i also wish i could do pushups

[chase_acow]

Friday Five

1) What is the best book you've read?

But what does best even mean really? I readily acknowledge that I love terrible movies sometimes as long as they're entertaining. I don't know if I feel the same about books since it takes a lot more work to read a book than watch an hour and a half movie. ETA y'know, maybe the Mercy Thompson series would count, those books are like summer popcorn reading. Nothing special, but enjoyable characters doing entertaining things. I say this as someone who has reread the whole series so many times.

I'll say, The Call of the Wild by Jack London. It's got adventure, good puppies and evil puppies, existential questions about a dog's place in the grand scheme of things, and an ambiguous ending that will haunt you for life.

But don't watch the Harrison Ford movie. That is a terrible movie and it's crap.

2) What is the worst book you've read?

I couldn't think of anything, but Goodreads tells me I hated several books. The only one I still feel any kind of way about is The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia. Terrible characters, terrible plot, I hated it so much. Now I have my own issues with Lewis, but this is still the worst book in the series.

3) What is a favorite book from childhood?

The first thing that came to mind was Julie of the Wolves so between that and Call, you can tell what kind of kid I was.

4) What is a favorite book from adulthood?

Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite read-when-I-was-an-adult author - and probably Sirens of Titan but I've enjoyed all that I've read so far. They're weird and it usually takes a reread to really settle in.

5) What is a book you've read a number of times?

I will always love Pigs Don't Fly by Mary Brown. Yet another animal story, but found family, adventure, travel, a love story that is deep, and a hell of a cliff hanger all make me so pleased to read the familiar words.

would you like to vote on some icons? it'd only take a min!

Comments

[tabaqui]

Ooh, Julie of the Wolves! I loved that book. My sister had it, but it seemed like she never read it, so I just kind of...acquired it, heh. Also Island of the Blue Dolphins, which is similar. I read a ton of horse books as a kid, too, and the Laura Ingalls books and of course A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. 'The Horse and His Boy' was my favorite of the Narnia books.

All time favorite as a kid? The Changling, by Zilpha Keatly Snyder. She wrote such wonderful stories!!

I think 'best book ever' is hard - there are so many! Brideshead Revisited, Out of Africa, Flame Trees of Thika, The Flambards, The Jungle Books, Watership Down...pretty much ever Cherryh and Tanith Lee book ever.... Let's just say if I still own it, it was good! :D

[chase_acow]

Neither of my brothers read so all the books in the house were my books! \0/ I read so many Bill Wallace books since he was an Oklahoman author and wrote about animals. I also loved the Hank the Cowdog books, which are nearly as entertaining as an adult though for completely different reasons.

I love rereading books, I prefer to know how things end and then enjoy the journey without all the anxious unknowns, so I also have plenty of 'best books'.

I never did get through Watership Down though. Did you know sholio is currently doing a read along of it? Just in case you wanted to poke through the comments.

[tabaqui]

I was lucky - we were all readers in my house, other than my dad (he read the paper, but not much else). But my mom always had a book to hand, as did I, and my older brother was into lots of fantasy and sci-fi, so i got to read his Star Trek and Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books along with my own. We also had a subscription for years to the Reader's Digest books, where they would put an abbreviated edition of four books into one hardcover. I was introduced to *so many books* and authors that way.

Oh, man. I think i've read Watership down at least once, sometimes twice a year for...forty years? Love it, and love the poetry - that book made me seek out so many poets i'd have otherwise not known.

Thanks for the link!

[nyctanthes]

Hee. I only read Narnia as a kid, and was so pissed by the ending. But I remember really liking The Silver Chair. Puddleglum, right? That and The Horse and His Boy were my favorites.

[chase_acow]

Puddleglum was my downfall. And we had the BBC vhs tapes which my dad made me watch so many times. Tom Baker played Puddleglum and it was the reason I refused to watch the old Doctor Who when my friend wanted me to.

I still like parts of the series, but it is on the whole so very problematic.