Memes? Are They Still A Thing?
Sep. 14th, 2014 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoyHad a couple of people tag me for that Book Meme that's been going around on Facebook. The idea is to pick 10 books that have stuck with you. Which is RIDICULOUS. Ten? Like all the other book dweebs before me, I have trouble narrowing down my list of a hundred favorite books. But I want to toss out a few. If I stop to analyze it anymore, I'll never actually get it done.
So! A random ten of the Books That Stuck With Me:
1. All I See Is Part Of Me, Chara M. Curtis, ill. Cynthia Alrdich - a picture book told in rhyme about the connection everyone has to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I love the illustrations, and it's a nice sentiment.
2. Matilda, Roald Dahl - yeah, you don't need me to explain more, do you? Book is great.*
3. Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain - an unfinished book, but a useful one for a secular kid who was just discovering that religion was a Thing and wanted to know if she was the only one who had noticed how bizarre it was.
4. The Belgariad/TheMalloreon/Belgarath the Sorcerer/Polgara the Sorceress, David Eddings - Yeah, I am including twelve books in one here, but as always, when you have a saga of books it makes sense to count them as one. God, I read this in junior high and it blew me away. It has its problems, but it also has Polgara, Belgarath, and Silk, who are fascinating characters, and one of my favorite author self-inserts of all time in the form of The Voice Of The Purpose Of The Universe. You know how everyone else seems to consider Middle-earth to be Standard Fantasyland? In my brain it's the world of the Belgariad.
5. Circle of Magic quartet, Tamora Pierce - The first I read of hers. Love the characters, the worldbuilding, and the magic system. I was also kind of a fan of the fact that three of the books' conflicts weren't about villains; they were about other problems, like natural disasters and plagues. That was different. And it was also one of the first Fantasyland stories I read with racially diverse characters, which was a revelation.
6. Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens, various - this was like Baby's First Sci-fi. The first Ray Bradbury story I ever read was in this book,** as was "To Serve Man" (Christ, I'm glad I read the story before seeing the Twilight Zone episode). It opened up vast and wonderful new worlds for me.
7. Our Mutual friend, Charles Dickens - one of the few classic books I really enjoyed from English class. It was funny, dammit!
8. Who Talks Funny? A Book About Languages For Kids, Brenda S. Cox - a nonfiction book taking one on a tour of the weirdnesses of language. One of the books that really got me on my path toward linguistics.
9. Room, Emma Donoghue - One of the few books that actually belongs in present tense. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but the darn thing was in the book drop at the library one day and it got stuk to my face. It was just so darn interesting.
10. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien - My all-time favorite book. I could go on forever about it, but suffice to say, the adventure is great, and goddamn I relate to hobbits in general and Bilbo in particular. Making your hero just an average middle-class schmuck without making him annoying is almost impossible. Tolkien pulled it off perfectly.
There you have it! I've been considering doing a weekly retrospective of books that made an impression on me (I HAVE LOTS), but I am incredibly lazy and so it may not get done. Perhaps I will find the follow-through now. But either way, y'all are welcome to do this meme too if you're interested!
*I'm surprised at how many people from my generation fondly remember that godawful MOVIE of Matilda I was infuriated at it. Regardless, Mara Wilson is great and I will hear no ill spoken of her.
**My favorite, "The Veldt," I found in a book from a school program called Junior Great Books like a year later. That story just creeped me right the hell out. And I felt super smart for realizng that theholodeck nursery symbolized television. That one was the beginning of my long love/hate relationship with Bradbury.
So! A random ten of the Books That Stuck With Me:
1. All I See Is Part Of Me, Chara M. Curtis, ill. Cynthia Alrdich - a picture book told in rhyme about the connection everyone has to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I love the illustrations, and it's a nice sentiment.
2. Matilda, Roald Dahl - yeah, you don't need me to explain more, do you? Book is great.*
3. Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain - an unfinished book, but a useful one for a secular kid who was just discovering that religion was a Thing and wanted to know if she was the only one who had noticed how bizarre it was.
4. The Belgariad/TheMalloreon/Belgarath the Sorcerer/Polgara the Sorceress, David Eddings - Yeah, I am including twelve books in one here, but as always, when you have a saga of books it makes sense to count them as one. God, I read this in junior high and it blew me away. It has its problems, but it also has Polgara, Belgarath, and Silk, who are fascinating characters, and one of my favorite author self-inserts of all time in the form of The Voice Of The Purpose Of The Universe. You know how everyone else seems to consider Middle-earth to be Standard Fantasyland? In my brain it's the world of the Belgariad.
5. Circle of Magic quartet, Tamora Pierce - The first I read of hers. Love the characters, the worldbuilding, and the magic system. I was also kind of a fan of the fact that three of the books' conflicts weren't about villains; they were about other problems, like natural disasters and plagues. That was different. And it was also one of the first Fantasyland stories I read with racially diverse characters, which was a revelation.
6. Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens, various - this was like Baby's First Sci-fi. The first Ray Bradbury story I ever read was in this book,** as was "To Serve Man" (Christ, I'm glad I read the story before seeing the Twilight Zone episode). It opened up vast and wonderful new worlds for me.
7. Our Mutual friend, Charles Dickens - one of the few classic books I really enjoyed from English class. It was funny, dammit!
8. Who Talks Funny? A Book About Languages For Kids, Brenda S. Cox - a nonfiction book taking one on a tour of the weirdnesses of language. One of the books that really got me on my path toward linguistics.
9. Room, Emma Donoghue - One of the few books that actually belongs in present tense. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but the darn thing was in the book drop at the library one day and it got stuk to my face. It was just so darn interesting.
10. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien - My all-time favorite book. I could go on forever about it, but suffice to say, the adventure is great, and goddamn I relate to hobbits in general and Bilbo in particular. Making your hero just an average middle-class schmuck without making him annoying is almost impossible. Tolkien pulled it off perfectly.
There you have it! I've been considering doing a weekly retrospective of books that made an impression on me (I HAVE LOTS), but I am incredibly lazy and so it may not get done. Perhaps I will find the follow-through now. But either way, y'all are welcome to do this meme too if you're interested!
*I'm surprised at how many people from my generation fondly remember that godawful MOVIE of Matilda I was infuriated at it. Regardless, Mara Wilson is great and I will hear no ill spoken of her.
**My favorite, "The Veldt," I found in a book from a school program called Junior Great Books like a year later. That story just creeped me right the hell out. And I felt super smart for realizng that the
- Markiplier videos on Youtube (this is YOUR FAULT, gwalla!)
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no subject
Date: 2014-09-15 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-15 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-15 12:36 pm (UTC)I do love Ray Bradbury. I probably read "The Martian Chronicles" a hundred times over, and all his crazy short stories and other novels at least once. They're not all great, but for me the good outweighs the bad. Especially the stories set on Venus, for some reason. And The Veldt. And "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Wacky fun.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-15 10:37 pm (UTC)Eddings works because he started out by going, "I wonder if I can take the most obvious, cliched fantasy setting imaginable and make it interesting." And goddammit, he succeeded.
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Date: 2014-09-17 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-19 03:42 am (UTC)I hope that someday they'll make a movie/show/something awesome out of the Belgariad/Mallorean. I feel like the series was really under appreciated.