Book Meme!
Jun. 11th, 2026 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kelly_chamblissIt's book meme time! Stolen from therealsnape
This week I'm reading:
The book club I'm in is reading Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vail. Elizabeth and Angelica Schuyler were significant figures at the time of the American Revolution. From a wealthy, politically powerful family, the sisters married major players in American politics and finance (Alexander Hamilton and John Church, respectively) and had influence of their own. The book is well-researched and smoothly written and very novelistic. This last trait is both good and bad: on the one hand, it creates a page-turning narrative to interest a non-scholarly audience. On the other hand, it's an approach that can play fast and loose with the actual facts of history. I find the author's habit of saying things like, "Eliza must have felt" or "Eliza no doubt thought" -- with no evidence -- to be misleading at best, dishonest at worst.
My favourite book of all time is: As TRS says, this question is impossible. But high on my list are Middlemarch (George Eliot); A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight (Victoria Lincoln. It has all sorts of flaws, but when I first found it, at age 13, I was absolutely captivated); Persuasion by Jane Austen.
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months) I've currently been rereading a young-adult mystery series from the 1950s and '60s, the Ken Holt stories. The books have a deserved reputation as one of the best-written of the mass-produced juvenile series, and I was a big fan as a kid. The titles were hard to come by, though, and it took me many years of collecting to gather the whole series. In these dark days of seemingly-unstoppable fascism and authoritarianism, I find that books of my childhood are a comfort. I may do a scholarly conference paper on Ken.
The last book I bought was Early Victorian Illustrated Books: Britain, France, and Germany, 1820-1860
The first book I bought with my own money: I can't remember. But I definitely remember saving money to buy the two-volume boxed set of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. It cost $30, which was a lot in 1973 -- about $225 in today's money. I worked at Burger King while I was in high school, and earned only $1.60 an hour, so the saving took a while!
The first book I received as a gift: I couldn't say, because I was given books from an early age -- they were and remain my favorite present. But my most memorable book gift has to be The Films of Joan Crawford, which my mom gave when I was 12 and going through a wild crush on Crawford. The book came at just the perfect time in my infatuation and remains the best gift I've ever received. The thrill I felt on opening that package is unsurpassed.
The last book I received as a gift was: Ron Chernow's new biography of Mark Twain. I saw and coveted this door-stop of a book (over 1000 pages) whentherealsnape and I visited Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut, last October. When the Young Man gave me a gift card to a local bookstore for Christmas, guess what I used it on? The bio is thorough and interesting, but I found it ultimately a bit pedestrian in its presentation / analysis. (Since it came from a gift card, I consider this book a gift even though I got it at the store myself).
The last book I borrowed from the library: a history of American Sunday Schools, borrowed through interlibrary loan for a paper I was working on
The book physically closest to me right now I'm sitting in my trusty recliner right next to a shelf that contains my collection of reference works on children's literature, women's and girls' history, and the history of education. Those titles closest to my eyes are Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood by Steven Mintz; Imaginary Citizens: Child Readers and the Limits of American Independence, 1640-1868 by Courtney Weikle-Mills; and How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood by Jane Hunter (one of my absolute favorites).
This or that
Physical book or e-book I prefer physical books, though I listen to audiobooks on my walks (of which I've been deprived for the last ten weeks of ankle trauma).
Used or new: I love used books. Many of the titles I covet are out of print, so used is my only option anyway. But new books are always a pleasure, too.
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction when I was younger, non-fiction now
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Coffee shop. Coffee shops have coffee; parks generally do not.
Paperback or hardcover: Although I often buy paperbacks because they are a) cheaper, and b) less heavy, I would rather own the hardback (except in the case of detective novels, which I tend to consume like candy and don't need in hardcover).
Romance or Crime: Crime
Yes or no
Stream of consciousness? Depends on who wrote it. Virginia Woolf? Yes.
Poetry? Again, it depends.
Memoirs? Sometimes. Guess what -- it depends on who wrote them. Celebrity autobiographies? Nope, not usually interested. But other memoirs can be fascinating.
Philosophy? Sometimes
Thrillers? Yes
Chronicles? I'm not sure exactly what this genre is? I've read The Chronicles of Narnia and some of the Chronicles of Barchester, if those count.
Dialogue heavy? yes
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic?
I do! I love love bookfic. I don't want anything too cosy or cutesy, though. As a kid, I loved Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop.
therealsnapeThis week I'm reading:
The book club I'm in is reading Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vail. Elizabeth and Angelica Schuyler were significant figures at the time of the American Revolution. From a wealthy, politically powerful family, the sisters married major players in American politics and finance (Alexander Hamilton and John Church, respectively) and had influence of their own. The book is well-researched and smoothly written and very novelistic. This last trait is both good and bad: on the one hand, it creates a page-turning narrative to interest a non-scholarly audience. On the other hand, it's an approach that can play fast and loose with the actual facts of history. I find the author's habit of saying things like, "Eliza must have felt" or "Eliza no doubt thought" -- with no evidence -- to be misleading at best, dishonest at worst.
My favourite book of all time is: As TRS says, this question is impossible. But high on my list are Middlemarch (George Eliot); A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight (Victoria Lincoln. It has all sorts of flaws, but when I first found it, at age 13, I was absolutely captivated); Persuasion by Jane Austen.
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months) I've currently been rereading a young-adult mystery series from the 1950s and '60s, the Ken Holt stories. The books have a deserved reputation as one of the best-written of the mass-produced juvenile series, and I was a big fan as a kid. The titles were hard to come by, though, and it took me many years of collecting to gather the whole series. In these dark days of seemingly-unstoppable fascism and authoritarianism, I find that books of my childhood are a comfort. I may do a scholarly conference paper on Ken.
The last book I bought was Early Victorian Illustrated Books: Britain, France, and Germany, 1820-1860
The first book I bought with my own money: I can't remember. But I definitely remember saving money to buy the two-volume boxed set of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. It cost $30, which was a lot in 1973 -- about $225 in today's money. I worked at Burger King while I was in high school, and earned only $1.60 an hour, so the saving took a while!
The first book I received as a gift: I couldn't say, because I was given books from an early age -- they were and remain my favorite present. But my most memorable book gift has to be The Films of Joan Crawford, which my mom gave when I was 12 and going through a wild crush on Crawford. The book came at just the perfect time in my infatuation and remains the best gift I've ever received. The thrill I felt on opening that package is unsurpassed.
The last book I received as a gift was: Ron Chernow's new biography of Mark Twain. I saw and coveted this door-stop of a book (over 1000 pages) when
therealsnape and I visited Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut, last October. When the Young Man gave me a gift card to a local bookstore for Christmas, guess what I used it on? The bio is thorough and interesting, but I found it ultimately a bit pedestrian in its presentation / analysis. (Since it came from a gift card, I consider this book a gift even though I got it at the store myself).The last book I borrowed from the library: a history of American Sunday Schools, borrowed through interlibrary loan for a paper I was working on
The book physically closest to me right now I'm sitting in my trusty recliner right next to a shelf that contains my collection of reference works on children's literature, women's and girls' history, and the history of education. Those titles closest to my eyes are Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood by Steven Mintz; Imaginary Citizens: Child Readers and the Limits of American Independence, 1640-1868 by Courtney Weikle-Mills; and How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood by Jane Hunter (one of my absolute favorites).
This or that
Physical book or e-book I prefer physical books, though I listen to audiobooks on my walks (of which I've been deprived for the last ten weeks of ankle trauma).
Used or new: I love used books. Many of the titles I covet are out of print, so used is my only option anyway. But new books are always a pleasure, too.
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction when I was younger, non-fiction now
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Coffee shop. Coffee shops have coffee; parks generally do not.
Paperback or hardcover: Although I often buy paperbacks because they are a) cheaper, and b) less heavy, I would rather own the hardback (except in the case of detective novels, which I tend to consume like candy and don't need in hardcover).
Romance or Crime: Crime
Yes or no
Stream of consciousness? Depends on who wrote it. Virginia Woolf? Yes.
Poetry? Again, it depends.
Memoirs? Sometimes. Guess what -- it depends on who wrote them. Celebrity autobiographies? Nope, not usually interested. But other memoirs can be fascinating.
Philosophy? Sometimes
Thrillers? Yes
Chronicles? I'm not sure exactly what this genre is? I've read The Chronicles of Narnia and some of the Chronicles of Barchester, if those count.
Dialogue heavy? yes
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic?
I do! I love love bookfic. I don't want anything too cosy or cutesy, though. As a kid, I loved Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-06-11 07:17 pm (UTC)I didn't realize that you were still publishing research! It's interesting to hear that you spend more time reading non-fiction these days. Do you feel there's any effect on that of retirement from teaching, or had you trended towards nonfiction pleasure-reading before that?
I love your story of saving up to buy the annotated Sherlock Holmes. I feel that I've only recently come to appreciate annotations 'intruding' upon the text. It feels very charmingly precocious that your teenage self was so excited as to save her money for the box set!
(no subject)
Date: 2026-06-12 03:16 am (UTC)As for my (fairly gradual) shift from fiction to non-fiction, it started pre-retirement. I just kept finding it more and more difficult to locate fiction that really compelled me, that seemed to offer something new. There are exceptions, of course (like J. R. Thorp's riveting Learwife), but on the whole (and to my own surprise), I realize that I've become more interested in things that actually did happen than things imagined. (Not that I'm fiction-free, of course, just that I read a lot less than I once did.)
(no subject)
Date: 2026-06-13 02:49 pm (UTC)