Eva's Reading Meme

I saw this over at A Striped Armchair and thought it would be a fun meme to think about.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Everyone loved it except one reviewer who was scandalized by something "immoral" on the first page (perhaps the first chapter? I don't remember.) My best friend and her husband loved it. I have it in my 2008 TBR list, hopefully I'll get to it this year.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be? Ranger from Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. Babe. Eric from Charlaine Harris's Dead to the World. And Roarke from J.D. Robb's In Death series. Oh come on, tell me you wouldn't want to be in the room with any ONE of them!

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave? The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I think this is the only book I've ever gone to the teacher/ professor and said I just couldn't read, could I please be assigned something else.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it? I don't know that I've ever outright lied about having read something. I may have said I'd read Faulkner based on reading part of Go Down, Moses in 11th grade English. We weren't required to read the whole thing, so I didn't.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book? I really can't think of anything that fits this one.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP) This is hard because recent books spring to mind so much more readily. If I didn't know the VIP, I'd probably recommend Harry Potter since it's one of the few books that seems to span all reading interests. Maybe Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock since I love seeing the reaction to that one. And I did just love The Time Traveler's Wife, but I can't see it appealing to many men.


A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with? Is it cheating to say Italian because I am dying to be able to speak Italian? I don't actually know of any Italian literature.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick? The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. For a while there I was reading it every year anyway. I think it will be the first real book I try to read along to the Monkey, even though I know he won't get it.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)? I've discovered that I don't ever complete a challenge. I've also (like Eva) discovered YA fiction. So much of it is very similar to adult fiction, except for the age of the characters.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free. It would have to be huge with lots of shelves, but not necessarily the old wooden shelves with the ladder. I'd want a squishy couch and couple different style chairs, and little tables on each side of each of them. Plus a coffee table. And a coffee maker and a mini-fridge. A couple of cats. The books would be a little bit of everything, but would be organized by subject and author. There would be a magic spell on it that made everyone who entered instantly talk in a quiet tone, and NO ONE would be forced to be a pirate. In fact, even the smallest of children would discover a need to sit down and read and there would be a corner of the room filled with the best picture books (the ones that mom is just too cheap to buy) and bean bag chairs of lounging.

And now, let’s say everyone has to tag four people (more than that becomes a hassle, imho)
I'm going to tag the other bloggers at my other blog- We'd Rather Read, plus Trish, NOLADawn and Jill.

And just to prove it, I’m (Eva's) going to bribe you…if you leave a comment letting me know you’ve done the meme with a link to the post, I’ll give you some link love via a big list on this post of who’s participated. If in that post, you link back to this one, I’ll also enter you in a drawing to win my ARC of The House at Riverton (see my review below). If you’re an American, this is especially exciting since it isn’t going to published until April. To be in the drawing, you must have posted the meme (and commented here) by February 5th, which is when I’m holding the drawing (it’s also my niece’s second birthday!).