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sinanju1. Describe the first (or an early) phrase/idiom you remember figuring out the meaning to. Honestly, I have no clue. I don't think about my early childhood much and I'd really have to do some serious mental excavation to dig this one out.
2. What is the first thing you remember reading for pleasure? Holy cow. I've been reading as long as I can remember, and reading for pleasure every bit as long. Uhmmm...A Berenstein Bears book? Something by Doctor Seuss? I do remember that I found Green Eggs and Ham painfully tedious even as a very young child. Apparently, I've always been very impatient. "Yes, yes, I get it. You're being repetitiously redundant. Let's move the story along already!"
3. Do you consider yourself a "reader"? If not blah blah blah. Hell, yes. I read every evening. I read on my lunch hour. I read on my breaks. I read while waiting in line for movies and at the bus stop and on the bus and while eating lunch or dinner, usually even when sharing a meal with my sweetie (who is doing the same thing.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snippy and I both habitually carry a book with us to read in every spare moment. So, yeah, I think I can call myself a reader.
4. What the book (story/play/whatever) you're re-read the most often? What is it about that piece of literature that excites you the most? I have to pick just one? I can't pick just one. My personal library consists almost entirely of books that I reread periodically; if that isn't the case, they eventually get weeded out. If I had to guess, I'd say Starship Troopers by Heinlein, mostly because it's one of the books I read as a youngster that I still reread. There are probably others I've reread more often recently, but longevity counts. What excites me about it? Cool ideas and writing that just grabs you by the imagination doesn't let go.
5. If you suddenly woke up tomorrow with the writing talent and motivation to write anything you put your hand to, what kind of work would you start churning out? Science fiction, fantasy, Modesty Blaise-style pulp adventures, westerns, mysteries...all sorts of things. I read a lot of genres, so I'd write a lot of genres.
6. Tell about the person in your life, if any, who most influenced your feelings about language and reading. Two books on writing from the Writer's Digest Books Elements of Fiction Writing series. Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham and Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. These two books are, in my view, the most clearly-written, explicit and useful instructions on writing I've ever encountered. They lay out clear, simple rules for how to write well and, even more importantly, they explain why the rules exist. Not from the lit-crit POV you get in literature classes in school, but in the matter-of-fact approach any craftsman would take in explaining how you use your tools to accomplish your goal, whatever it is. They were writing about writing, of course, but what I gleaned from these books has changed my perceptions as a reader too.
What are you reading right now? And do you recommend it/them? The Crystal City in the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, Ashes of Victory in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, and Whole Wide World by Paul McAuley. I'd recommend all of them, though in the case of both series I think the earlier novels were best. This is the first Paul McAuley novel I've ever read, but so far I'm enjoying it.
2. What is the first thing you remember reading for pleasure? Holy cow. I've been reading as long as I can remember, and reading for pleasure every bit as long. Uhmmm...A Berenstein Bears book? Something by Doctor Seuss? I do remember that I found Green Eggs and Ham painfully tedious even as a very young child. Apparently, I've always been very impatient. "Yes, yes, I get it. You're being repetitiously redundant. Let's move the story along already!"
3. Do you consider yourself a "reader"? If not blah blah blah. Hell, yes. I read every evening. I read on my lunch hour. I read on my breaks. I read while waiting in line for movies and at the bus stop and on the bus and while eating lunch or dinner, usually even when sharing a meal with my sweetie (who is doing the same thing.
snippy and I both habitually carry a book with us to read in every spare moment. So, yeah, I think I can call myself a reader.4. What the book (story/play/whatever) you're re-read the most often? What is it about that piece of literature that excites you the most? I have to pick just one? I can't pick just one. My personal library consists almost entirely of books that I reread periodically; if that isn't the case, they eventually get weeded out. If I had to guess, I'd say Starship Troopers by Heinlein, mostly because it's one of the books I read as a youngster that I still reread. There are probably others I've reread more often recently, but longevity counts. What excites me about it? Cool ideas and writing that just grabs you by the imagination doesn't let go.
5. If you suddenly woke up tomorrow with the writing talent and motivation to write anything you put your hand to, what kind of work would you start churning out? Science fiction, fantasy, Modesty Blaise-style pulp adventures, westerns, mysteries...all sorts of things. I read a lot of genres, so I'd write a lot of genres.
6. Tell about the person in your life, if any, who most influenced your feelings about language and reading. Two books on writing from the Writer's Digest Books Elements of Fiction Writing series. Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham and Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. These two books are, in my view, the most clearly-written, explicit and useful instructions on writing I've ever encountered. They lay out clear, simple rules for how to write well and, even more importantly, they explain why the rules exist. Not from the lit-crit POV you get in literature classes in school, but in the matter-of-fact approach any craftsman would take in explaining how you use your tools to accomplish your goal, whatever it is. They were writing about writing, of course, but what I gleaned from these books has changed my perceptions as a reader too.
What are you reading right now? And do you recommend it/them? The Crystal City in the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, Ashes of Victory in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, and Whole Wide World by Paul McAuley. I'd recommend all of them, though in the case of both series I think the earlier novels were best. This is the first Paul McAuley novel I've ever read, but so far I'm enjoying it.
