on book related topics

[smg01]

1. You know what would be really nice? If websites for journals would list both the names and mailing addresses for their book review editors. And if they would do so in readily identifiable and findable way. It is extraordinarily frustrating to be looking for information on where to send our books and either have it not available at all, or, have to click through 12 links just to find a simple address. This is actually pretty important information, why do so many journals have to make it so difficult to find? If they publish book reviews, then, presumably, they want to receive books to, you know, review.

2. On an unranty topic, I have a book question for anyone who might want to play along. Do you have a favorite book of all books in the world? One that you read over and over, or, is in some way profoundly unforgettable (on a positive level)? What book(s) (or book series) is it and why do you love it so?

3. Conversely, is there a book or book series that you utterly despise? One you wish that you'd never laid eyes on, much less turned the pages within? If there's one book that you could warn the populace never to read, what book would it be?

Comments

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Do you mean in literature, or in general.

Because Pride and Prejudice is my "happy place" book. I will reread it for a pick me up. Sometimes I've kept my copy at the office and read a favorite chapter on my lunch break just because. I love Austen's dialogue and how she develops the setting for the people and the world. They all seem so real.

In the same vein, I've never liked For Whom the Bell Tolls, or actually anything by Hemingway. As one friend put it Page 1: Guy is told to blow up a bridge. Page 4 hundred something: Bridge blows up. I remember having to read several short stories that were photocopied (I have no idea re copyright) for our class and a couple novels). There was only one short story in the bunch I liked--one of his bullfighting tales...turns out there was a page missing from the handout and since the page ended at the end of a paragraph I never noticed it...the last page totally ruined that story for me too. LOL

I tend to read anything I can get my grubby mitts on and scour the library, so it's rare for me not to finish something I start, but there was a book...crap he was on the best seller list and I'm blanking...Balducci maybe? I remember there's a picture of the American flag on the cover, and the writing and story were so bad, I couldn't hack past chapter 2.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

Do you mean in literature, or in general.

Either or both.

In the same vein, I've never liked For Whom the Bell Tolls, or actually anything by Hemingway. As one friend put it Page 1: Guy is told to blow up a bridge. Page 4 hundred something: Bridge blows up.

Heeee! (I've never read the book, yet, now I feel like I know everything I need to.)

Somehow I got through school without ever reading Jane Austen. I read P&P for the first time 10 or so years ago and really, really liked it.

The Hunt for Red October had a similar effect on me that FWTBT's had on you. I really liked the movie, so I decided to read the book to get the "full" story. I found Clancy's writing such a turn off that I gave up by the midway point.

On the literature front, I was none to fond of Moby Dick.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Heh, I know one of Clancy's college English teachers. He did very poorly in her class (no surprise, huh?)

Clancy was an accountant who got really into tech lingo. Red October was actually one of his better works, even if he did get really into the schematics and not the story. (And Moby Dick is another one of the technical writing, lol.)

But then in later books he turned his character into a Marty Stu (if such can happen in professional book world). One of his minor characters in um...one of his books was someone I knew in RL.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

Your icon made me laugh out loud. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

LOL. pepper_field made it, and I just had to have it as my Jack icon.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

I hucked the first Diana Gabaldon novel right across the patio. I like books, (though I can also be picky), and normally I don't perpetrate violence on them ;). Outlander came well recommended. It also turned out to not be my thing. At. All. ACK!!

As for books with good memories, there are several books from my childhood that I often reread. Most of them have horses in them, and most of them count as favorites, and I often still reread them. Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley (Black Stallion series), SHaron Wagner (Gypsy trilogy) etc etc. And to be honest, I spend time in used book stores scouring for YA pony titles I missed :D. In fact, I recently REDISCOVERED a book I read as a child, and have remembered vividly for years, it's called Cariboo Pony and it's a memoir of a real family and a real pony in the Cariboo in the 70s. I found it at a used bookstore, and when I read the first paragraph again, it brought me to tears, I was so happy!

Hmmm. But picking One Book is HARD. LOTR was, for a time that "Favorite Book" to be read and reread. Then I wrote my honors thesis on it and cured that. Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry filled in that space after that, and I still can pick it up and reread it and be filled with joy and sob and just BE in the novel. But really, I have a library of favorites that I cycle back to when I need something comfortable and soothing.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

Marguerite Henry...

Aww, Pony Penning Day, Misty, and Stormy. Now I may have to reread the MH books that I have.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

and Sea Star!! don't forget poor little orphan sea star!!

[tourogal.livejournal.com]

i had the gypsy books. my daughter won't read them. she reads other stuff, like the prequels to peter pan by dave barry and ridley pearson, the james patterson YA series "Maxximum Ride", and things like that.

[tourogal.livejournal.com]

"And the Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmeyer.

love it. its just such a natural book. it goes from 1868 to around 1920 or so, and traces the lives of the women in one midwestern town through those times. it touches on technology, life, death, births, women's sufferage, the development of the practice of medicine, the political landscape, cars, hospitals, education and education reform and more.

the downside is that it takes 1200 pages to tell the story. but i love it.