a meme

[mamajoan]

Haven't done one of these in a while, so why not. Gacked from jacquez.

Book you keep meaning to read that always gets bumped to second place by new purchases:
I have a stack. But probably the one at the top is The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper.

Book you put down halfway through and never got back to:
Blue Moon Rising by Simon Green. The first third was excellent, second third took a severe turn for the worse, and I haven't been able to force myself to finish it yet.

Book you love and can never convince anyone else to read:
That would HAVE to be Women on Fire, which I posted about yesterday!!!

Book you'll never read no matter how many people tell you you should:
Ummm. Probably The Mists of Avalon.

Children's book that no one else remembers except you:
Ooh, Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Sure, everyone knows Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and even James and the Giant Peach, and those are great, but Danny, man. That is some evil storytelling genius right there.

Children's book everyone seems to have read that you've never read / heard of:
The Secret Garden. I've heard of it, of course, but never read it. Probably you could also put Harry Potter #s 3 and 4 in this category too, because after wading through the first two, I decided there was really no point in subjecting myself to the rest of the series.

Terrific book, terrible movie:
Huh? This describes 99.9% of all books that got made into movies! But for sheer egregiousness of book-mangling, I'll say The Neverending Story. Man, is that ever a beautiful book, and the movie, ehhh.

Book you loved on first reading which on subsequent readings wow, not so much:
It makes me sad to say this, but The Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein. It was the first real "adult" sci-fi book I ever read, and what got me into the genre, but really when I reread it, its flaws drive me nuts.

Most Overrated / Overhyped Book or Author, in your opinion:
I have to take two: for an author Anne McCaffrey, and for a book What To Expect When You're Expecting.

Most Underrated / Misunderstood Book or Author, in your opinion:
Uhhh. Well, there's underrated *outside* the sci-fi fandom world, and then there's underrated within fandom. Tough call. I think I shall go with Bradley Denton, and also Steven Gould (not Stephen Jay Gould the physicist, but Steven Gould the sci-fi author) because I love their stuff and no one seems to mention them. Snif.

Comments

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I totally agree on "What to Expect." Also skip the rest in the series.

If you want a good pregnancy book, "The Pregnancy Book" by Sears (also get "The Baby Book") and "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" by Iovine.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I only read a little bit of "What to Expect," but I found it pretty useless.

Thanks for the recs! I got both of those as gifts and have enjoyed them so far. I'm also really getting a lot of use out of the free Mayo Clinic book. Plus, it doubles as a doorstop. That thing is HUGE. :)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I loves me my Danny the Champion of the World!

Oh, and re: Harry Potter 3 & 4? They're both far superior to HP 1 and far, far, *far* superior to HP 2 (in my not so humble opinion). I read one and two as a fannish duty (*g*), but three and four were actually enjoyable reads.

-Beth

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I loves me my Danny the Champion of the World!

Yay! *high-five*

Oh, and re: Harry Potter 3 & 4? They're both far superior to HP 1

Shut up! *hands over ears* La la la! I'm not listening! I can't heeeeear you!

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you were a Stephen Gould fan. He was one of my instructors at Viable Paradise. Very nice, very wacky guy. I learned a lot from him, and also had a lot of fun with him to boot.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

See, this is what I mean about underappreciated. I've been a fan of the guy since his first novel came out -- Jumper, back in like the early '90s, a really amazing book -- and tried to force my friends to read it but with no success. And then he seemed to disappear off the map, and I didn't find out about his second book until it had been out for a while. So after that I made a point of watching for new stuff from him. But still it often seems like no one is reading him except me.

His one fantasy novel was, uh, less good ;) than his three sci-fi novels, but it was still decent.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

wow, that post was kind of incoherent, wasn't it? Well, my basic point was, he's a good writer and I wish more people would read him.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, I have two of his books, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet. They seem to be selling Jumper as a young adult novel now. At least, that what I'm guessing by the odd trim size and the cover art.

But I will always have a fond spot in my heart for Stevie Chuck, as he's the guy who told me that it was okay that I didn't know how my novel ended yet. He apparently writes for the same reason he reads: to see how the story turns out. So he comes up with an idea and a few cool scenes, then starts writing and sees what happens.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

They seem to be selling Jumper as a young adult novel now.

That's so wrong! Sure, the main character is a teenager, but the book focuses on some pretty adult themes. Who the hell makes these boneheaded decisions anyway? :P

[lunaris1013.livejournal.com]

Steven Gould is responsible for everything I know about passenger pidgeons!

[azurelunatic]

As soon as I log out of my e-mail account that's damn near full and into the other one, I am mailing Plaidder...

[jrosehale.livejournal.com]

Funny that you mention Neverending Story. I saw it in the theater when it came out in the 1980s, and then I watched the end of it again a few weeks ago on TV. It just makes me think, "Wow--this story is great, but this movie just SUCKS!" It's mostly the kid acting that spoils it for me--I love all the puppets and effects. I actually was wondering whether it was worth reading the book, since the story is very appealing.

Umm ... and Mists of Avalon is fabulous. ;-)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

The book of Neverending Story is just fabulous and really not many people have read it, which is a shame. And it has a lot of plot that isn't in the movie at all. You should definitely read it.

I'm sure Mists of Avalon is good, but I just never felt like picking up something that huge, and then after I saw the miniseries on TNT, I was like, "okay, now I don't have to read the book." ;)

[jrosehale.livejournal.com]

I was like, "okay, now I don't have to read the book." ;)

You wicked thing! You know what happens when you work that dry Yankee sarcasm on us plain-spoken folk!

I read Mists of Avalon partly 'cause it's my friend captainoz's favorite book (and she has good taste), but primarily because I had a week off from work a year ago. It does involve a time commitment, but it's very beautiful.

And I added NS to my wish list!

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

I have the hardcover of The Neverending Story with the green and red ink to distinguish where the action is and the illuminated capital letters at the beginning of each chapter. Definitely way better than the movie.

The Mists of Avalon would be the book that I never finished on my list. I got about 50 pages from the end and realized that I just didn't care anymore. Someday perhaps I will try again...