Answering 50 Questions For Every Serious Reader
Because who doesn't love a list post?
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.
50 Questions For Every Serious Reader
Favorite book
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Second-favorite book
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Third-favorite book
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Favorite book that’s not by your favorite author
The Power and the Glory
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!)
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.
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?
Book that made you laugh the most
Uncle Fred in the Springtime, in joint first place with everything else Wodehouse ever wrote.
Most underrated novel
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
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.
Book you wish everyone would read
Other than my own, you mean? The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
Book you wish you’d read sooner
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
Book that changed the way you think
Well, lots of them, but let’s stick with The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
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.
Favorite opening sentence
“It is a truth universally acknowledged…” You know the rest.
Favorite ending
Charles’s conversion in Brideshead Revisited.
Favorite literary character
Toad. Wait, that can’t be right, can it? Jeeves, maybe? Nope, I’m going with Toad.
Literary character you relate to most
Toad. (I just bought this. Poop poop!)
Favorite literary villain
Uriah Heap (I so wanted to say Toad again!)
Favorite author
Evelyn Waugh
Favorite living author
Alan Garner (I think he’s still alive.)
Book you return to again and again
Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited
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.
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
Book you’ve reread the most
Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited
Favorite novella
I can’t think of a novella I’ve even read, let alone have a favorite.
Favorite short story
Riki Tiki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
Saddest ending
The Old Curiosity Shop
Happiest ending
Pride and Prejudice
Favorite play
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
Favorite poem
The Stolen Child by W.H. Auden
Favorite opening chapter
Pride and Prejudice
Favorite closing chapter
Brideshead Revisited
Favorite literary friendship
Charles and Sebastian from Brideshead Revisited. Or Mole and Rat from The Wind in the Willows. Take your pick.
Favorite literary romance
Pride and Prejudice
Most unforgettable scene in literature
The St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V
Best narrator
Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited
Book you wish had a sequel
The Wind in the Willows
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.
Hardest book you’ve ever finished
Crime and Punishment was the hardest to slog through. East of Eden was a close second.
Book that surprised you the most
Cannery Row
Book that disappointed you the most
East of Eden
Book you recommend most often
Other than my own, you mean? Probably Cannery Row or The Wind in the Willows
Book you wish more people knew about
Other than my own, you mean? Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
Book you wish you could read again for the first time
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Book that made you fall in love with reading
Swallows and Amazons
Book that deserves to be taught in every school
Other than my own, you mean? Swallows and Amazons
The greatest novel ever written
Other than my own, you mean? Brideshead Revisited
The most beautiful sentence you’ve ever read
Other than my own, you mean? Asked and answered.
One final recommendation that hasn’t been mentioned yet
Other than my own, you mean? The novels of Charles Williams.
Loved the Riki Tiki Tavi mention! It was one of my favourites as a child, but in my memory it feels as expansive as a novel.
Thank you for the good laugh! I agree with you about Brothers K. Also, The Wind in the Willows is simply marvelous. Reading it for the first time as an adult made me feel like a child again, in the best way. Hurray for Toad!