1. What books are your comfort reading — the ones you slink back to in times of stress? Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. Madeleine L’Engle books, especially A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Arm of the Starfish. 2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why? The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key. Don’t know why. Just the idea of this boy from another world, falling into ours; and the vision of the world the boy came from, one where the deer came out, unafraid, to watch the stars alongside the people at night, stayed with me for years and years. 3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why? A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I know there are some uncomfortable bits of subtext there now, but as a teenager growing up in the late days of the cold war, I loved its sense of hope, of nuclear war as a thing that didn’t have to happen, that could be averted. Plus there was a unicorn. 🙂 Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story was a close second, as was Arm of the Starfish. The former because it was about story and writing. The latter because of Joshua (which will only make sense if you’ve read the book, of course). 4. What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf — the books you’ve bought but just never get around to reading? Adult fantasy novels. I really need to get back to reading fantasy written for adults, for balance. Also several history books I keep meaning to get to. 5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do? Books written in a language other than English. It’s a gap in one’s education, to only be able to read in one language. 6. What’s the oddest book you’ve ever read? Hexwood, by Diana Wynne Jones. (Where odd is a good thing.) 7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect? Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I finally gave up, watched the movie, and moved on to book three, which was actually pretty good. 8. What’s the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it? The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 9. What’s your favorite short story…or do you even have one? Hmm… Not sure there’s any one. Ursula K. Le guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas comes to mind, as does Sherwood Smith’s Visions. Sean Stewart’s The New Girl. I’m sure there are many others I’m forgetting. 10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don’t count; if you want Lord of the Rings it’ll cost you all three slots). Go: The answer to this one pretty much depends what day you ask me. Today: Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword But I thought one traditionally gets five to ten books on a desert island. Who swiped my other seven books?
Shakespeare’s The Tempest
A good thick guide to survival in desert environments
Another book meme
Because I’m sure this isn’t the first I’ve answered.