Books You’ve Been … Questionnaire

I got this from the wonderful Stefanie.

Books you’’ve been planning to read for ages

War and Peace (Vintage Classics)

Les Miserables (Signet Classics)

a biography of Queen Elizabeth (you know, as in the Virgin Queen). I don’t care which one but I need it to be good (Lisa?? Recommendations?). I have been meaning to read a biography on her since … 1991? i don’t know – forever – I just have never gotten around to it.

Books you’ve been hunting for years without success

I tracked down The summer sleigh ride, and that is probably the most obscure book from my past that I wanted to find, and did. Yay!

Recently I just tracked down 2 other old favorites – I remembered nothing of one of them except the title: SARAH AND KATIE. 2 good friends. They’re in 5th grade. Something bad happens that drives them apart. It’s awful. They get back together. I do not know what it was that I so loved about this book – there’s something about a school play … but I have never ever forgotten how I adored that book – and I just tracked down a used copy for 20 cents on Amazon. I can’t wait for it to arrive!!

The other perennial favorite of mine is a MARVELOUS book called Into the Dream – with which my brother and I were absolutely obsessed when we were kids. (Read some of those reader reviews. So many of them say: “This book got me started reading.” Or “I was totally obsessed with this book.” Or “20 years after reading the book, I still remember it vividly.”) I HIGHLY recommend it to this day. Great book – for kids and adults. Anyway, I just bought my own copy. I thought I had one, but apparently I do not – Brendan has one, I know that.

Oh – and it was my mission for many years to track down all of Max Shulman’s books. (This was before I really discovered or even freakin’ knew how to use Amazon. I’m behind the times.) I write about my love for Max Shulman here. I now have them all (thanks, Dad!) But when I was bound to look for books only in bookstores – I just despaired of the lack of Max Shulman, I despaired that he had gone out of print.

Books dealing with something you’re working on at the moment

Hm. Working on? I’m not really working on the French revolution – but it seems to be where my interests are leading me now. Marie Antoinette: The Journey, The French Revolution: A History (Modern Library Classics), A Tale of Two Cities … it appears to be a theme.

I’m not really working on Shakespeare currently either – however I have given myself a course of study for 2007, which I am hoping will serve me later this year. I just bought Shakespeare After All, on the strength of the introduction – so fun, so … NON scholarly – It’s a fan’s reading of Shakespeare – so anyway, I’m gonna read every play (I’ve already read them all – but now it’s going to be all together) … in “chronological” order (estimated, anyway) and – follow along with my new Shakespeare book (each play has its own chapter). Anyhoo, this is my plan for 2007. I have already begun! But that’s the general syllabus.

Books you want to own so they’ll be handy just in case

Hmm. I’ll copy Stefanie. The OED.

Books you could put aside maybe to read this summer

Hm. Should I read Les Miserables this summer? To go along with my French Revolution theme? I am overwhelmed by the thought – but maybe that’s what I should read this summe

Books you need to go with other books on your shelves

I’m a collector. Not really of NICE books or first editions (at least not yet) – but if I’m into an author I need to have all of the books. I am haunted by my missing The Virgin in the Garden in my Byatt collection. I’ve got them all but for some reason I lost my copy of that book (and I love that book). Every time I peruse all my Byatt titles, I think: Hm. Need to get Virgin in the Garden. They all need to be together.

Books that fill you with a sudden, inexplicable curiosity, not easily justified

Any book that has to do with:

— Charles Manson
— mass murderers
— cults
— Central Asia

Books read long ago that it’s now time to re-read

I’m kinda in the process of doing that right now. Just re-read Tale of 2 Cities. And now I’ve started Gulliver’s Travels as well. I adore the first chapter of that book – where he finds himself tied up by the teeny people. You kinda just can’t stop reading that book once you start.

Books that if you had more than one life you’d certainly read but unfortunately your days are numbered

I hate to contemplate this. There is so much I haven’t read.

I somehow fear I may never get to In Search of Lost Time– which I certainly feel like I MUST read. Not just because I “should” but because I think I would love it.

Oh – and any multi-volume biography of anyone. Or any of the collected letters and papers of all of those guys I adore. I know that there are volumes of Jefferson’s papers out there – volumes of John Adams’ papers – and I just … I can’t read them all. I can read SOME and I already have … but I can’t commit to an 8 volume biography of anyone.