Amy asks:
Name a book you love in a genre you normally don’t care for. What made you decide to read it? Did it make you want to try more in that genre?
Harry Potter, and I ended up reading all seven books in the series. Broomsticks and cauldrons, wands and potions, what in the name of Merlin's beard are they?.... I recall my own snigger at these things; look up my book shelf where the books are lovingly piled, and think of telling the sister-in-law how she influenced me to read HP.
Because I'm sure she has no idea what she's done. She was holding a wineglass in one hand and HP2 in the other over a meal during one family get-together. The cover I saw was of Harry dangling from the flying car above the Yorkshire Moors. I wouldn't have been curious if she was a ninth grader, but she's a medical doctor. Okay, she's a globe trotter too so maybe it was a book she did not finish from some trans-atlantic flight, but what business would a decent dermatologist have with petrificus totalus or wingardium leviosa?
That got my nostrils on the magical pages of HP for long, delightful hours and almost tempted me to steal a chapter or two at work. Curiosity could have killed the cat.
Bookish Sarah asks an interesting assortment of questions:
What genre do you avoid reading and why?
Erotica and dark fantasy (some call it a sub-genre) - I don't last long in these genres. I get bored easily and then I go particular with money value.
Thursday Thirteen: I write like...
A haiku poet invited me to join his haiku meme. I went strolling around his site, and found a charmingly interesting widget that says he writes like Charles Dickens. There was a link so I hopped over there, and as I'm no writer, you could imagine what fun I got out of checking "which famous writer I write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers."
Here we go ---
1. As I’m someone who still loves having traditional books around, I say that’s the spirit! ~ E-books v. printed books, and whether a Kindle loaded with a thousand books would weigh heavier than one with only a hundred books.
2 Utmost love most pure / divinely capable of / crimson sacrifice ~ Love at Calvary (an Easter haiku)
3 In Hua Hin Hills visitors can tour vineyards in a way you normally can’t in Burgundy or Tuscany: riding on an elephant. Vineyards of Thailand
4. Built in world war two / the Spanish house stood / along the road /
Capiz shells made up its windows... / Out came “yakan, yaweh…” ~ Casa Embrujada, a free verse written for Halloween
5 It miffed my mother who was worried it was senility progressing... she sways her hips to imaginary music. ~ Waltzing Rosario, about my waltz-loving Grandma
6. I’ll pass those up.... My money is getting spent on time-tested quality entertainment – ballet and opera. ~ on Lady Gaga's Bad Bangkok Romance
7 Those nights of Wuthering Heights chain-smoking til 3 a.m.... and as enigmatic as Enigma. ~ reminiscing Mea Culpa
8 Just when I was about to send it over, I realized that if I were offered a place, the very topic I built a case on would send me back to Thailand for data-gathering. ~ Austenuating Jane Austen
9 “A quality haiku. Just the right amount of zest” says a published UK novelist/poet of my first attempt at a meme called Haiku Heights. ~ Pirouette
10 He congratulated her for passing some national exam. They bumped into each other at the luncheon that followed... ~ Christmas without you
11 "Austenuating a fire in my head" - an old tagline
12 If it’s made by Shangri-la and no other I’d actually eat it. This one looks like a throat clogger. I won’t take the risk. ~ on being shown a hideous fruit cake and asked if I would eat it
13 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a blogger in possession of a Jane Austen addiction must be in want of more Jane Austen adaptations. Now isn't this obvious?
HAPPY THURSDAY MY FRIENDS :)
I've also read the full set of Harry Potter and Dan Brown books and also Sydney Sheldon.
ReplyDeleteWow, you write like some great authors! I am definitely doing this right now! I also avoid erotica because it usually just doesn't interest me XD Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy BTT
Juli @ Universe in Words
Loved your throat clogger.
ReplyDeleteHave a great Thursday!
http://harrietandfriends.com/2012/08/13-things-i-did-in-nyc-last-week/
i am into book reading too, i have accumulated several balikbayan boxes full of books and still continue to buy books i find worth reading, my youngest son is also a bookworm like me, maybe the reason why we have poor eyesight ahaha
ReplyDeleteAh Harriet, you remember. Those were the good, old blogging days :)
ReplyDeleteim thrilled! you must have had a library full of great books/authors with you. and i really admire at how you write.
ReplyDeleteHP is my absolute favorite + at the rate i am going, will soon be my little man's fave, too! :) there is really something special about the way JK Rowling wrote her book, it's as if i can almost smell the Hogwart's air whenever I have my nose burrowed in one of her pages!
ReplyDeleteI love this widget thing, but didn't you notice the result changes each time you put another writing sample? not that consistent, I guess!
And that's what makes the fun element to it hard to miss :)
ReplyDelete