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Books to be Buried With

2 replies

BalalaikaBalaclavaBaklava · 19/02/2024 14:05

Inspired by the Films to be Buried With podcast by Brett Goldstein (worth a listen if you're on the hunt for a new podcast) and because i love reading and am procrastinating from doing actual work right now, please tell me about the books that have been significant in your life, via the following questions:

  1. What's the first book you can remember reading?
  1. What's the book that made you laugh the most?
  1. What's the book that made you cry the most?
  1. What book do you love, it might not be critically acclaimed but you love it and you don't care what anyone else says?
  1. What book did you used to love but not anymore. Maybe your tastes have changed, maybe the world has moved on and the book just is an uncomfortable read?
  1. What book have you re-read the most?
  1. What book means the most to you and why. It doesn't have to be a great literary work but it means something special to you.
  1. What book have you least enjoyed/been unable to finish?
  1. What book did you find a great or fascinating read but you never want to read it again, and why not?
  1. Which character in a book do you most identify with, and why?

  2. If you were stranded on a desert island, what 5 books would you choose to make it to the island with you?

Now Brett asks other or different questions in his film podcast but I'll leave it here as i dont think people will necessarily want to answer questions about the sexiest book they've ever read, (or the subcategory). If any additional questions occur to you, feel free to ask them.

I'll post my answers below when I can - I'll have to give it some thought as I don't know all my answers yet.

And if anyone knows of a podcast that follows a format like this with new guests each week talking about books via similar questions, please let me know so I can give it a listen.

OP posts:
BalalaikaBalaclavaBaklava · 19/02/2024 14:35

Hmm, that's annoying - the question numbers in my OP are all wrong and editing them still didn't work. Well the answers I have are:

Q1. First book - One of the Noddy books by Enid Blyton when I was about 6 I think. I was staying with my gran and she bought 3 of these books from a charity shop & I loved them. They turned me into a huge Enid fan, though I could never get into The Secret Seven. Enid is to blame for me begging my mum to send me to boarding school. Thank god we couldn't ever begin to afford it - I'm sure the reality would have been miserable for me.

Q2. The book that made me laugh the most is Catch-22. So funny, once I properly got into and started understanding the book - which took a while.

Q3. The book that made me cry the most I think has to be The Kite Runner, which, from memory i think is by Khaled Hosseini. A great book but I cried great juddering tears reading it. I've cried over many books but this one stands out.

Q4. The book I love that isn't critically acclaimed - tbh, there's loads of them. I read a lot of 'trash' and a lot of widely recognised as 'good' books. I guess the series that people could really judge me on, as they are in no way high brow, would be the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day. I really enjoyed this series and it's probably a set of books I wouldn't readily admit to liking irl!

Actually, another example is The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. These were hugely commercially successful so many people will agree with me, but just as many would probably think I've got awful taste in books.

Q5. The book I used to love but don't anymore would be Memoirs of a Geisha. I adored this book by Arthur Golden I think. I read it repeatedly but read it again maybe 10 years ago and it just didn't stand up, I didn't think it was beautiful anymore.

Q6. The book I've read most often is probably Pride & Prejudice. I love it so much, and pre-kid when I had so much more spare time, I would finish this and start reading it again immediately.

Q7. The book that means the most to me - I'll come back to this one. I don't know. I love too many books.

Q8. The book I least enjoyed would probably be a toss up between Bleak House or Anna Karenina. Both took up hours if my life that I'll never get back. I read those in my twenties when I still thought abandoning a book partway through was a failure on my part. Nowadays I realise life is too short to be reading a book I'm getting no enjoyment from whatsoever.

Q9. The book I.most enjoyed but never want to read again would be The Kite Runner. Too sad for me to ever want to read it or watch the film, yet I'd recommend it to people. A lot of people love his novel, A thousand Splendid Suns and say it made them cry. I was dry eyed at it. I dont know what that says about me!

Q10. Character in a book I most identify with - I honestly have no idea.

Q11. 5 books on a desert island- this is a lost that for me, would change from year to year I think. Right now it would be Pride & Prejudice, Lord of The Rings series (I love them but they're really long so get hours of reading from them - and i have them in a single book so this isn't cheating - is it?), Catch 22 as I get something new from this book each time I read it. I.dont know for the other two. It's too hard to choose. I'm vaguely thinking maybe Vanity Fair by Thackeray and cheating again by selecting the whole Twilight Series. I want some trash, comedy, romance, adventure and high brow writing in my reading so I'm trying to cover those bases here.

OP posts:
LunaNorth · 19/02/2024 14:49
  1. What's the book that made you laugh the most?

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4

What's the book that made you cry the most?

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

What book do you love, it might not be critically acclaimed but you love it and you don't care what anyone else says?

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes.

What book did you used to love but not anymore. Maybe your tastes have changed, maybe the world has moved on and the book just is an uncomfortable read?

Stig of the Dump by Clive King. Unbelievably boring!

What book have you re-read the most?

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

What book means the most to you and why. It doesn't have to be a great literary work but it means something special to you.

Salt On My Skin by Benoit Groult.

What book have you least enjoyed/been unable to finish?

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.

What book did you find a great or fascinating read but you never want to read it again, and why not?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Far too depressing, and a disappointing ending.

  1. Which character in a book do you most identify with, and why? Mr. Pooter. He constantly makes a bit of an arse of himself.

  2. If you were stranded on a desert island, what 5 books would you choose to make it to the island with you?

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.
The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse.
Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson.
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare.

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