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And when it's time to go to bed, I'm still awake inside my head
A meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
setsuled, because it's about books.
What are you reading right now?
If I were reading anything right now, I wouldn't be answering this meme. Books that I'm reading or re-reading in pieces—while taking trains or buses, winding down before bed—are Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (1850), J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion (1977), Kara Dalkey's The Nightingale (1988), Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness (1930), and probably one or two other things on the dining room table or the couch in the living room. I have recently read two novels by Dick Francis that my mother left around the house, and they weren't bad.
Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?
My most recent purchase is Jo Walton's Farthing (2006), which I am saving until I am actually done with the next piece of my own. But I have no guarantee that I won't run into something else before then. There'll be an article in The New Yorker, a story linked online, a poem I need to look up. Reading is not an activity I make space for; it's one of the default modes of my brain.
What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
I'm not sure I ever was forced to read anything bad. For years I disliked Sylvia Plath, but that was a failure of pedagogy rather than poesy: my tenth grade English teacher discussed her work solely in terms of autobiography, gender, and suicide. (When I rediscovered her on my own some years later, she promptly became one of my favorite poets.) And I have been handed books in which I had no interest by friends who loved them, but usually I have been able to dodge them with a modicum of tact. But I'm not wild about Isokrates, my primary reaction to Saint Augustine is to yell for a therapist, and the plays of Aischylos, except for The Persians, pretty much leave me cold.
What's the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
I have no idea. Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History (2000)?
Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
Not anymore. But when I was in elementary and middle school, I practically lived in the Cambridge Library, and there was a librarian who knew me on sight.
Do you read books while you eat?
Yes, although not if I'm in the company of people I want to talk to. Mostly.
While you bathe?
I haven't taken a formal bath—as opposed to showering—in about three years, and while I am sure that at some point I read a book in the bath just for the experience, it hasn't been any time recently.
While you watch movies or TV?
No; I think it would sort of miss the point of both. If I were doing a point-by-point comparion of a book and its adaptation, however, I might spend a lot of time with a published screenplay, the original text, and the DVD remote.
While you listen to music?
Yes; I listen to music most of the time. It doesn't interfere with reading or vice versa, although I am wired to give preference to the visual rather than the auditory. I have always learned better from texts than lectures.
While you're on the computer?
I don't like reading books off the screen: unless there's no other text available, I much prefer printed copies. I think that's a no.
While you're having sex?
The question is not applicable at the moment.
While you're driving?
I have a few self-preservation instincts, thank you!
What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down?
Possibly Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss (2007), but I am usually up half the night anyway; it's not necessarily a mark of distinction. I still highly recommend the book.
setsuled, because it's about books.What are you reading right now?
If I were reading anything right now, I wouldn't be answering this meme. Books that I'm reading or re-reading in pieces—while taking trains or buses, winding down before bed—are Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (1850), J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion (1977), Kara Dalkey's The Nightingale (1988), Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness (1930), and probably one or two other things on the dining room table or the couch in the living room. I have recently read two novels by Dick Francis that my mother left around the house, and they weren't bad.
Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?
My most recent purchase is Jo Walton's Farthing (2006), which I am saving until I am actually done with the next piece of my own. But I have no guarantee that I won't run into something else before then. There'll be an article in The New Yorker, a story linked online, a poem I need to look up. Reading is not an activity I make space for; it's one of the default modes of my brain.
What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
I'm not sure I ever was forced to read anything bad. For years I disliked Sylvia Plath, but that was a failure of pedagogy rather than poesy: my tenth grade English teacher discussed her work solely in terms of autobiography, gender, and suicide. (When I rediscovered her on my own some years later, she promptly became one of my favorite poets.) And I have been handed books in which I had no interest by friends who loved them, but usually I have been able to dodge them with a modicum of tact. But I'm not wild about Isokrates, my primary reaction to Saint Augustine is to yell for a therapist, and the plays of Aischylos, except for The Persians, pretty much leave me cold.
What's the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
I have no idea. Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History (2000)?
Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
Not anymore. But when I was in elementary and middle school, I practically lived in the Cambridge Library, and there was a librarian who knew me on sight.
Do you read books while you eat?
Yes, although not if I'm in the company of people I want to talk to. Mostly.
While you bathe?
I haven't taken a formal bath—as opposed to showering—in about three years, and while I am sure that at some point I read a book in the bath just for the experience, it hasn't been any time recently.
While you watch movies or TV?
No; I think it would sort of miss the point of both. If I were doing a point-by-point comparion of a book and its adaptation, however, I might spend a lot of time with a published screenplay, the original text, and the DVD remote.
While you listen to music?
Yes; I listen to music most of the time. It doesn't interfere with reading or vice versa, although I am wired to give preference to the visual rather than the auditory. I have always learned better from texts than lectures.
While you're on the computer?
I don't like reading books off the screen: unless there's no other text available, I much prefer printed copies. I think that's a no.
While you're having sex?
The question is not applicable at the moment.
While you're driving?
I have a few self-preservation instincts, thank you!
What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down?
Possibly Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss (2007), but I am usually up half the night anyway; it's not necessarily a mark of distinction. I still highly recommend the book.
no subject
That's what I figured. I remembered "hanashimasu" and vaguely conjectured your meaning . . . Both my Japanese teachers were actually native Japanese speakers, yet they were peculiarly married to their text books. I rather wished they'd mentioned now and then how people usually actually spoke.
a colloquial, semi-polite way of asking that same question is "Nihongo ga hanaseru no desu ka"--and then you abbreviate "hanaseru no" to "hanaserun"
That's good to know, thanks.