via Studeo
1. What author do you own the most books by?
I’m not sure. Probably Tolkien if you count the all the volumes edited by his son. After that maybe Patrick O’Brien or C.S. Lewis. I am, of course, referring to the household library, composed of all the books Dom and I both brought to the marriage. Looking only at the books that are more strictly mine, bought before marriage or that I’ve acquired since, it’s probably Dorothy Dunnett.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
The Bible, of course. Not sure how many copies of that; but quite a few. After the Bible, The Lord of the Rings. I think we have at least five copies between the two of us, not counting the audio book.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Of course not. That’s a silly rule, meant to be broken.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Lord Peter Wimsey (from the mysteries by Dorothy Sayers) or Francis Crawford of Lymond (from the series by Dorothy Dunnett)
5. What book have you read the most times in your life?
Probably The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
That’s of course if you don’t count the countless times I’ve read the one volume complete Winnie-the-Pooh to Isabella.
6. Favorite book as a ten year old?
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. What is the worst book you�ve read in the past year?
Probably some wretched board book Bella brought to me and insisted on. I try to wipe those from my memory as soon as possible.
8. What is the best book you�ve read in the past year?
So hard to answer this question. I hate picking favorites. And do I even remember what I’ve read? I looked back through the last year of reviews I’ve written for the blog and if I had to pick a favorite it might be Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris
9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
Well, force is never a word that should be used in conjunction with reading; but I know that’s being nitpicky.
On my short list of most recommended non-fiction would be Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Fiction might be Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ask me next week and my answers may vary vastly.
10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I know I have thought of an answer to this one and just can’t remember it right now.
11. What is the most difficult book you�ve ever read?
Probably Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. I loved all my philosophy classes but they all convinced me that at heart I’m a poet not a philosopher. I see the world through very different lenses.
12. What is your favorite book?
You’re kidding, right? Have you seen my library? Who could pick just one, they are all my friends.
13. Play?
Well, it’s either by Shakespeare or Stoppard. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is definitely right up there.
14. Poem?
Again, just one? T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets or Dedication to my Wife or Journey of the Magi….Eliot has a special place in my heart just because we lived through so much together. But I love Gerard Manly Hopkins, Seamus Heaney, Billy Collins, Robert Frost…. I hate to slight any of them.
15. Essay?
I really like Paul Graham. Especially fun is this meta-essay: The Age of the Essay.
16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Dan Brown. Terrible, abominable, wretched writing and yet highly popular.
17. What is your desert island book?
I’m going to be boring and say the Bible. But really, only one book… I know where my priorities are. As much as I love to read, I know in extremis there is still only one book that is the Word that will feed me.
18. And . . . what are you reading right now?
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
Breakfast with the Nikolides by Rumer Godden
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Graced and Gifted by Kimberly Hahn
The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You by Michael Dubruiel
Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett (read aloud I just started doing with my sister who loves the Lymond Chronicles but has never read the Niccolo series.)
. . . also a pile of books waiting to be read and reviewed….
And this just in today’s mail at long last: Karen Edmisten’s lovely book: The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary
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