemingway's a Moveable Feast. It paints a literary portrait of 1920s bohemian life in Paris, hanging with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda (also an acclaimed writer whose husband stole many ideas from her...). They're all ex-pats leaving the dream.

29) Who is your favorite writer?

Very tough decision. Zadie Smith and David Sedaris are certainly both highly up there.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Kazuo Ishiguro I guess (did I spell that remotely correctly?). the Remains of the Day. Not that impressed.

31) What is your desert island book?

I'm about to tackle David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest which I'm sure would keep me entertained and engaged.


32) And … what are you reading right now?

I've just started reading Doris Lessing's the Cleft. She won the Nobel prize for this novel. It's sort of reminding me of the Giver, which I had to read in gr. 6. I'm excited to really get stuck in, I've only read 10 pages thus far.

And after that took 45 minutes, I'm not going to shower now.