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Aug. 29th, 2006 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsmeatBOOK SURVEY
A meme which requires thought, time and effort, damnit! Watch with amazement its snail-speed propagation*!
*Edit: change from "Snail-like propagation". This has nothing to do with mating snails!
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hekaskively
1. One book that changed your life?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn. I just like the main character; he's a decent sort who's been dumped into one of Stalin's Gulags. A soldier whose 'crime' was being captured by the Germans then escaping back to the Russian lines, something that would have made him a hero in another country.
He's in an appalling situation, yet he just deals with it. He doesn't complain, he just gets on with surviving, one day at a time. Of course he's devious, crafty and mostly out for himself - anybody who's not simply wouldn't live through ten years in a camp - but he does down the system, not other inmates. He shares an intense loyalty with his work-team. He's just an ordinary guy I'd like to think I could emulate.
There are some resemblances to The Shawshank Redemption, though I think it's vastly better. Some people seem to have watched that movie about a million times because they see religious allegories and themes of redemption and hope in it - I found it rather mawkish. Shukhov is certainly no Christ-like figure, he's very human and you can identify with him. Nothing like Andy Dufresne, who comes across as nauseatingly too good to be true.
2. One book you have read more than once?
I frequently re-read books I like, though it tends to be favourite passages - I'll dip-in rather than re-read something from start to finish. Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat is probably the one I've re-read the most, historically, though I've currently not looked at it in about two years. I've always had the idea it'd be fun to re-create the book and row a boat up the Thames from Kingston to Oxford, camping out at night. That's been done an awful lot, though.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Does a three-volume, unabridged version Gibbon's Decline and Fall count as one book? :-)
I've got the set and it's been waiting about four years for me to read it. Being alone with that on a desert island is probably the only way I'd ever get round to it.
4. One book that made you laugh?
The first Pratchett, the first time I read it, made me laugh so much it hurt! Though he's getting very samey now. Onebook short story that makes me laugh consistently is Saki's "The Open Window". I like Saki a lot.
5. One book that made you cry?
Jeez.... Well some have, though it's hard to think of one right now.
6. One book you wish had been written?
I suppose this means the sequel to something. You can't know whether or not you'd like something original that doesn't actually exist. Another twenty Lord Peter Wimsey stories would be nice - if a genii offered to zap into existence some unwritten books I should probably choose something more worthwhile than those - Shakespeare's "King Arthur" or something. But DLS is all I can think of right now.
Also, it would be nice to know what that "Giant Rat of Summatra" business was all about. < shrugs > But hey, that's why we have fan-fiction!
7. One book you wish had never been written?
For political reasons, it'd be nice if Janice Raymond had never written any of her books. And if she had been quietly dropped down a mineshaft when nobody was looking.
8. One book you are currently reading?
I’ve got to admit to it being a comic book. The last thing I read was the entire Y the last man series that's been printed in paperback to date. Currently, I should be reading “Level Set Methods” by JA Sethian.
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
I can't say "See answer 3" because "a vague inclination to read sometime before senility" is not the same as "meaning to read". I've been seriously meaning to read the Lemony Snicket books.
10. Now tag five people.
myjesusisbetter snigl3t rowan_leigh norwegianblue47 ashavah
A meme which requires thought, time and effort, damnit! Watch with amazement its snail-speed propagation*!
*Edit: change from "Snail-like propagation". This has nothing to do with mating snails!
Tagged by
hekaskively1. One book that changed your life?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn. I just like the main character; he's a decent sort who's been dumped into one of Stalin's Gulags. A soldier whose 'crime' was being captured by the Germans then escaping back to the Russian lines, something that would have made him a hero in another country.
He's in an appalling situation, yet he just deals with it. He doesn't complain, he just gets on with surviving, one day at a time. Of course he's devious, crafty and mostly out for himself - anybody who's not simply wouldn't live through ten years in a camp - but he does down the system, not other inmates. He shares an intense loyalty with his work-team. He's just an ordinary guy I'd like to think I could emulate.
There are some resemblances to The Shawshank Redemption, though I think it's vastly better. Some people seem to have watched that movie about a million times because they see religious allegories and themes of redemption and hope in it - I found it rather mawkish. Shukhov is certainly no Christ-like figure, he's very human and you can identify with him. Nothing like Andy Dufresne, who comes across as nauseatingly too good to be true.
2. One book you have read more than once?
I frequently re-read books I like, though it tends to be favourite passages - I'll dip-in rather than re-read something from start to finish. Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat is probably the one I've re-read the most, historically, though I've currently not looked at it in about two years. I've always had the idea it'd be fun to re-create the book and row a boat up the Thames from Kingston to Oxford, camping out at night. That's been done an awful lot, though.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Does a three-volume, unabridged version Gibbon's Decline and Fall count as one book? :-)
I've got the set and it's been waiting about four years for me to read it. Being alone with that on a desert island is probably the only way I'd ever get round to it.
4. One book that made you laugh?
The first Pratchett, the first time I read it, made me laugh so much it hurt! Though he's getting very samey now. One
5. One book that made you cry?
Jeez.... Well some have, though it's hard to think of one right now.
6. One book you wish had been written?
I suppose this means the sequel to something. You can't know whether or not you'd like something original that doesn't actually exist. Another twenty Lord Peter Wimsey stories would be nice - if a genii offered to zap into existence some unwritten books I should probably choose something more worthwhile than those - Shakespeare's "King Arthur" or something. But DLS is all I can think of right now.
Also, it would be nice to know what that "Giant Rat of Summatra" business was all about. < shrugs > But hey, that's why we have fan-fiction!
7. One book you wish had never been written?
For political reasons, it'd be nice if Janice Raymond had never written any of her books. And if she had been quietly dropped down a mineshaft when nobody was looking.
8. One book you are currently reading?
I’ve got to admit to it being a comic book. The last thing I read was the entire Y the last man series that's been printed in paperback to date. Currently, I should be reading “Level Set Methods” by JA Sethian.
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
I can't say "See answer 3" because "a vague inclination to read sometime before senility" is not the same as "meaning to read". I've been seriously meaning to read the Lemony Snicket books.
10. Now tag five people.
myjesusisbetter snigl3t rowan_leigh norwegianblue47 ashavah
