Answering 50 Questions For Every Serious Reader

Lisa Libes recent post, 50 Questions For Every Serious Reader, is an interesting piece of self-revelation, which I will resist the urge to comment on. Instead, I will indulge in a little self-revelation of my own. Feel free to comment on it.

1. Favorite book

   Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

2. Second-favorite book

   The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

3. Third-favorite book

   Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

4. Favorite book that’s not by your favorite author

   The Power and the Glory

5. Least favorite book

   (That I have finished, because there are a lot worse that I DNF) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Aptly named because writing it was a crime and reading it was a punishment. (Ha ha!)

6. Second-least favorite book

   East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Not because it is the second-worst book I have read, by a long chalk, but because it was such a ponderous disappointment after the drive of The Grapes of Wrath and the lightness of Cannery Row. The Wayward Bus is more ponderously literary still, but came with fewer hopes and expectations.

7. Book that made you cry the most

   I’m far too manly to cry over a book… Oh, all right, The Old Curiosity Shop, maybe?

8. Book that made you laugh the most

   Uncle Fred in the Springtime, in joint first place with everything else Wodehouse ever wrote.

9. Most underrated novel

   The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

10. Most overrated novel

    The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (more due to its current status as the darling of the intelligentsia than anything else). Of course, an overrated novel does not have to be bad; it just has to be rated above its merits. I almost said The Lord of the Rings, which I quite like, and have read more than once, but is nonetheless currently rated far above its actual merits.

11. Book you wish everyone would read

    Other than my own, you mean? The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

12. Book you wish you’d read sooner

    The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

13. Book that changed the way you think

    Well, lots of them, but let’s stick with The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

14. Most beautiful prose you’ve ever read

    I don’t think prose qua prose is particularly beautiful. It is rather the sentiments evoked by the story that the prose tells that provoke a sense of beauty, and therefore any passage that seems striking when read in context will seem ordinary when read in isolation. The phrase that sprang to mind when I read the question is perhaps an illustration of this phenomenon: “I certainly never changed my rooms – there were gillyflowers growing below the windows which on summer evenings filled them with fragrance.” From Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

15. Favorite opening sentence

    “It is a truth universally acknowledged…” You know the rest.

16. Favorite ending

    Charles’s conversion in Brideshead Revisited.

17. Favorite literary character

    Toad. Wait, that can’t be right, can it? Jeeves, maybe? Nope, I’m going with Toad.

18. Literary character you relate to most

    Toad. (I just bought this. Poop poop!)

    

19. Favorite literary villain

    Uriah Heap (I so wanted to say Toad again!)

20. Favorite author

    Evelyn Waugh

21. Favorite living author

    Alan Garner (I think he’s still alive.)

22. Book you return to again and again

    Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited

23. The book you’d save if you could keep only one

    Other than my own, you mean? I believe I am creedally required to say The Bible.

24. The book you’d recommend to someone who wants to fall in love with literature

    Other than my own, you mean? The Wind in the Willows

25. Book you’ve reread the most

    Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited

26. Favorite novella

    I can’t think of a novella I’ve even read, let alone have a favorite.

27. Favorite short story

    Riki Tiki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling

28. Saddest ending

    The Old Curiosity Shop

29. Happiest ending

    Pride and Prejudice

30. Favorite play

    A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

31. Favorite poem

    The Stolen Child by W.H. Auden

32. Favorite opening chapter

    Pride and Prejudice

33. Favorite closing chapter

    Brideshead Revisited

34. Favorite literary friendship

    Charles and Sebastian from Brideshead Revisited. Or Mole and Rat from The Wind in the Willows. Take your pick.

35. Favorite literary romance

    Pride and Prejudice

36. Most unforgettable scene in literature

    The St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V

37. Best narrator

    Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited

38. Book you wish had a sequel

    The Wind in the Willows

39. Book that intimidated you the most

    (Not read, never going to read) that huge Proust thing I can’t be bothered to look up the name of.

40. Hardest book you’ve ever finished

    Crime and Punishment was the hardest to slog through. East of Eden was a close second.

41. Book that surprised you the most

    Cannery Row

42. Book that disappointed you the most

    East of Eden

43. Book you recommend most often

    Other than my own, you mean? Probably Cannery Row or The Wind in the Willows

44. Book you wish more people knew about

    Other than my own, you mean? Intellectuals by Paul Johnson

45. Book you wish you could read again for the first time

    Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

46. Book that made you fall in love with reading

    Swallows and Amazons

47. Book that deserves to be taught in every school

    Other than my own, you mean? Swallows and Amazons

48. The greatest novel ever written

    Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited

49. The most beautiful sentence you’ve ever read

    Other than my own, you mean? Asked and answered.

50. One final recommendation that hasn’t been mentioned yet

    Other than my own, you mean? The novels of Charles Williams.