I saw this meme pop up on my friend Lynn’s blog recently, and thought it would be a fun one to take for a spin!
GREED – What is your most inexpensive book?
That’s hard, because I regularly go to the Library Warehouse Sale to buy books for 50 cents… Here’s one, not actually the most inexpensive but the most jaw-dropping “it’s really that cheap?” purchase: A Window in Thrums by J. M. Barrie, 1897 edition, with the lovely handwritten inscription “For Grandmother from Mary Eunice, December 25th 1898,” sold online for the ridiculously low price of…$2.62. !!!
I kind of feel like Greed should really ask about my most expensive book…which is a massive, two-volume set on my favorite artist, William Bouguereau, one volume of which is almost entirely images of his gorgeous paintings…and it cost me $300. It was a moment of madness in a museum gift shop–but I’m pretty sure this is THE definitive book on his work. And I haven’t regretted it yet!
Now I just need to muster up the courage or madness to drop another $300 (or so) on a signed J. M. Barrie. Signed L. M. Montgomery, sadly, is FAR out of my price range.
WRATH – What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?
Edgar Rice Burroughs comes to mind. I love reading his books–I have over fifty of them! But I sigh a lot about his pathetic heroines, a few of his books have some pretty appalling racism in them, and after reading a biography…yeah, I’m pretty sure Burroughs and I could not have been friends.
GLUTTONY – What book have you devoured over and over with no shame?
I Want to Go Home! by Gordon Korman. I think by the time I was twelve, I had read it twelve times–and it stayed just as funny.
SLOTH – What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?
I neglected finishing Winston and Clementine, a collection of letters between Winston Churchill and his wife, for years. And there’s no excuse, since I loved the first part that I read–then got distracted–and didn’t get back to it. But I finally got it read as part of my chunkster challenge last year.
PRIDE – What book do you talk most about to sound like an intellectual reader?
But I never name-drop books to sound intellectual… 😉 Actually, I really don’t, mostly because all my friends like fantasy and sci fi and we have too much shared reading experience to impress each other. Although if I was going to name-drop, Les Miserables would probably be my best bet.
LUST – What attributes do you find attractive in male or female characters?
Give me a green-eyed book hero and I am lost. Which is funny, because I don’t particularly look for that in actors or, you know, real life! It’s strictly a book thing. I also have kind of a thing for brooding heroes with hearts of gold (in books. Ahem).
ENVY – What book would you most like to receive as a gift?
Yeah…I don’t know. I have an Amazon wishlist, but nothing particularly jumps out as MORE desired than any other. I’d actually really like the soundtrack of Once Upon a Forest, because I love the one song on the soundtrack that Michael Crawford sang but, um, I can’t quite bring myself to spend $25 for basically one song (well, three, I like two of the others…) I’ll probably do it eventually, I’m just working up to it…but that’s not a book. Though kind of on the subject, I’d be over the moon if someone gave me an autographed J. M. Barrie book! And autographed L. M. Montgomery–I would be your best friend for life!
But I’ll feel friendly towards you too if you leave a comment with your answer to any of these questions! 🙂