Wrapped Up In Books

I borrowed this idea from a friend of a friends blog but focused purely on the book related questions. Feel free to answer any of the questions yourself and leave as a comment.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
R A Salvatore
Not exactly the most high-brow literature and aside from these books I have no interest in the fantasy genre but many years ago I found myself reading The Dark Elf Trilogy and was hooked on the story of Drizzt Do'Urden

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I don't see the point of owning both a paper and hard back copy of a book but I did buy another copy of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas after I lent it to someone and never got it back

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not in the slightest. Words exist to convey meaning and I understood perfectly what the questions were

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
None that come to mind

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
I don't think I've ever read a book more than 3 times. I've read a ton of books at least twice and there are books I've read once that I intend reading again but who has time to re-read when there are so many books still to read?

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
My favourite childhood book was The Magic Faraway Tree so I'll say that

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
A bloody awful crime thriller I've forgotten the title of about a group of friends who design computer games and release one about solving murders but before it's released, murders take place identical to the ones that take place in the game

8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Bill Bryson's Down Under. I always like reading a book when I'm on holiday about the country I'm in as you can relate to the content and it gives you ideas of places you might not think of going and places to avoid. With Bryson you also get to laugh along the way too - in this case, Australia

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Probably something unassuming like '1000 Books To Read Before You Die' or something similar so at least it would give them a good guide to reading more great books rather than just one

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Nobody

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger'

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

The world could certainly do without another Jane Eyre adaptation - take your pick

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don't remember 99% of my dreams 10 minutes after I wake up so can't answer this question

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I've probably read a fair share of shit books during University but probably Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code' which I thought was fairly poor - probably better written than that book about computer murders previously mentioned but this should be contentious enough!

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
I'll admit to finding Les Miserables too difficult to get into even though I love the film. A literary guilty secret!

16) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I'm always reading something so no embarrassing gaps that I'm aware of

18) What is your favorite novel?
Wild Swans by Jung Chang

19) Poem?
An August Midnight by Thomas Hardy. It always stuck with me since studying poetry in school and I'm sure there's vastly superior works compared to this but I like it so here it is:

I

A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter--winged, horned, and spined -
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .

II

Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
- My guests parade my new-penned ink,
Or bang at the lamp-glass, whirl, and sink.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.

20) Short story?
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

21) Work of nonfiction?
Life & Death In Shanghai by Nien Cheng

22) Who is your favorite writer?
Possibly Knut Hamsun

23) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Possibly Stephen King

24) What is your desert island book?
If it exists it would be 'How to Survive on a Desert Island'

25) And… what are you reading right now?
Jung Chang & Jon Halliday's 'Mao'