The Book Questions Meme

Well, I am down at my mother's place in Myponga, South Australia. I have just been swimming with some friends, down at one of the best beaches in the world - Silver Sands. It was warmer in the water than out - and it is Mid-February in Adelaide - it should be sunny and thirty degrees and look something like this.



Breakfast with my friends at the wonderful Maxwell's in Aldinga - best Egg and  Bacon roll and coffee I've had for a while  - gluten  free roll, caffeine free coffee with almond milk - all good.

So we have a party here then I head back to Melbourne tonight. A good weekend, really.

I love these questions, supplied by Bev at Sunday Stealing.

1. Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

Oh, this goes to most best sellers. Liane Moriarty being one of those people. I don't mind her books, I don't love them. I think I'm better than that.... but still I've read three of her books. Surprised by one of them (Big Little Lies) and underwhelmed by the other two (Truly Madly Guilty and Nine Perfect Strangers - both were okay...) Oh any anything by Stephanie Meyers. Like Mormon Vampire Soft Core Porn. No thanks.

2. If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

I would love to bring Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird), Little Bee (From Chris Cleeve's The Other Hand) and Dorrigo Evans (From Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North) to a Writer's Festival talk about injustice. Three amazing perspectives, three incredible characters.

3. You are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it's past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

That would probably to the second of the Fifty Shades of Grey series. The first was bad enough... I got about fifty pages into the second one and nearly put the book in the fire for burning it was that bad.

4. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you've read, when in fact you've been nowhere near it?

I used to say The Great Gatsby. I have read that now - and enjoyed it - but it only took 25 years to read. Slaughterhouse Five was there too. Love that book. Nope, now it's Catcher in the Rye. I have it. I know I need to read it. I will get there. Should have been done years ago. What is it with me and American Classics?

5. As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to 'reread' it that you haven't? Which book?

I think there are a couple of Dickens in here. I've never read A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist or A Tale of Two Cities (Though I have read Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Great Expectations)

6. You've been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who's not a big reader). What's the first book you'd recommend and why?

Okay, if it's a man, he gets told to read Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It won the Booker. It's about war, and the pity of war. It is phenomenal.

If it's a woman, I'd nominate Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things. It's perfection. I demonstrates women's rage better than any book I've seen.

I need to differentiate - I often get asked to nominate books. These are both very import books for very important people.

7. A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Easy. French. Gorgeous language, and I would love to read Moliere in its original French. If not Italian - to read Umberto Eco in its native form would be sublime - though it is pretty great in good English translations.

8. A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

I will make it choose between one of these four books - because I can't choose between them:

• Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin
• Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North
• Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex
• Richard Zuzak's The Book Thief

I've re-read all of these books numerous times over. Would happily re-read any of these one a year. 

9. What's one bookish thing you 'discovered' from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

My appreciation for performance art has increased greatly since reading Heather Rose's The Museum of Modern Love. Actually I've read a few novels with art as there themes. Highly recommend Dominic Smith's The Last Painting of Sara de Vos too.

10. That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she's granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

Look, I just needs lots of shelves, a regular restocking of new, literary paperbacks and a big leather chaise lounge - I'd be happy with that. The new paperbacks with things like the Man Booker long list, the Pulitzer Long list and the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin long list will see me very well indeed.

Today's Song: