2013 Book Meme
Jan. 1st, 2014 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmoI'm undecided about whether or not I want to do Fandom Snowflake this year. It was a lot of fun last year, and I like that it's very a la carte and low pressure. But I'm headed off to our big historians' annual meeting this weekend (as the interviewer, not the interviewee, woot) and will probably be playing catch up. In the meantime, a book meme borrowed from silverflight8
silverflight81. How many books did you read this year?
34 (not counting the many books I skimmed and browsed and cited for my dissertation)
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
30: 4 (again not counting my dissertation's bibliography....i like to separate business from pleasure reading)
3. Male/Female authors?
11: 23 (including 4 by Mike Carey and 2 by Alan Bradley)
4. Books by People of Color?
4 of those I can easily identify, 3 of these were non-fiction narratives I assigned my students, the autobiographies of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass respectively.
5. Books in translation/a second language?
2- the translated narratives of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Catalina Erauso
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
16 or so. About half. I'm really enjoying the digital library loans on my Kindle, although the selection is limited and I feel somehow like I'm cheating on regular books.
7. Oldest book?
Catalina Erauso's Lieutenant Nun, written in the 17th century. A Basque woman's memoir of escaping a convent and cross dressing as a man to go to the New World as a conquistador. Stranger than fiction. Eat your heart out, Arya Stark.
8. Newest book?
I'm guessing Jacqueline Carey's Dark Currents. (oct 2012)
10. Shortest book title?
Queenpin, by Megan Abbott
17. Favorite quote?
I love this passage from Harriet Jacobs. I pine for Queen Justice, too.
"One woman begged me to get a newspaper and read it over. She said her husband told her that the black people had sent word to the queen of 'Merica that they were all slaves; that she didn't believe it, and went to Washington city to see the president about it. They quarrelled; she drew her sword upon him, and swore that he should help her to make them all free.
That poor, ignorant woman thought that America was governed by a Queen, to whom the President was subordinate. I wish the President was subordinate to Queen Justice."
Code Name Verity, for fic writing purposes. Probably The Night Circus, Shards of Honor, and Felix Castor books just because I read them very quickly and they were nice escapist reads. I'm not a huge re-reader.
34 (not counting the many books I skimmed and browsed and cited for my dissertation)
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
30: 4 (again not counting my dissertation's bibliography....i like to separate business from pleasure reading)
3. Male/Female authors?
11: 23 (including 4 by Mike Carey and 2 by Alan Bradley)
4. Books by People of Color?
4 of those I can easily identify, 3 of these were non-fiction narratives I assigned my students, the autobiographies of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass respectively.
5. Books in translation/a second language?
2- the translated narratives of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Catalina Erauso
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
16 or so. About half. I'm really enjoying the digital library loans on my Kindle, although the selection is limited and I feel somehow like I'm cheating on regular books.
7. Oldest book?
Catalina Erauso's Lieutenant Nun, written in the 17th century. A Basque woman's memoir of escaping a convent and cross dressing as a man to go to the New World as a conquistador. Stranger than fiction. Eat your heart out, Arya Stark.
8. Newest book?
I'm guessing Jacqueline Carey's Dark Currents. (oct 2012)
9. Longest book title?
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland....yadda yadda yadda
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland....yadda yadda yadda
10. Shortest book title?
Queenpin, by Megan Abbott
11. Most by any one author?
Mike Carey's Felix Castor books- (4.5 read, mostly in the past month)
Mike Carey's Felix Castor books- (4.5 read, mostly in the past month)
12. Favorites?
Felix Castor takes the prize for favorite new series of the year, with Vorkosigan Saga an honorable second. I also really loved Code Name Verity, The Night Circus, Indigo Springs, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Where'd You Go Bernadette
Felix Castor takes the prize for favorite new series of the year, with Vorkosigan Saga an honorable second. I also really loved Code Name Verity, The Night Circus, Indigo Springs, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Where'd You Go Bernadette
13. Least Favorite?
Divergent left a bad taste in my mouth, kind of like a night of drinking cheap wine and I will not be returning to that well again. But Discovery of Witches is definitely the worst book I read this year.
Divergent left a bad taste in my mouth, kind of like a night of drinking cheap wine and I will not be returning to that well again. But Discovery of Witches is definitely the worst book I read this year.
14. How many were rereads?
Just one- The Eight. And it really wasn't quite the same as I remember. Le sigh.
Just one- The Eight. And it really wasn't quite the same as I remember. Le sigh.
15. Favorite character?
Probably Maddie and Julie from Code Name Verity. Be still my femslashy heart. I loved meeting Cordelia from the Vorkosigan saga too and I suspect I would have made more progress on those books if Cordelia and not Miles was the protag.
Probably Maddie and Julie from Code Name Verity. Be still my femslashy heart. I loved meeting Cordelia from the Vorkosigan saga too and I suspect I would have made more progress on those books if Cordelia and not Miles was the protag.
16. Favorite scene?
Somewhere between "Fly the plane, Maddie" and all of imaginative creations lovingly made by Celia and Marco in their "duel" in The Night Circus. I also quite liked the end of The Magician King where Our Lady Underground came to Julia's aid.
Somewhere between "Fly the plane, Maddie" and all of imaginative creations lovingly made by Celia and Marco in their "duel" in The Night Circus. I also quite liked the end of The Magician King where Our Lady Underground came to Julia's aid.
17. Favorite quote?
I love this passage from Harriet Jacobs. I pine for Queen Justice, too.
"One woman begged me to get a newspaper and read it over. She said her husband told her that the black people had sent word to the queen of 'Merica that they were all slaves; that she didn't believe it, and went to Washington city to see the president about it. They quarrelled; she drew her sword upon him, and swore that he should help her to make them all free.
That poor, ignorant woman thought that America was governed by a Queen, to whom the President was subordinate. I wish the President was subordinate to Queen Justice."
18. Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
Hmm. I would say Code Name Verity probably, just because of the intensity of the relationship depicted between the two women. It's not explicitly femslashy, but I think you'd have to be deaf, dumb and willfully ignorant to not see the strong bond between Maddie and Julie. It also does a lot of clever things with POV that i doubt I could ever replicate. The Night Circus was so lush and the worldbuilding was so rich without feeling forced. I don't think I could ever capture it, but it is very inspiring.
Hmm. I would say Code Name Verity probably, just because of the intensity of the relationship depicted between the two women. It's not explicitly femslashy, but I think you'd have to be deaf, dumb and willfully ignorant to not see the strong bond between Maddie and Julie. It also does a lot of clever things with POV that i doubt I could ever replicate. The Night Circus was so lush and the worldbuilding was so rich without feeling forced. I don't think I could ever capture it, but it is very inspiring.
19. Which would you read again?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 10:04 pm (UTC)Interesting list!
Also, if you didn't care for the first Divergent book, DEFINITELY don't bother with the sequels.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 10:23 pm (UTC)yeah, i enjoyed Divergent as I was reading it but afterwards I was kind of like "wtf did I just read?" the worldbuilding didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. and i kind of resented that the intellectuals were painted as evil and power hungry. it scratched that YA dystopian itch for a minute but it's not for me in the long haul.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-02 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 05:26 am (UTC)there's a sequel, Rose Under Fire, that i am dying to get my hands on.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-02 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 05:28 am (UTC)