15 books meme
Jul. 2nd, 2009 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhSeen in lots of people's LJs, but taken most specifically from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wesleysgirl: Name fifteen books you've read that will always stay with you, and don't take too much time to think about it (the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes). Copy this into your own post.
I'm probably forgetting some deeply significant book which I will remember as soon as I post this, but oh well. In the chronological order of which I read them:
1. The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
While Ivy was talking, she had finished tieing the last knot; and then sliding her legs over and down the dangling rope, she slid off the limb. She slid slowly down the twisting rope, approaching Martha's level and then dropping below it, so that her face spun in and out of sight. Watching Ivy floating, spinning downward, in and out of sunlight, no one could have doubted for a moment.
2. Alanna by Tamora Pierce.
"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk.
3. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
4. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Almost as if the elements, too, mourned the death of the gentle old Harper, a southeaster blew for three days, locking even the burial barge in the safety of the Dock Cavern.
5. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
A history of the Six Duchies is of necessity a history of its ruling family, the Farseers. A complete telling would reach back beyond the founding of the First Duchy and, if such names were remembered, would tell us of Outislanders raiding from the sea, visiting as pirates a shore more temperate and gentler than the icy beaches of the Out Islands. But we do not know the names of these earliest forebears.
6. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
"So we rush them, then?" said Simony. "I'm sure of – maybe four hundred on our side. So I give the signal and a few hundred of us attack thousands of them? And he dies anyway and we die too? What difference does that make?"
Urn's face was grey with horror now.
"You mean you don't know?" he said.
7. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss, consume.
8. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
But the words were really beyond my reach. They floated in some stratum perhaps where a god existed who understood the colors patterned on a cobra's skin and the eight glorious notes that make up the music erupting out of Nicki's instrument, but never the principle, beyond ugliness or beauty, "Thou shalt not kill".
9. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
The things we do make echoes. S'pose, F'rinstance, you stop on a street corner and admire a brilliant fork of lightning – ZAP! Well. For ages after people and things will stop on that very same corner, stare up at the sky. They wouldn't even know what they were looking for. Some of them might see a ghost bolt of lightning in the street. Some of them might even be killed by it. Our existence deforms the universe. That's responsibility.
10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Take old Belisaria. She's a seagull, and that means I'm a kind of seagull too. I'm not grand and splendid nor beautiful, but I'm a tough old thing and I can survive anywhere and always find a bit of food and company. That's worth knowing, that is. And when your daemon settles, you'll know the sort of person you are.
11. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A bite at light at Ruth a truth a sky-blue presentiment and oh how dear we are to ourselves when it comes, it comes, that long, long shadow in the grass.
12. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Well, I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can't do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory- they're all blood, you see.
13. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun.
14. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
And I remember seeing- what I had never seen before- how the world was made up: that it had bad Bill Sykeses in it, and good Mr Ibbses; and Nancys, that might go either way. I thought how glad I was that I was already on the side that Nancy got to at last.- I mean, the good side, with sugar mice in.
15. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
"My impression is that any improvement in the tenor of existence will have to be anthropogenic."
"What?" Bistami cried.
"It's up to us. No one will help us."
"I'm not saying they will. Although God always helps if you ask. But it is up to us, that's what I've been saying all along, and we are doing what we can, we are making progress."
Katima was not at all convinced. "We'll see," she said. "Time will tell. For now, I myself withhold judgment." She faced the white tomb, drew herself up queenlike, spoke with a tigerish curl of the lip: "And no one judges me."
Female main characters - 6/15
Male main characters - 5/15
Ensemble or alternating male/female POV - 4/15
Authors of Color: 1/15 (whoops)
Themes (some overlap)
Religion: 6
Stories about stories: 2
Love: 6
Fantasy: 7
Coming-of-Age: 7
wesleysgirl: Name fifteen books you've read that will always stay with you, and don't take too much time to think about it (the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes). Copy this into your own post. I'm probably forgetting some deeply significant book which I will remember as soon as I post this, but oh well. In the chronological order of which I read them:
1. The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
While Ivy was talking, she had finished tieing the last knot; and then sliding her legs over and down the dangling rope, she slid off the limb. She slid slowly down the twisting rope, approaching Martha's level and then dropping below it, so that her face spun in and out of sight. Watching Ivy floating, spinning downward, in and out of sunlight, no one could have doubted for a moment.
2. Alanna by Tamora Pierce.
"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk.
3. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
4. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Almost as if the elements, too, mourned the death of the gentle old Harper, a southeaster blew for three days, locking even the burial barge in the safety of the Dock Cavern.
5. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
A history of the Six Duchies is of necessity a history of its ruling family, the Farseers. A complete telling would reach back beyond the founding of the First Duchy and, if such names were remembered, would tell us of Outislanders raiding from the sea, visiting as pirates a shore more temperate and gentler than the icy beaches of the Out Islands. But we do not know the names of these earliest forebears.
6. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
"So we rush them, then?" said Simony. "I'm sure of – maybe four hundred on our side. So I give the signal and a few hundred of us attack thousands of them? And he dies anyway and we die too? What difference does that make?"
Urn's face was grey with horror now.
"You mean you don't know?" he said.
7. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss, consume.
8. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
But the words were really beyond my reach. They floated in some stratum perhaps where a god existed who understood the colors patterned on a cobra's skin and the eight glorious notes that make up the music erupting out of Nicki's instrument, but never the principle, beyond ugliness or beauty, "Thou shalt not kill".
9. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
The things we do make echoes. S'pose, F'rinstance, you stop on a street corner and admire a brilliant fork of lightning – ZAP! Well. For ages after people and things will stop on that very same corner, stare up at the sky. They wouldn't even know what they were looking for. Some of them might see a ghost bolt of lightning in the street. Some of them might even be killed by it. Our existence deforms the universe. That's responsibility.
10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Take old Belisaria. She's a seagull, and that means I'm a kind of seagull too. I'm not grand and splendid nor beautiful, but I'm a tough old thing and I can survive anywhere and always find a bit of food and company. That's worth knowing, that is. And when your daemon settles, you'll know the sort of person you are.
11. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A bite at light at Ruth a truth a sky-blue presentiment and oh how dear we are to ourselves when it comes, it comes, that long, long shadow in the grass.
12. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Well, I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can't do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory- they're all blood, you see.
13. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun.
14. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
And I remember seeing- what I had never seen before- how the world was made up: that it had bad Bill Sykeses in it, and good Mr Ibbses; and Nancys, that might go either way. I thought how glad I was that I was already on the side that Nancy got to at last.- I mean, the good side, with sugar mice in.
15. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
"My impression is that any improvement in the tenor of existence will have to be anthropogenic."
"What?" Bistami cried.
"It's up to us. No one will help us."
"I'm not saying they will. Although God always helps if you ask. But it is up to us, that's what I've been saying all along, and we are doing what we can, we are making progress."
Katima was not at all convinced. "We'll see," she said. "Time will tell. For now, I myself withhold judgment." She faced the white tomb, drew herself up queenlike, spoke with a tigerish curl of the lip: "And no one judges me."
Female main characters - 6/15
Male main characters - 5/15
Ensemble or alternating male/female POV - 4/15
Authors of Color: 1/15 (whoops)
Themes (some overlap)
Religion: 6
Stories about stories: 2
Love: 6
Fantasy: 7
Coming-of-Age: 7
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-02 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-02 08:32 pm (UTC)I haven't the seen the film, but I know I should; I hear it's so good. It was a play before it was a movie, and so I read the script- not really a book, I suppose, but close enough. *grins*
no subject
Date: 2009-07-02 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-02 09:02 pm (UTC)My opinions on other books by Robin Hobb:
The Liveship Traders trilogy - overlaps very slightly with the Farseers trilogy. Wonderful. Different in a lot of ways- the POV shifts between a huge cast of characters rather than sticking with one- but extremely well-written and fascinating.
The Tawny Man trilogy- a sequel to the Farseers trilogy. Sadly mediocre, in both writing and plot. The ending comes out of nowhere and drives me crazy.
The Soldier's Son trilogy- as far as I can tell, has no relation to any of the other books. Insanely awful. Sexist, racist, extremely fat-phobic (this is a major plot point, not just a random nitpick of mine), the main character is unbelievably stupid, as are most of the other characters and the plot itself. So bad that I won't even buy these books, despite my commitment to supporting Robin Hobb.
Oh, apparently she has a new book out, but I haven't read it. It's set in the same world as the Farseers and Liveship traders.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-03 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-03 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-03 01:35 am (UTC)one version were books in your youth - so i had stuff like water babies, and heidi... and the other version were books that one stuck in one's mind. i had one of neil gaiman too.
i thought Dream was one of the most fascinating characters in any graphic novel/comic
no subject
Date: 2009-07-03 04:44 pm (UTC)