Interrogation . . .
This list of questions came from a reading meme from the most wonderful blog: Julianne Douglas’s Writing the Renaissance http://writingren.blogspot.com/ and I have chosen to answer it in my own way.
1. Which author do you own the most books by?
Dorothy Dunnett. 14 novels of The Lymond Saga and The House of Niccolo and The Dorothy Dunnett Companion Vols 1 and 2 by Elspeth Morrisson.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Single copies of every title in my library.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with a preposition?
No, which is possibly why I need an editor. But I did change “What author do you . . .’ to ‘Which author do you . . .’
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? (and I sort of feel this should be “Which fictional character . . . )
Niccolo de Fleury from The House of Niccolo, Guy of Gisborne from The Sheriff’s Collector, Finnian from A Thousand Glass Flowers, Rupert Campbell-Black from Jilly Cooper’s Rivals and subsequent novels. And yet I am happily married!
5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding children’s picture books)?
All the Dorothy Dunnett’s 
plus Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers and Winter Solstice, LM Montgomery’s Anne books.
6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Summer of the Great Secret by Monica Edwards. I loved horse books and this combined my love of horses and the Cornish countryside, and was the first place I learned of the Old English method of counting sheep: “Yain, tain, tethera” etc.
7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I won’t say.
8. What is the best book you’ve read in the last year?
Sei Shonagon’s ‘Pillowbook.’
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I don’t believe in forcing anyone to read my choices.
10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
That’s for others more erudite than I to judge.
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Any of the Dunnett’s or A Thousand Glass Flowers.
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
‘Since I don’t see many movies, it really doesn’t matter to me.’ From the above-mentioned blog.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
No way!!!
14. What is the most lowbrow book you read as an adult?
I love little children’s books. Which is not to say I think they are lowbrow but just that they reach a lower level of maturity. And I did read a Harlequin romance this year.
15. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
A non-fiction title on grief.
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve ever seen?
Henry V. Couldn’t finish it.
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Of the limited number tackled some thirty years ago: French.
18. Roth or Updike?
Never read them.
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I haven’t read them.
20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer and Shakespeare.
21. Austin or Eliot?
Adore Austen.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Classics, modern classics, Australian literature, American literature, South American literature. I’m blushing as I write.
23. What is your favorite novel?
The House of Niccolo: all 8 books.
24. Favorite play?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
25. Favorite poem?
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
26. Favorite Essay?
Not applicable.
27. Favorite short story?
Have never liked short stories.
28. Favorite work of nonfiction?
The Dorothy Dunnett Companions Vols 1 and 2. By Elspeth Morrisson.
29. Favorite writers?
Too substantial to list.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
“If you can’t say something nice…” quote from above mentioned blog.
31. What is your desert island book?
The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson
32. What are you reading now?
The Dressmaker by Posie Graeme-Evans: a novel of Victorian England.
“I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you answer the meme on your own blog, please post a link!”
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