Book meme

[raincitygirl]

Gakked from eleanorb, this book meme looked entertaining. Cutting for those who find it less entertaining:

1. What is your favourite genre to read?

Pro fiction would definitely be sci-fi/fantasy (I think I own every Pratchett ever written, even the lousy ones), though I occasionally dabble in mystery novels. In terms of fan rather than pro fiction, I have a terrible weakness for fix-it fic. I love angsty canon that gets fixed with a happily ever after in fic. Even though I probably wouldn't have been interested in the canon in the first place if it were the happily-ever-after kind of movie/TV show.

2. What is the first romance novel you ever read and how old were you when you read it?

This is a multi-pronged answer:

1. When I was six, my parents started reading Pride and Prejudice aloud to me as a bedtime story, and it's been my fave novel ever since.

2. When I was seven, a friend of my mum's left behind a copy of Jilly Cooper's Octavia at our house following a visit. I picked it up, and was *fascinated*. Peppered my poor mother with question after question because of all these brand new concepts. I'm not sure if it counts as a romance novel exactly, more of a sex-and-shopping novel. It featured a promiscuous heroine (though of course she was sexually frustrated. You aren't allowed to ENJOY sleeping around) and a real dickwad of an alpha male hero. Even at seven years old I could tell he was a dickwad with seriously retrograde notions about women.

I was also very worried and disturbed at a scene partway through the book where an engaged guy Octavia has been throwing herself at decided to return her advances. She panicked, didn't want to have sex with him after all, and he tried to rape her (although the R word was not used, and indeed I doubt I would've known what it meant if it had been used). Before he could do so, he was pulled off Octavia by his returning fiancee and the douchebag hero. Both of whom proceeded to blame Octavia for provoking him instead of blaming him for not only trying to cheat on his fiancee but trying to rape someone who really didn't want to cheat with him.

I remember being vaguely disappointed when Octavia ended up with the hero instead of running off into the sunset platonically with her gay brother. Though I was intensely curious about this orgasm concept that was mentioned when Octavia finally slept with the dickwad at the end of the book. My poor mother had not been expecting to field any of these questions until I was much closer to puberty. She finally distracted me by handing me an Agatha Christie mystery novel and after that I forgot all about Octavia and her orgasms, whatever those were. Because mystery novels were squee!

3. When I was fourteen, a family friend lent me a Marion Chesney regency. Having avoided romance anything like the plague ever since the Jilly Cooper incident, I was thrilled to find that there was a genre of fluffy, funny romance books set in a glamorous bygone era. I devoured her entire back catalogue and then moved on to Georgette Heyer.

Actually, that's not true. I had avoided anything *labelled* as romance since the Jilly Cooper incident. But I was a whole-hearted Peter Wimsey / Harriet Vane shipper from the age of nine or so, whenever I was first introduced to Dorothy L. Sayers. I just didn't think of it as romance. I also didn't think of it as romance when in the Enid Blyton school stories, I rooted like hell for the two tomboy bestest friend characters to eschew distractions like boys, and open a riding school together or something when they left school.

3. How many books -- paper or ebooks -- are in your existing TBR pile?

Wince. Between e-book and real book, at least 60. I have guilt about that.

4. Do you read non-fiction? If so, from which sub-genre?

History books and biographies mainly.

5. Do you own an e-reading device? If so, which one(s)?

My iPhone, Aeryn Sun, has both a Kindle app and an iBooks app. I love them both dearly. I live in a small apartment, and at times the books seem likely to overwhelm me, so the idea of being able to buy new books without needing to clear out space on my overloaded bookshelves is enchanting. Also, with paper books, I'm constantly worrying about if they're getting crushed in my bag, that sort of thing. With e-books, no worries.

6. Which one book have you re-read most often?

Either Gaudy Night or Pride and Prejudice

7. How many library books do you have out right now?

Zero. I like to *own* books, forever and ever, if I can possibly afford to. That way I can re-read them whenever I want.

8. How do you mark your place in a book?

I don't have to with Aeryn Sun, because she finds the page I was reading automatically. With paper books, whatever comes to hand as a makeshift bookmark. Usually a receipt or a strip from a paper napkin or something.

9. About how many books do you typically read in a month?

Three, sometimes four.

10. What was the last book that made you cry?

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, when I was fifteen. I've toughened up a lot in the past twenty years.

11. What was the last book that made you laugh?

Moon Over Soho, by Ben Aaronovitch. The ambulance scene had me doubled over, laughing so hard I cried. Shame the rest of the book was so uneven, but that scene alone made it worth the purchase price.

Comments

[chaila]

Hee, your poor mom!

I just read Gaudy Night and squeeeee! It was delightful! It was my first Sayers. And now I must go and find all the Harriet Vane Sayers books! Or at least, put them on my too-lengthy to-read list. :)

[raincitygirl]

My mother was determined to have an early reader for a child, so she taught me to read at the age of three. What she failed to realize was that once the reading genie was out of the bottle, there was no controlling what I actually read. And she paid dearly for that! She was much more relaxed with teaching my younger sister and brother, possibly because she was tired of having these disconcerting conversations with kids who were much too young to understand concepts they could read.

Gaudy Night is awesome (classist, but awesome anyway). You should definitely read Strong Poison* and Have His Carcase next. They're the first and second books in the Wimsey/Vane quadrilogy, of which Gaudy Night is the third book and Busman's Honeymoon the fourth. Oh, and you absolutely must read Murder Must Advertise, because it's hysterically funny. Harriet isn't in it, but it's quite easily Sayers' best standalone novel (Gaudy Night is strong, but it really helps to have read Strong Poison and Have His Carcase first). Lord Peter goes undercover as copywriter Mr. Bredon to investigate murder and organized crime at an advertising agency. Sayers herself was a copywriter for some years before she made novel writing pay enough to quit, and she satirizes advertising magnificently.

* Be warned, Peter has some Nice Guy (TM) characteristics in Strong Poison, although Harriet slaps them down in a very satisfying manner.

[chaila]

That's awesome though. Especially since you were young enough to ask. I was reading stuff that was way above me when I was several years older than what you describe, and at the age where I didn't want to ask Mom and Dad that sort of thing.

Be warned, Peter has some Nice Guy (TM) characteristics in Strong Poison, although Harriet slaps them down in a very satisfying manner.

Yeah, I really liked him in Gaudy Night, but he wasn't in it that much. And there were still things about him that sort o hinted at this. But I don't necessarily mind that sort of thing, if it's purposeful, if it's called out and examined, you know? It's when it's unconscious, like I'm supposed to like that or find it attractive, that I find it most obnoxious. I have put Strong Poison on my list to start! Then I may have to reread Gaudy Night, once I've read the first two. What a hardship, reading books. :D

[wanderer]

Your poor mother! I think I was at least ten when I discovered Jilly Cooper, and she became a beach reading tradition over the summer - my aunt has battered second hand copies of most of her doorstop books, so there would be days when me, my mum, and my aunt were all reading, or rereading, a different one. As an adult, I wince to remember most of them... Especially the romance angles, and the gender stereotypes. Painful stuff.