30 Minutes of Books (more or less)

[jack_babalon]

featherynscale posted a 30 Days of Reading Prompt in which the poster has to entertain a rather bored and psychotic young sultan by reading to them a new book every night for the next month or else they'll be execu... hang on I'm being told I'm thinking of a '1001 Arabian Nights'.

Ahem, let's start over again then.

Thirty Days. Thirty Books. Thirty posts. But life's too short and my attention span shorter (being a proud member of Generation Atari) so I'll try to do this all at once. Warning I might get bored and start making up books. But then again... I find the best books often are:)



1 - A book series you wish had gone on longer, OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already: When I was at that delicate age between punk rocker and D&D geek my favorite series in the world was this 'real life' superhero anthology called - Wild Cards. The premise (as I can recall) was that there was an alien virus that got exposed on a recently post-WW2 NYC which kills most of the exposed population with the exception of a few freakish mutations ('Jokers') and the even rarer super being ('Aces'). There was this one guy called something like 'The Great & Powerful Turtle' who though an immensely powerful telekinetic would hide in his floating shell (an armor plated VW bug... I think) that I ended up identifying with for awhile (occasionally I even refer to my 'blog life' as my 'Turtle Shell'). Really miss those books. I think they tried making them into a comic book recently... but it was kinda meh.

2 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about: I will not plug my book, I will not plug my book, I will not plug my book... okay, seriously a few come to mind but none more so than anything by Iain Sinclair (especially 'Downriver' or 'White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings'). This is the author who really puts 'Psychogeography' on the map and, I suspect, has been quite an influence on Alan Moore and Warren Ellis (though I could be wrong).

3 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months: Just finished Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves last weekend and I was quite impressed.

4 - Your favorite book or series ever: Wilson's The Illuminatus Trilogy and the The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy with Masks of the Illuminati being my favorite.

5 - A book or series you hate Right now: Hard to say because frankly if I don't get into a book I just put it down and walk away. I guess I could take an obvious jab at the Twilight series... but y'know... if it gets people wet and bothered and wanting more, salud!

6 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time: Favorite all time book is Kerouac's Dharma Bums with Burrough's The Western Lands a very close second.

7 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise: The fizzle ending, nothing worse than following a red thread down the literary labyrinth only to find out the author had this really cool premise s/he had no idea how to end properly.

8 - A book everyone should read at least once: I don't know how to answer that really... I mean if there was a book called 'HOW TO SURVIVE A GENOCIDE, A FAMINE or OTHER HORRORS GENERALLY INFLICTED BY THE HUMAN RACE' then I'd recommend that... otherwise beats me.

9 - Best scene ever: A personal favorite of mine is the ending of Eco's Foucault's Pendulum where Belbo, on the verge of execution by a secret society, recalls this distant afternoon in his childhood that was the most perfect day in his life. At the end he remembers blowing this horn during the celebrations and he knows this is the most perfect moment in his life and he doesn't want to stop blowing that horn but he knows he has to, as all perfect things must end. I think it was in a chapter called 'Gabriel's Trumpet' (it's been awhile and my books are still packed in storage so sorry).

10 - A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving: Terry Pratchett's Disc World stuff has been a pleasant surprise. With the exception of the Asprin's 'Myth Adventures' I've never really dug fantasy much (though I loved D&D... go figure). Crisp, clever and I think what I enjoy about his work is that it touches upon issues in my reality through a unique filter of witches, dragons and all that other good D20 shit that gets me through the week.

11 - A book that disappointed you: Alan Moore's Voices of the Fire... there were some interesting chapters and I found the eternal recurrence themes interesting but it just didn't grab me the way I thought it would. Also, and I'll probably be burnt in effigy for saying so but Gaiman's American Gods (which had some really cool ideas but just didn't grab me on a narrative level... also... and again I will gladly suffer being pelted by rotten fruit for this... but 'Shadow' has to be one of the worst names for a character I've come across.)

12 - A book or series of books you've read more than five times: Again The Illuminatus Trilogy, The Western Lands and I guess most of Doc Seuss' bibliography.

13 - Favorite childhood book: Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books.

14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender): Big Pete Bondurant from the James Ellroy 'American Nightmare' books.

15 - Your comfort book: Sorry but this one's a comic book (or a 'graphic novel' if it makes you feel more mature about it) - Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol arc - Muscle Bound. A mind blowing alchemical adventure mixing elements from the Illuminatus weird-conspiracy stuff and combining it with vintage silver age four color wonder. Also of consideration (but out of print) is the fantastic follow up - Flex Mentallo mini series. A shy boy who spends his days making up superheroes may or may not hold the secret to saving the universe.

16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry: Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. I like poetry when it forces you to pull yourself up off the floor and go back in for another round against an otherwise unbeatable foe to. I believe Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School summed it up best - "It means I don't take shit from no one".

17 - Favorite story or collection of stories: Bukowski's Tales of Ordinary Madness or Factotum (which though is one book seems to be episodic in the daily grind of Chinaski's chronic unemployment and alcholism).

18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book: Not so much a scene but I love Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer with the - "We are all alone here and we are dead" bit or Bukowski's Women starting off with - "I am fifty years old and haven't slept with a woman in four years" bit.

19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!): Seriously, couldn't say... I guess I don't judge a book by its cover (*ducks under barrage of flung shoes*)

20 - Favorite kiss: Don't really know off hand... sorry.

21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships): Don Jamie and Adela de Otero in Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Fencing Master had some pretty steamy swordplay/foreplay scenes that I've probably stolen a few times in my own work.

22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship: Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise.

23 - Most annoying character ever: Ellsworth Toohey from Tea Party Messiah Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

24 - Best quote from a novel: "Tell me anything. Tell me everything. Revoke our time apart. Love me fierce in danger." ~ Ellroy, White Jazz.

Another that has never left my head -

"I can't die yet. I haven't seen the Jolson Story yet!" ~ Jet Boy's last words in the opening Wild Cards chapter.

25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack Books: After House of Leaves I've shifted to Light Reading Mode. Currently I'm about a third of the way through Lords & Ladies by Pratchett and really hope to find the sequel to The Color of Magic sometime soon. Have Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Richard Van Emden's The Soldier's War next on the chopping block after that. Also still hoping to pick up the new Nick Cave novel The Death of Bunny Munro.

26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending: The Big Hand of God at the end of King's The Stand didn't sit well with me as I recall (it's been awhile admittedly). Also the Bible... I mean talk about loose threads, Helllllo!

27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it!: Words... sorry but I'm running out of steam here kids.

28 - First favorite book or series obsession: The Cat in the Hat or anything by Richard Scarry I would imagine.

29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!): The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway which is both the 'best' and 'saddest' death to me because every time I think about this fantastic short story it makes me want to sit down, stop fucking around and write. Big thanks to my Mom for making me read this when I was a teenager because it had such a profound influence on me as an author.

30 - What book are you reading right now? See #25

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I thought about Belbo's death both as a favorite scene and as a most satisfying character death. "And Belbo, now invincible, said "Ma gavte la nata." I carry that sentence around with me like a talisman. I didn't invoke it there, though, because I knew it would be impossible to make it through the set of questions without talking a lot about Foucault's Pendulum, and especially that I was going to have to post the whole cretins, fools, morons and lunatics scene.

Also, Lords and Ladies is, hands down, my favorite Discworld book. I love all the Witches books, for reasons that should be obvious, but this one especially. It's the Stick and Bucket Dance, which must never be spoken of again, I think.

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

I've really gotta give Foucault's Pendulum another reading. It's been quite some time and the passage you posted just whetted the appetite. Though I have been hoping to lay my hands on a copy of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana sometime soon.

I'm really digging Lords & Ladies actually, though this is my first introduction to the Witches and so far I really enjoyed the staring at the sun contest between Weatherwax and the young upstart goth witch (the line about a real witch never ignoring a crying child was really cool). I'm also developing a fondness for the Ponder Stibbons character (the poor wizard who keeps rambling about such nonsense as 'parasite universes' and 'the universe bein' a rubber sheet').

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana a lot - the main character begins the story by having a stroke, and loses all of his personal memories, but not memories of stories. So he is trying to reconstruct his life and separate it from all the fiction he's carrying around in his brain. Hit close to home for me. Also, you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the internal conflicts between the fascists and the republicans in rural Italy. That's a hazard of most Eco, though.

[schquee.livejournal.com]

Best quote from a novel:
Nothing lasts; not a tree, not love, not even death by violence. - A Separate Peace

[schquee.livejournal.com]

Um, nothing "endures". I guess Google is my friend.

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of 'A Separate Peace' until your comment but I looked it up online and it sounds interesting. I'll try and add it to my to read list. Thanks.