Answer our questionnaire about your favorite books
Saffy and Drogon guard the books.
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
2. What book have you reread the most?
3. What book do you wish you had written?
4. Do you have a book fetish?
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
* * * * *
I’ll start.
What was the first book you read repeatedly?
An anthology of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Andrew Lang. I would reread it under the blanket with a flashlight. I especially liked The Little Mermaid because it was so sad. With each step she felt like she was treading on knives! She cast herself into the sea and turned into sea-foam, for a wussy prince! Yes, at 7 I could recognize a wuss. I’ve never seen the Disney version. It would probably make me angry.
What book have you reread the most?
The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
What book do you wish you had written?
In recent years, The Door by the Hungarian author Magda Szabo. It’s about the relationship between a writer and an eccentric domestic helper. And How to be both by Ali Smith.
What is your book fetish?
NYRB Classics. I like to see their spines lined up on a shelf.
What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Night Soldiers, Dark Star, all the spy novels by Alan Furst, are crying to be filmed.
What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
The Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse.
What book beloved by many have you never read?
The Harry Potter books, partly because everyone was telling me to read them.
What is your favorite trashy book?
Scruples by Judith Krantz, which I read in high school along with many novels by Harold Robbins. We had no sex education classes, so they were it.
What book/s have you failed to finish many times, but still resolve to read someday?
Last year I finished Swann’s Way! Only six volumes of Proust to go. Before that I made several attempts at Moby Dick but finally got through it in audiobook form. I will listen to Middlemarch on my next long flight.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 14th, 2017 at 03:13
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
One of those Goosebumps books—I can’t remember the title but I know the cover when I see it.
2. What book have you reread the most?
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. There was a year I read it four times during that year alone.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler because of the sheer genius of that book.
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Those Penguin Classics covers that had solid colors on top and below.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
GRRM’s A Song and Ice and Fire series. I probably start when the show is over.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
I really enjoyed some of those chicklit books published by Summit more than ten years ago.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
September 14th, 2017 at 14:07
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly? The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery). Borrowed it from a friend and returned the next morning. Friend was surprised how fast I read but the book is really not very long. Bought my own copy weeks after and lost it. Bought another one and lost it again. Or perhaps people borrowed and lost them or forget/refused to return.
2. What book have you reread the most? Twisted Travels (Jessica Zafra)
3. What book do you wish you had written? Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Seth Grahame-Smith)
4. Do you have a book fetish? Vintage (Penguin) covers – solid but not loud colors
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie? Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Looking forward to CGI talking cats.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum? Twisted Travels (Jessica Zafra) until I lost it. Or I think someone borrowed and never returned.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read? Twilight Series (Erlenmeyer, haha). Completed the first book and it’s full of self depracating female shit.
8. What is your favorite trashy book? A few erotic novels I got free from Amazon Kindle. The more trashy, the better.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday? The Architect’s Apprentice (Elif Shafak). I easily went past half of the book but the next half remains a struggle. Each time I’ll read a page, something will come up (a task, a call) and I would have to put the book down. It’s been half a year and the other book (The Bastard of Istanbul) remains untouched.
September 15th, 2017 at 09:11
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Either The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) or D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
2. What book have you reread the most?
Probably Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut) or Foucault’s Pendulum (Umberto Eco)
3. What book do you wish you had written?
A lot, but mainly: The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides), Eileen (Ottessa Moshfegh), The Girls (Emma Cline)
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Nope, I’m downsizing to ebooks. But I’d like to collect books about book cover design.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Trese (Budjette Tan / KaJo Baldisimo), especially after they get Mythology Class (Arnold Arre) right.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Looking Back series (Ambeth Ocampo), Twisted V (Jessica Zafra), Si Tatang at mga Himala ng Ating Panahon (Ricky Lee), a lot of local comics. I like reading local books when I’m down, they comfort me for some reason.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
Jane Austen novels. I guess I’m not a fan of marriage plots and romance. But I really liked Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Flowers in the Attic (V.C. Andrews), yay classic trash
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes), and probably Jerusalem (Alan Moore)
September 15th, 2017 at 14:28
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
To Kill a Mockingbird
2. What book have you reread the most?
Probably This is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Most recently, Zadie Smith’s Swing Time
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Those Penguin Clothbound Classics are so gorgeous on bookshelves
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Slade House by David Mitchell
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Calvin and Hobbes
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
John Green’s books, heard they were very depressing to read
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Infinite Jest
September 15th, 2017 at 16:04
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
2. What book have you reread the most?
Dune by Frank Herbert
3. What book do you wish you had written?
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Trade paperbacks in the “normal” size.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
The Harry Potter books, or The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
I vaguely remember a carnival setting. It may or may not have been by Danielle Steel.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
September 16th, 2017 at 00:24
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
—Tales the Muses told:the Greek myths. I was so in love with how huge and beautifully illustrated this book was and brought it with me to read EVERYWHERE even in school, where my classmates laughed at me for mispronouncing Iris (I was reading stories out loud and they HATED it)
2. What book(s) have you reread the most?
–Harry Potter series, Narnia, Chrestomanci series, Septimus Heap, One Day, Station Eleven, Fahrenheit 451, Good Omens, SHerlock holmes, Jane Eyre. I challenged myself to read these books in a different stage in my life to see if I would still love them and I still do
3. What book do you wish you had written?
-Every single one of Diana Wynne Jones’ books…I’m crazy about fantasy and hers is beautifully written. Also, Ray Bradbury and Neil Gaiman
4. Do you have a book fetish?
the SMELL of books
And secondhand bookshops, I stumbled into Charing Cross in London and I fell in love with each bookshop
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
-nothing because most of the time they ruin it
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
-One Day. Adulting is so hard but Em&Dex are helping me get through it
-Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
-Babysitters club…
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
-Those trashy historical romance novels by judith Mcnaught and Lisa Kleypas
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
-Emma by jane Austen, I try every year to get through it but the heroine annoys me so much that I just put the book down and read something else
September 16th, 2017 at 12:44
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Pride and Prejudice
2. What book(s) have you reread the most?
Pride and Prejudice.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
HP series para multi-millionaire na ako ngayon
4. Do you have a book fetish?
I like covering my books with plastic.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Agatha Christie books with exotic settings
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Jane Austen because I know how the stories end.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez books
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Judith mcnaught books
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve Crime and Punishment
kotsengkuba, How do you get free erotic ebooks from Kindle? Asking for a friend lol
September 16th, 2017 at 16:37
@top51 I can’t remember the exact method I did to find those free books. I buy my ebooks from amazon kindle store and from time to time, something will pop-up that costs $0. (I know a serial writer who self-publish in amazon and according to her, giving the first book for free is a surefire way to lure the readers.)
The best thing to do is to do a search using the “right” keywords then download whichever is free. Amazon has its own “Little Birds” network and soon after your first download, new titles will pop-up every time on the “suggested” area.
September 19th, 2017 at 12:33
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
“Ang Bibliyang Isinalarawan” Volumes I-III It was kick-ass, and sadly, it’s no longer in print.
2. What book have you reread the most?
Playing with Water by James Hamilton-Paterson. It’s sad and sensual.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. I would like to be that writer who writes cryptic prose, but I feel like I will just be received like I’m Phoebe Buffay.
4. Do you have a book fetish?
I like coffee table books. Also DIY books that I have no intention of following instructions from.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
The Stormlight Archive books by Brandon Sanderson, but I think it will be more suited to animé.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
I can’t think of any one book, but I read The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Keepers Diaries online. Orphan elephants daily antics – repetitive, soothing, and funny at times.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
GRR Martin’s books. I tried to read it, but it’s hard to get into the minutiae of it when you’re still watching the TV show.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Mills & Boon/Harlequin romance books, the ones by Lynne Graham – sexist shit that passes for romance. Also any erotica books that I download for free as well. Ask me how! Charot.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. He is the opposite of Neal Stephenson. NS makes me feel smart when I read his books. UE makes me feel as stupid as a tennis player making unforced errors.
September 19th, 2017 at 14:38
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Twisted 2 which led me to the Catcher in the Rye and then Franny & Zooey
2. What book have you reread the most?
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer (I attempted to write a book like it, but after reading it I thought, what’s the point?) and Can’t & Won’t by Lydia Davis (more like, a book I’d like to write)
4. Do you have a book fetish?
1st editions of the Vampire Chronicles
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Infinite Jest by DFW
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
Anything by David Mitchell
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Celebrity memoirs and biographies (I’ve read a few Madonna biographies, Ron Jeremy’s memoir, etc.)
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, any of the David Mitchells on my shelves
September 20th, 2017 at 03:27
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Happy Endings, Luis Katigbak
2. What book have you reread the most?
Happy Endings, Luis Katigbak (I admit I hardly re-read my books)
And cookbooks, if they count
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami
(Any of his books actually, para lang pa-reclusive ang peg while my titles are selling all over)
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Not necessarily a fetish but I have my books organized by genre so it’s easier for me to find them.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Masks, Fumiko Enchi
Goodbye Tsugumi, Banana Yoshimoto
This is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Yotsuba&! series, Kiyohiko Azuma
Kikomachine Komix by Manix Abrera
Soppy, Philippa Rice
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
A Song of Ice and Fire series and the last volumes of Harry Potter (I have them! But never bothered finishing.)
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
I don’t have any. :(
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
I admit I have an untouched TBR pile – instead of decreasing I’ve only been picking up thin books that I’ve bought recently. -_-
September 20th, 2017 at 16:40
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
2. What book have you reread the most?
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
3. What book do you wish you had written?
A tie between prose & poetry:
James Salter’s Light Years & Jean Musser’s The Crimson Hat
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Not finishing books and merely making them bookmark holders. Book adultery, in other words.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, as wells as André Gide’s The Immoralist (oh to go back in time and watch the play adaptation starring James Dean). Also Russell Hoban’s Mr. Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer.
I’d also like to see Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels turned into a series.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
Louis Sachar’s Wayside School books
Alexander McCall-Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series
Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking
The World’s Greatest Serial Killers (when especially depressed and horror movies just won’t help)
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
Fifty Shades of Grey by that wench with one too many E’s on her name. But it’s not what I’d call a book (ooh, snooty). So my answer is: I haven’t read any Paul Auster. Shame. And I think he’s what one would call a writer’s writer.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. Naku baka magalit si Allan.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Hölderlin’s poetry. But I guess nobody really reads him. Pretentiousness aside, I resolve to completely read T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain someday.
September 27th, 2017 at 14:34
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Edgar Allan Poe’s collection of stories
2. What book have you reread the most?
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
3. What book do you wish you had written?
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
4. Do you have a book fetish?
I like the smell of new books.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Nick Joaquin’s Sarimanok vs Ibong Adarna
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
My diary
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
To Kill a Mockingbird
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
I had a Sydney Sheldon phase when I was in my early teens
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
September 28th, 2017 at 07:17
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Neil Gaiman’s Smokes And Mirrors offered many little imaginings for my very many moods so it was a go-to book. Kindly read “The Price” which stars a feline guardian (also found on Youtube for an illustrated story-telling).
2. What book have you reread the most?
I could not get over Arnold Arre’s After Eden the first time I read it in 2005. Im not a romantic but I liked the way te story unfolded for the lovers. It made me feel so I had to reread it. Balthasar Gracían’s How To Use Your Enemies from Penguin Little Black Classics for ‘strategic’ people is coming at a very close second because 1.5 hours of what could have been a 15 minute commute is excruciating so there must be a ready book.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
The innocence and philosophy in Calvin and Hobbes is a point of envy and I wish, together with the drawing style, I had written and drawn the whole library myself. The Transmetropolitan library is an amazing sci-fi read about a rogue journalist–two things I love–trying to bring down a dick-tator out to get its country’s citizens.
4. Do you have a book fetish?
Dont believe I do.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
Arnold Arre’s Mythology Class and that one’s happening thanks to TBA Studios and director Jerold Tarog. Also Arre’s Trip To Tagaytay for the sci-fi and Ang Mundo Ni Andong Agimat for the bad-assery. Haruki Murakami’s After Dark would be amazing cast in the backdrop of a neon-lighted Japan.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
I buy new books when Im glum. Mostly graphic novels.
7 What book beloved by many have you never read?
Harry Potter books. Not sorry.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
Oliver Pulumbarit’s Lexy, Nance, & Argus: Sex, Gods, Rock & Roll had lines like “jugjugin mo!” Enough said.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Seveneves. I want to finish it I really want to!
September 28th, 2017 at 07:32
Additional Abandon the Old In Tokyo and Good-Bye both by Yoshihiro Tatsumi for question number three!
September 28th, 2017 at 19:12
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
Adarna Books’ Ang Alamat ng Ampalaya when they used to be just 35 pesos.
2. What book have you reread the most?
A book collecting works from Edgar Allan Poe.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
Written and drawn. Glyn Dillon’s The Nao of Brown. Jeff Lemire’s The Underwater Welder. Dean Motter’s Terminal City. Kurt Busiek’s Astro City series.
4. Do you have a book fetish?
They had to covered asap before I read them? Is that a fetish?
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
F Sionil Jose’s Olvidon is entertaining, would love to see everyone come to life. Matt Vaughan’s The Private Eye for the journo as cops and paps as criminals setting and also the scifi. Okay, and any of Arnold Arre’s books!
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes til i force myself laughing. Sad.
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, Mortal Instruments, 50 Shades of Grey, as long as a fandom worships it to the high heavens i’m not going to pick it up.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
You are what you read. Jk i don’t have any.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
The Little Prince.
October 5th, 2017 at 23:38
I’m done living under a rock.
1. What was the first book you read repeatedly?
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was for a book club discussion (read it thrice within a month).
2. What book have you reread the most?
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Most of my rereads are done via audiobooks.
3. What book do you wish you had written?
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I also wish I’d written a short story by Robert Coover, Going for a Beer.
4. Do you have a book fetish?
I peel off the price tags. I don’t cover my books. I write my initials and date of acquisition at the backside of the cover page. I sometimes write on them. If Tom Gauld is the book’s cover artist, I automatically think it’s a good book.
5. What book do you wish would be made into a movie?
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, Inverted World by Christopher Priest, Ubik by Philip K. Dick.
6. What book/s do you reread when you are glum?
I pick random stories from the Norton’s Anthology of Short Fiction or listen to The New Yorker Fiction podcast. I sometimes read random passages from Atonement by Ian McEwan (then I go ahead and watch the film adaptation).
7. What book beloved by many have you never read?
George R.R. Martin’s books.
8. What is your favorite trashy book?
A dozen Danielle Steel books.
9. What book/s have you attempted many times and abandoned, but still resolve to read someday?
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I haven’t even reached the infamous sewers.
October 6th, 2017 at 01:41
Congratulations, Angus! Kazuo Ishiguro has just won the Nobel Prize in Literature.