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!

but not a great one. I didn't know what to post today, but I finished Sirens of Titan last month and I'm still thinking about it. And kinda angry. But also sad. And finally, I think I'll read it again during xmas break.

Vonnegut was one of those things I put off because for a while he seemed to be used in fanfic to signify a character was more thoughtful, more intelligent, more different, more better. IDK like a shortcut to Gary Stu and 'I'm not like those other guys, I like Vonnegut." Which dislike translated to an avoidance of the author. Similar to how Stargate Atlantis fics that had Rodney and or John acting like complete stooges for Doctor Who made me avoid that show for years. But I finally decided to dip my toe in with a co-worker when we decided to read Slaughterhouse-Five-or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death together. Then we moved on to Cat's Cradle. Then I had to take a break. I've been reading Sirens for months until it all snowballed at the end.

And wow. Just, I love this book so much.




The conversation you have with this book about religion and fate and duty is not something I think you could have with any other book. I'm not saying you'll get any answers, but the questions are what's important anyway.

a TEDEd video about why you should read Kurt Vonnegut