Book meme

[john_amend_all]

Memed from lost_spook

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

In a strictly literal sense, nearly all of my books have been on my shelves exactly the same amount of time, since I put them all back at the same time last year after redecorating. As for the book that's been in my collection for longest, I've still got a number of Ladybird books from when I was little and so it's probably How It Works: The Motor Car.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

Currently I'm a couple of chapters into Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm, and I've also got a facsimile edition of W. D. Parish's 1875 Dictionary of Sussex Dialect (Fun fact: "Rabbits" was apparently a genuine ejaculation of Sussex yokels). Previous to that (apart from a reread of Mill by David Macaulay, for gen on watermills for my current fanfic) was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. Next in the queue is At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie, which I bought today second-hand for the princely sum of £1. I think I've read it before, but so long ago that I've forgotten just about all of it. I did watch the BBC adaptation recently, though.

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?

I don't know about 'everyone', but I wasn't at all impressed with Susan Hill's The Various Haunts of Men, which according to the publisher has 'popular' and 'bestseller' written all over it. I thought that it read like an attempt to imitate P. D. James, with no great success.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

No idea. The closest is probably Armadale by Wilkie Collins, of which I read a chunk and stopped, but I'm self-deluding enough to think that I will eventually finish it.

5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"

I'm not.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Wait till the end. Usually. I've got better at that since I was ten or so, when I was inclined to skip about cherrypicking scenes.

7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

They are completely vital. Though I only say that because I'm listed in the acknowledgements of Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems, Second Edition...

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Possibly with a citizen of Clarke's Diaspar or Banks's Culture. But not the protagonists of their respective stories, oh dear me no. Just one of the extras.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Not in that sense. I mean, I can remember rereading Pride and Prejudice after my first day at work, but it's a memory I had to dig for; it doesn't pop up unbidden on later readings.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

I won Martin Gardner's Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions at preparatory school, but since the ceremony was somewhat chaotically organised and prizewinners weren't notified in advance, I wasn't actually there at the point it was presented. I turned up shortly afterwards and got pushed up on stage with no idea why. Such is my life.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

When my brother rang me up asking how to wire a ceiling rose, I was shocked — I'd read Ron Grace's Home Repairs at the age of six or so, and thought everyone knew how to wire a ceiling rose. So I found another copy on Amazon and bought it for him.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

Probably my copy of The Moonstone, which I've taken to read on journeys now and again.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in secondary school that wasn't so bad ten years later?

No idea. If I hated it in secondary school I wouldn't go back to it voluntarily. I don't think there was much I hated, though, except for the poetry. I'm old-fashioned enough to like rhyme and meter.

14. What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?

Nothing springs to mind in the case of foreign objects. As for content, when my brother and I were tidying up my mother's recipe book many years ago we found a handwritten one containing the non-word 'seasip'. Eventually we worked out that the writer meant 'seasoning' but 'seasip' is too good a word to waste, so it's been my Internet hostname since 1996. Typographically, there's the way the diaresis is used in the Dictionary of Sussex Dialect: rather than over the first letter (däis) or the second (daïs), it sits halfway between them with one dot over each.

15. Used or brand new?

Either.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

<vorlon>No.</vorlon>

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

Not sure if it counts as a movie, but the adaptation of the Inspector Morse novel Last Seen Wearing improves on the rather chaotic book. And adds a happy ending.

18. Conversely, which book should never have been introduced to celluloid?

In general, even if there is a shoddy adaptation *cough*ITV!Marple*cough* there's usually a better one. I shall have to second lost_spook's comment on The Woman in White, though. The radio dramatisation was miles better. (TV Tropes is very down on what happened to The Dark is Rising, but I haven't watched that and don't intend to start now).

19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Can't remember.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

There is, currently, no such person.

Comments

[john_amend_all]

What are you saying about ITV Marple?

Their Miss Marple steals stories from their proper heroes. That's got to be worth some sort of anti-prize. And they changed the murderer in the first one they ever did and worked up from there...

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

The ITV Miss Marple reminds me a lot of NuWho in some ways (take that as a complimentary or pejorative comment as you will... :D). Give me the 80s versions with Joan Hickson all the way (and not just because I have vivid memories of seeing quite a few of them either straight before/straight after Seven Who stories, back in my misspent youth...).

And while we're on the subject, the 1hr David Suchet Poirots with Cpt Hastings and Ch Insp Japp and Miss Lemon in them are far, far superior to the latter-day 2hr ones with various guest stars.

And the first couple of series of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes are just about the most perfectest thing ever, but then they had to start making the (hitherto almost too-faithfully adapted) dialogue more "modern" and Brett's performance suffered along with his real-life health, and...

And that is all I care to type about TV versions of literary detectives... :-D

Except that I kind of like the Ken Stott version of Rebus...

That is all!

[john_amend_all]

If I hadn't been watching the Hickson Miss Marples, I'd never have discovered Doctor Who at all. 'nuff said.

[thisbluespirit]

No - Miss Marple a thief? 8-o I had noticed. ("That Mrs Christie didn't write enough Marple books, but don't worry - we can fix that... :lol:)

Don't worry, I know. Given my childhood scarring by the terrifying (but accurate) BBC versions, I quite enjoy the ITV lite ones. As long as I can go back and read the proper version afterwards. I must have missed the oner where they changed the murderer, but Card on the Table still stands out as the worst example of that because the whole point of it is it's supposed to be a psychological problem about the four suspects. I mean... *bangs head*

I am shallow enough to quite enjoy all the pretty and the guest stars, the sudden, slightly surprsiing romances, everybody being randomly gay, and what have you. As long as they don't change the murderer. I thought A Pocketful of Rye was disappointingly accurate. I'd been hoping the thief lady and the inspector would run off together, which would have made up for some of the other solecisms.

[john_amend_all]

I think I imprinted on Joan Hickson. I can't suspend my disbelief if anyone else plays the role.

The one they changed the murderer in was The Body in the Library, where they swapped the roles of Conway Jefferson's son-in-law and daughter-in-law, making her lesbian so she could still have the relationship with the other murderess.

And yes, A Pocket Full of Rye was accurate, more so than the BBC version in fact. Strange reversal of the laws of nature. I'm sure that there is an Inspector Neele / Mary Dove ship, though I haven't gone looking for it.

(I've got the Hickson DVD box-set, since it was on sale at half-price. Perhaps I should do a rewatch in order on LJ).

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: That sounds ... sort of strange. She is my default Miss Marple, too, but I still find her slightly scary.

Ah, yes, the Joanna Lumley one. I can't remember whether I saw that one through to the end. Well, bonus points for random change of sexual preference and changing the murderer then. Heh.

Somehow, I doubt there's a Insp Neele/Mary Dove story anywhere. There's probably just Marple femslash and Hastings/Poirot (at least, going by Yuletide). I thought, with Matthew in the role, and ITV's usual fun and games, and the hints of it in both the book and the BBC role, they were bound to do it. But no... Still, Julia Mackenzie terrifying MM was fairly amusing anyway.

Well, that would be interesting. :-)

[john_amend_all]

If there wasn't a Dove/Neele story before, there is now, if only a drabble.

Mary seated herself beside the Inspector.

"You don't know what to make of me, do you?" she said. "You think I could be a criminal. I might be committing a crime at this very moment and there's nothing you can do about it. Doesn't that frustrate you?" She leaned closer. "Intrigue you?"

"Now, now. I've not got anything on you, Miss Dove."

"But you'd like to, wouldn't you? Perhaps I should make it easy for you. I could commit a crime right in front of you. And then you could handcuff me." She gave him an intense, longing look. "Please?"

[thisbluespirit]

♥

Hah. Thanks. Hmm, maybe the fact that it starts going disturbing at the end is why no one else did it. :lol: But, I love it, thanks.

*ponders fact that I owe you both fic and drabble*

*looks as innocent as possible*

[john_amend_all]

I'm going to blame the disturbingness on the drabble limit. At the proper length, Mary certainly wouldn't suggest handcuffs so early in the evening :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Personally, I thought she'd never say Please. :lol:

And I feel much less guilty now.

[john_amend_all]

Again, drabble compression. At full length the bit where she finally said "Please" would certainly not be something I'd write, let alone post...

[pedanther]

While I was writing up Miss Marple for TV Tropes, I came across an anecdote somewhere about how, years earlier, Hickson had appeared in a small role in a play based on one of Christie's novels, and Christie wrote afterward that she would like to see her play Miss Marple some day.

[john_amend_all]

As is usually the case, I stumbled across this while looking for something else: Joan Hickson relates that story.