Obscurorant 2.0

Still trying to disguise the lack of original content with a meme, this time about authors, stolen from here.

1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?

Easy-peasy, it’s J.R.R. Tolkien. The first author to hold me captive through his prose.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?

In second grade I read The Black Stallion and I can remember my teacher telling me that the author, Walter Farley, had written a whole bunch of books featuring ‘the Black; and his kin. I think this was when I first started paying attention to the authors of books. I have memories of Farley’s books - I think I read his book about Man o’ War at least ten times (to my school librarian’s amazement) - but I wouldn’t call him a current favorite.

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?

Tim Powers, for his fantastical ’secret history’ novels. I mentioned Powers earlier, and I still feel you should run right out and read Declare.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?

I would call the following my immediate favorites: Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, Patrick O’Brian and Dorothy Dunnett. On reflection I’d add Hemingway, H.P. Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse as well.

5. Tagged:

You. Or anyone else who feels like answering these questions.

Submitted for your consideration: the Oversharing Meme (stolen from here). Participate if you will.

1. Name the singer/band/performer you are most embarrassed to admit you actually paid good money to see in concert.

I saw Motley Crue with Whitesnake opening. And I think I may have been more jazzed about seeing Whitesnake. Sad, so sad.

2. Which reality TV show have you watched more than once (come on. I don’t believe you if you say “none,” unless you don’t own a TV)?

None. I have a TV, but don’t have cable.

3. Which complete trash novelist have you not only read but enjoyed enough to read more than one book of his/hers?

Kenneth Bulmer, known to me initially as Alan Burt Akers. He wrote terrible, Edgar Rice Burroughs rip-off pulp fantasy novels that are great fun. I own about thirty or forty, currently residing in my folk’s attic.

4. What sappy musical could you watch over and over and over again?

I don’t know if they count as ’sappy’ or ‘classics’ but I have a fondness for Guys and Dolls and Damn Yankees.

5. Who was your first celebrity crush?

Kim Richards, as I previously confessed.

6. Who is the most embarrassing celebrity on whom you have a slight crush today?

Amalie Benjamin. She knows baseball and she has the sexy librarian thing going on. Rowr.

7. What movie that everyone else and his cousin and even his dog has seen have you never seen?

Titanic, for starters. And as The Intended was horrified to learn,  Footloose and Wargames.

Extra bonus answer: I haven’t seen Blue Man Group either. Am I the last one in the Boston-area able to say this?

8. What were you drinking the first time you ever got drunk?

Beer.

9. Which old re-run will you still pause to watch if you’re flicking through the channels and see that it’s on?

See the answer for #2. Although I would happily stop for any of the following shows that I haven’t seen in years and years:

Hardcastle and McCormick
Hart to Hart
Family Affair
The Rifleman
The Big Valley

10. What book/movie/t.v. show that only a fifteen-year-old would think is funny makes you laugh?

Laverne & Shirley. I was crushed - crushed! - to learn that there is not a Laverne & Shirley museum in Milwaukee. I had just assumed that such a place must exist. I still find the various entrances of Lenny and Squiggy laugh-out-loud funny.

Hope springs eternal, as do book memes. Found this one here, and as always, feel free to play along at home.

1. When/how did you become an avid reader?

Second grade. The school library. The astounding revelation that I could get any book about any topic I chose. So I read Guadalcanal Diary about a million times. Yeah, I was a strange kid.

2. What is your favorite genre for adult/young adult books?

I like genre in general, and read in all of them, excepting romance. Doesn’t matter if it’s an adult or YA book - it’s all about the story for me.

3. What was the most recent book purchased/given to you?

Thanks to the afore-mentioned Barnes and Noble gift card, this past Sunday I picked up a copy of Some Golden Harbor by David Drake, and A Fighter’s Heart by Sam Sheridan.

4. Which book would you like to have that you don’t own?

I’d like to find a copy of the second volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, to go along with the copy of the first volume I found at the Harvard Bookstore.

5. What book did you think you would never read, but found yourself reading it after all?

This question has rather stumped me. I’m pretty wed to my literary prejudices.

6. Which do you prefer, libraries or bookstores?

This is a trick question, right?

7. What’s the longest you’ve never picked up a book (to read for pleasure, excluding all school material - unless that’s really what you enjoy reading)?

I pick up a book daily - even it’s only for five or ten minutes in the early morning or late in the evening. I get all antsy-in-the-pantsy otherwise.

Which it’s another book meme, borrowed from this here site, and you may participate, or not, as you like.

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Which it’s another bookish meme, that I found here.

List some of your favourite words:

Cull. Aeroplane (I love the anachronism). Pockets.

What’s your favourite maxim or proverb?

Is this required to be a literary maxim or proverb? I’ve never been much for quoting proverbs.
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This meme comes to you by way of The Sheila Variations. Consider yourself tagged if such things interest you.

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Just for s. and g. here’s a movie meme I found here. Consider it open source and do it yourself, if you’d like.

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Well then there: I mention my inability to resist a book meme and zip!bang!pow! I’m tagged with a new one.

List 5 books that played and important role in your childhood and explain why. Then tag 5 others. (more…)

Have I done this meme before?  No matter - like a crow to shiny trinkets  I am drawn to book memes, especially if they be genre book memes. (more…)