Two book memes!

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It’s the first book I ever bought myself, and while I’ve had other books since before it, it’s the one that’s still in the shelf, and is not going anywhere.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

Most of them. Rereading something, or sometimes just looking at a book I’ve read, I remember when and where I’ve read it. But something special… Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They opened the bookstore at seven in the morning the Saturday that came out, and I was pretty much first in line, maybe the fourth to get it. It was a nice, warm summer’s morning, so I went to read it in a park, then a café, and then the seaside while watching the Tall Ships’ Race ships leave. People were asking whether anyone had died in the book yet. Then I locked myself home, closed the windows from the noise of the festival going on outside, and read the rest of it.

But yeah, I remember where and who I’ve gotten or bought all my books, so they all remind me of something specific: themselves. X)

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. I was on interrail through half of Europe in 2004, and had picked up two used books in Amsterdam, one of the first stops we made. One of them didn’t really interest me at all. When we got to Prague, our last proper stop before heading home, I spotted Angela’s Ashes in the hostel’s common room’s shelf. I remembered liking the movie a lot, so I picked it up and read a little of it. Then I went to the guy minding the hostel reception and asked whether I could leave the book I didn’t like and take AA with me, since it didn’t really belong to anyone, someone had just left it at the hostel, like the other books as well. He seemed a little confused at the thought, or my English, but eventually I got AA and spent the train ride from Prague to Berlin reading it, whilst heavily hung over. (Drinking beer, wine, Jägermeister and absinthe within one day: BAD idea.)

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

…I could say the above here, since it traveled with me through half of Europe. But maybe I could think of another one. Ooh, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, which I bought on the above trip, once I got to Berlin. I think I had it with me a year or so later when I went to Berlin again, and from there to Milan.

The most recent addition to your shelves.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I’ve seen the BBC movie of it, and liked it, and since I really like her other books, I bought it as well, and maybe will get to read it soon…ish. Little Stranger, also by Waters, is also quite new in my shelves and waiting to be read.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

Just finished reading Martin Millar’s Lux the Poet, for the second time within a few months. I’m in the middle of Try by Dennis Cooper, which is… quite disturbing. I’ve been ‘reading’ it for over a month now, and am near halfway through, but it sometimes seems a little too deviated to read. And I’m not queasy, I like watching Takeshi Miike’s movies for kicks…

There are two shelves’ worth of books waiting to be read for the first time, and another shelf of books I’d like to reread. I don’t know which one will be next. Wish I did!

*

*

ABC Book Meme

For this meme, you list a favorite book that starts with each letter of the alphabet. If you don’t have a book for a letter (such as Z or X) than you can substitute a favorite book that simply has that letter in the title (ex. The Lost City of Z or Hot Six by Janet Evanovich). However, you can only do this a maximum of 3 times. (Z, X, and Q. But not Z, X, Q, and V.) Books can be of any genre from fiction to non-fiction to poetry to textbooks.

A: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
B: the Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
C: the Caterer by Lint and Sienkel, a VERY weird comic
D: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
E: Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi by Johanna Sinisalo
F: the Fetch by Robert Holdstock
G: the Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar*
H: Harry Potter series (they all begin Harry Potter and…) by J. K. Rowling
I: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
J: the Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
K: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
L: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
M: Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
N: the Neverending Story by Michael Ende
O: On the Banks of Lethe by James L. Grant
P: Porno by Irvine Welsh
Q: Classic Queen by Mick Rock, a photo book
R: Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
S: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
T: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
U: Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius by Michael Moorcock (aka the Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century)
V: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. A graphic novel, that counts, right?
W: the Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
X: Lux the Poet by Martin Millar
Y: Yami no Matsuei by Yoko Matsushita. So it’s a comic… series.
Z: Suzy, Led Zeppelin and me by Martin Millar. Two Z’s for the price of one!

* Haven’t actually read Good Fairies… yet, but couldn’t think of anything else starting with G, and already used the three substitutes on the more difficult letters. But if it’s near as good as the other Millar’s I’ve read, it’ll go on this list.