Across the Page

I saw this over at Deb on the Run:

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Wendell Berry.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?

Black Beauty. Both copies belong to my daughter; both were Christmas presents from different aunts. Also My Name Is Asher Lev. Somehow I picked up an extra copy — normally I’m a bit annoying about getting rid of duplicates.

Unless you count the Bible. I have several copies in different versions from different eras of my life.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

Nope. (The story goes that a critic (or editor) once corrected one of Winston Churchill’s sentences on the grounds that he should not have ended the sentence with a preposition. Churchill scribbled a note in reply: “That is exactly the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I shall not put!”)

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

I’d tell, but then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. (Also I can’t think of any imaginary individuals that have warmly embraced me at any point in my life.)

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?

I faithfully reread Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre about once a year when I was younger, but I doubt that I ever will again. I reread quite a few books, actually.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old?

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Judy Blume)

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

Blue Like Jazz.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

The Problem of Pain (C.S. Lewis). It’s been a little longer than a year, but it’s yet to be topped. The Doors of the Sea (David Bentley Hart) is a close second. (Are we seeing a pattern here?)

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?

I don’t have any title that I’d force on everyone at every stage of life.

Oh, wait: The Brothers Karamazov. Read it, I beg you, then tell me about it — It’s one of those must-reads that I haven’t yet been able to take on.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

So Brave, Young, and Handsome (Leif Enger)

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?

Ulysses (James Joyce). More recently, I would agree with Deb that The Doors of the Sea was difficult but worth it.

12. What is your favorite devotional book?

Probably Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. It’s my longest-possessed and most-frequently-returned-to. Right now, though, I’m enjoying Elizabeth Elliott’s Lamp Unto My Feet.

13. What is your favorite play?

I don’t have one but I played piano for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when I was in high school. Do rollicking musicals count? (If so, I must confess that I spent hours listening to my parents’ records of old Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals when I was a child, and even memorized long speeches from The Music Man.)

14. Poem?

Currently it’s C.S. Lewis’ “Stephen to Lazarus.” Stephen acknowledges that Lazarus had the more difficult “death” to endure: returning to life, knowing he’d have to die again.

15. Essay?

Hmm. Hard to pick a favorite. Maybe Discipline and Hope (Wendell Berry) — an early configuration of the argument that Berry expands in The Unsettling of America.

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

I haven’t read enough contemporary authors, so I’d be merely spouting. I do get tired of having William Young (The Shack) recommended to me, though.

17. What is your desert island book?

I know I should say my Bible.

18. And…what are you reading right now?

New England White Palace Council (Stephen L. Carter) and Mudhouse Sabbath (Lauren Winner)

What’s your relationship with books? If you decide to join in, let me know, and I’ll come read your answers!

Tags: book memes