The Literary Geek Meme

I've seen this meme in several places, but recently I was tagged for it on Facebook. I figured it was worth posting my answers here as well.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Agatha Christie (see question #2) followed by Gary Gygax. (I married a nerd, what can I say?) Not counting my husband's books, I'd say my #2 is Margaret Frazer. I collect both of her series.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
There are 80-something books in our LT library that we own multiple copies of. Some are actually multiple editions of the same book (mostly textbooks) but many are due to overlaps in my husband and I's taste. For example, we both collected Agatha Christie books for a while, so we have duplicates of almost all her books. And we don't get rid of anything.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Edward Cullen. HA! Just kidding! Hell would freeze over first. I'm not secretly in love with anyone.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Alanna by Tamora Pierce, probably. Or from the Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
See #5.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I can't think of anything truly awful, really, that I finished. I did read Twilight and New Moon, which are terrible in some ways but impossible to put down. I did abandon two; Roanoke: A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue by Margaret Lawrence comes to mind first.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Just one? Old Man's War was fantastic, as was Never Let Me Go. The Hunger Games was so much fun. The Mote in God's Eye was great.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I don't think I would, but I have been encouraging (pushing) the books in #8 on my friends. I have also, in the past, recommended Ender's Gam and, more recently, Old Man's War to many people, including those who swear an aversion to sci-fi. That's just because you don't know what you are missing, people.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Uh, someone smart? Ask my sister, she knows these kinds of things.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I can't wait for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie to come out!

12) What book would you -least- like to see made into a movie?
Most of them, really. I'm usually very wary when my favorite books are made into movies.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I can't think of any.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
There are too many to count: I have very lowbrow tastes. Hence all the SF, YA, murder mysteries, etc. I don't like Romance, though, usually, as I don't like reading about sex.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
In grad school, I read a fair amount of architectural and post-modern theory, most of which is pretty difficult to get through.

16) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
They're all pretty great, but I know Shakespeare best. Unless we're not talking about in translation, because there's no way I'm reading Middle English.

17) Austen or Eliot?
Who? Just kidding! Kind of. I've never read Austen and I've only read Eliot's poetry, so I'm not sure I can compare.

18) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
See #17, I guess.

19) What is your favorite novel?
Again, too many to name.

20) Play?
I'm more of a musical theatre gal, myself (I can pretty much sing Guys & Dolls, West Side Story and Oklahoma! in their entirety), so I don't feel qualified to answer.

21) Short story?
Is The Awakening by Kate Chopin a novella or short story?

22) Work of non-fiction?
Favorite? Its so hard to choose these things. I love a lot of non-fiction, actually. Kitchen Confidential, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan... I bet I could go on. (I just noticed - there sure are a lot of food books in there, and I didn't even include any cookbooks.)

23) Who is your favorite writer?
All this choosing! Who can decide? CS Lewis, Tamora Pierce, Scott Westerfeld, Agatha Christie, Margaret Frazer, Robert Heinlein, John Scalzi, etc.

24) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I don't know. Stephanie Meyer?

25) What is your desert island book?
Probably something by Heinlein - before I started blogging, I tended to be a pretty big re-reader, and it was not uncommon for me to read Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love every year.

26) And ... what are you reading right now?
The Book of Unholy Mischief: A Novel by Elle Newmark. Its quite good, so far.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a link to your answers in the comments.