Book Meme: Parts 3, 4, and 5

Part 3– The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months: Ohhhh come now, do you know how many books I read every month, let alone in a year? Setting aside the answer that will go with the next question (because I do read this title every year), I will give you a few that I've read this last year that I really liked and will almost certainly reread:

+Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce

+Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

+Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Gods by George Perez

+The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

+Four Souls by Louise Erdrich

+The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

(creepy mask is creepy)

Part 4 – Your favorite book or series ever: Aaaahhhh, the easiest question anyone will ever ask me. For some reason I have difficulty parsing what movie is my favorite (though truly it's STAR WARS), but my favorite book has been my favorite book since I was 12 or so--and that book is The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. This includes its fifth book, generally published separately, called The Book of Merlyn. My granny gave me my copy of each when I was 11 and once I read them I, so very seriously, became who I am. A big Arthur nut, a fantasy fan in general, interested in British history, and a lover of big arcane words. I read that book at least once a year and every time, I see something new in it. It gets deeper and more meaningful with each read. I never get tired of any part of it; I don't skip any chapters, even though I can quote some of them in chunks. It is beautiful and classic and moving and sad and full of anachronisms but still manages to be true today. It is the book I tell everyone to read.

Some other favorites:

+American Gods by Neil Gaiman

+The King's Peace by Jo Walton

+Howards End by E.M. Forster
+Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

+The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

+Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Part 4: A book or series you hate: Now, it would be very hip and also very true to say Twilight here, but I will desist. There are many people funnier than I who will tell you why Twilight is so rendingly awful. SO. Here I will state my loathing for Great Expectations. This is sad for me to say, because I am really a huge Dickens fan. I love Bleak House, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, The Pickwick Papers. There are few writers who could or can do what Dickens did. He's really awesome. Big hairy butt coming around the corner...he does have a few bombs, and Great Expectations is one (A Tale of Two Cities is the other). PIP! ZOMG don't you just want to kick him in the shins and tell him to stop leaving a damn margin, that that is how you piss money away? Miss Havisham is frightening to (even big) children. Estella is a spoiled brat. Magwitch is a bizarro creeper dude whose tragedy feels forced.

Guh. I just really do not like that book. It is my belief that The Two Shitty Dickens Books (as mentioned above) make kids believe that they hate Dickens, because they're forced to read these two awful ones in high school. Then, like me, they get to college and read something like Dombey and Son, and BAM they're die-hard Victorianists. Happens.