My Kind of Survey

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Well, besides J.K. Rowling...I own all of Jane Austen's novels (including two copies of Pride and Prejudice), so that's 7.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I have three copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (hardcover, paperback, French paperback).

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
A little, but sometimes it's just awkward to rework a sentence around prepositions.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Mr. Darcy, Mr. Tilney, Henry DeTamble, Westley from The Princess Bride, Harry Potter, Leo Borlock, Robbie from Atonement. Wow, I'm in love with a lot of fictional characters.

4a) What fictional character would you most like to be?
Elizabeth Bennet.

4b) What fictional character do you think most resembles you?
I'm afraid that it's Esther Greenwood. Or Brod.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
I have no idea. Probably Maniac Magee because I read it so much as a kid and again a few times as an adult.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Maniac Magee, hands down.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
I've read a lot of good books this year...The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, The Brutal Language of Love by Alicia Erian, White Noise by Don DeLillo, etc.

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

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
I honestly couldn't answer that.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I think The Book of Lost Things would be fantastic. The Brief History of the Dead might be interesting. I'm also interested in seeing the new Bell Jar adaptation.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
I don't really care...I'm not too picky about books being made into movies.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I remember dreaming about falling through the pages of a book when I was a kid. It was scary/awesome.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Twilight...it's like a car crash.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
I'm struggling with The Canterbury Tales right now. Beowulf wasn't a walk in the park, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I still hate The Turn of the Screw and Heart of Darkness is so dense that it hurts.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I haven't seen any really obscure Shakespeare plays. I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and As You Like It.

17) Do prefer French or Russian?
French, bien sur!

18) Roth or Updike?
Haven't read either.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Probably Eggers, but I like both.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, for sure. I'm a sucker for the bard. I like Chaucher's stories, but they're such a chore to read.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven't done much 18th century reading. I feel like I have too many gaps to discuss...

23) What is your favorite novel?
The Bell Jar, Everything is Illuminated, The Trial, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, The Handmaid's Tale

24a) Play?
The Importance of Being Earnest

24b) Musical?
Godspell, Wicked, Aida

25) Poem?
Invictus by William Ernest Henley

26) Essay?
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" by Mark Twain

27) Short story?
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, "The Anatomy of Desire" by John L'Heureux, "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut

28) Work of non-fiction?
Discourse on the Method by Descartes, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, Night by Elie Wiesel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints by Dito Montiel

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Sylvia Plath or Jonathan Safran Foer

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer really needs to go back to Creative Writing 101.

31) What is your desert island book?
Everything is Illuminated.

32) And ... what are you reading right now?
Let's see...selections from The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Pop Salvation by Lance Reynald. I also need to finish Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, but that's currently on hold.