63 days left...

[wiseheart]

... so let's talk about books, shall we? After all, we who still read them belong to a proud minority, right?

Questions below as always.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Which was the book that affected you most in your life?
(And no, the Bible doesn't count, that's a different category entirely.)

For me, it was The Lord of the Rings. Which is probably why i despise the Jackson films so much.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Hmm, probably "We have Always Lived in the Castle.

[sammydragoncat]

I don't know, so many books have been influential to me at different times, I don't know if I could name just one.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You could name a few, then. Just out of interest; I like to know what people read.

[sammydragoncat]

Ok, The Lord of the Rings, of course, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson; The Shining by StepHen King; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin; The Golden Spiders, a Nero Wolf Mystery by Rex Stout; The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have one. Maybe my school texts? ;)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Now, those never influenced me at all! Although I still can quote lines from my school texts, oddly enough. Back to 3rth grade, actually.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Wow, that far? Impressive.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Not really. We're talking about half a dozen lines all together.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

The Fitzgerald translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. At one point I knew the whole poem by heart and I still know a fair bit of it. Quotes from it come to me in a lot of different situations.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

What are your preferred genres?

Mine are: historic novels, science fiction, high fantasy (not just any fantasy) and murder mysteries. Especially Agatha Christie's. I used to read American crime novels when I was younger but I never really liked them. They were too brutal for my taste, and people were worrying too much about their sex life. Loved the Maigret books by Georges Simenon, though.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Humor, paranormal mysteries, Egyptology.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hah! I actually like those, too! Have you ever read Joseph and his brothers by Thomas Mann? Or Sinuhe by Mika Waltari? Although they might have different titles in English, I just translated them from German and Hungarian.

Back in the Stone Age, when I was still writing original fiction, I played with ideas about novels taking place in Ancient Egypt.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I have not, but thanks for the suggestion. I will go check them out.

There are at least two authors that I know of who based their mysteries back in ancient Egypt.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Alas, one of my favourites was written by a Hungarian author and it's unlikely that it would have been ever translated into English. But perhaps you might get lucky. The author is called János Kodolányi, and the book is centered around Moses. A bit AU compared with the biblical story... well, more than a bit AU, and slightly depressing in parts, but very interesting nonetheless.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I will do some poking about.

[sammydragoncat]

My preferred genres are mysteries, fantasy and historic fiction.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I love those, too.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I agree that some books are too focused on the sex. Which is fine if it's that sort of book, but not in the middle of my (insert other story here).

Currently I prefer apocafics, zombie pics (newer ones-after the 1950's, and I prefer an apocalypse.) Also like books with good science-eg Into the Drowning Deep by Seanan McGuire, or The Martian. Oh, and well written medical history books, especially about plagues.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read the Cadfael Chronicles? Medieval murder mysteries, with an herbalist monk plus Welsh history - the best!

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Huh. Cool.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You should give them a try - they are amazing! The best thing next to the Lord of the Rings I've ever read!

[meathiel]

Fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fiction, historical crime, crime, thrillers

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction (and stuff that doesn't exactly count as historical fiction as it was written at the time it is set (give or take)).

Also, history for non-fiction.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Mine are very similar with the addition of books with a supernatural element. I didn't get into murder mysteries or spy novels very much, but I did sample them and my other serious fandom involved spies. Seems I liked it more on the screen than on the page.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Do you read a book straight from beginning to end or do you cheat and check out the end first?

I'm a cheat. I could never concentrate on the story itself if I had to worry how it would end.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I always start at the beginning and read to the end.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I admire your discipline. :)

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

There has only been a couple of times and that was just to make sure an animal was going to be okay., Otherwise, I am happy to take the long road.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

As I said before: your discipline is admirable.

[sammydragoncat]

Usually, I read a book from start to finish. Sometime if I am not enjoying the book, i will skip to the end to see how it turns out.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that, too..

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

For the most part beginning to end. If it starts to seem like there will be feels that may be stressful I'll cheat (although this is mostly in fanfic, TBH).

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'm with you about the feels; especially in fanfic.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[meathiel]

I usually don't look at the end ... usually ... it can happen but not very often.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Your icon is great!

[artemis10002000]

I would skip ahead and leaf through the book but since mostly switching to ebooks I've gotten better about reading in proper order since skipping ahead and then finding your page again is such a pain with ebooks.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Beginning to end. I have on occasion looked at the end, but it tends not actually help with the things I'm worrying about - these days I'm more likely to look online/ask my husband/someone else I know who likes the books for reassurance.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Beginning to end. I sometimes check what page a book ends on, but I try not to see any of the words on the last page.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading a book on cyber security... couldn't tell you the name of it, though. TBG heard about it and bought the book. I'm also reading the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle - Castle in the Air.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Never heard about that. Must do some googling...

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Here's a place to start - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, although some of the descriptions are insanely complicated. But it is often so when someone tries to summarize an entire book on a single page.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

they are pretty crazy in the book, too...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, then it isn't just me being old and confused.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

No, they are pretty convoluted at times...