Malu's literature challenge (Top Ten Childrens Books)

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Top Ten Childrens Books
Date:	06/11/03 (70 review reads)
Rating:

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There was a time when dooyoo was not the scene of all these challenges; instead ciao ("the other side") was home to copious people asking copious silly questions about other people's duvet colours, and whether they brushed their teeth before or after they woke up.

Thankfully, here we can at least survey some interesting, literary (and literate) questions, thanks of course to our regularly interesting, literary (and literate) friend Malu. So thanks in advance to her, but would anyone thank theediscerning for the following...?

Question: What is your favourite genre?

Answer: Well, it would be sci-fi and fantasy, combined, as theediscerning grew up as a collector in both genres. However he hardly ever reads them these days, and so would actually go for something similar to Malu's answer ~ quirky, individualistic little pieces of modern fiction go down a treat.
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Q: Do you read the classics, i.e., the great authors of the 18th and 19th century?

A: Well, as mentioned in theediscerning's last crown-winning book op (plug, plug), he says that classics for him start in the late 19th century, with people like Mr Conrad, with HG Wells rapidly following. Yes, were he ever to find time for thousands of pages of Wilkie Collins, or something like the early Gothic stuff from Otranto, he might swell the envelope a bit, but as it stands, a great majority of the classics he was force-fed in his schooling ~ Dickens, Shakespeare, that bleddy awful Pride and Prejudice ~ he would most certainly prefer not to read.

Of course, in dramatisation, they come across well. It's just the style, length and manner(ism)s of the texts that really grate these days.
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Q: Are you interested in thrillers?

A: Well, not really. Over the past months theediscerning has had to review a couple of examples for a national publication, and the couple he has got
through haven't been too bad, really. But he would never pick up anything in this genre out of choice, unless it was something quirky, like Felidae, or something of a pseudo-thriller, literature category, like Snow Falling on Cedars.

Still, Graham Greene wrote thrillers, and one could call some of Georges Perec a thriller in intent, if not genre, so the whole question is rather unanswerable.
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Q: What about horror stories?

A: Ha, yes. Theediscerning did go through some horrors in his teenage, testosterone-forming days, but again, he so rarely gets to sample genre fiction in these pressing times. But even so, he would find the great majority of horror either completely silly, or uninteresting, or just plain badly written. Never did a book of the genre cause nightmares, or sleepless nights. Perhaps the most horrific example that did stick in the mind for the longest was a bit of James Herbert involving a pair of garden shears and a penis, in a school gym of all places.
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Q: Do you read Science Fiction?

A: This is a fault of these questionnaires on these sites ~ the interrogator never pays attention! Again, some quirky fiction spreads across from modern fiction into sci-fi ~ Ian McEwan having people fold into different dimensions through a piece of paper, or whatever went on in his first collection. Jeanette Winterson wrote fantasy, now and again, of course. And let's not forget Ms Atwood; although unread The Handmaid's Tale is still literate sci-fi and will be consumed by theediscerning, somewhen.
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Q: How many Harry Potter books have you read?

A: None, but the films have been sat through (yawn at the second). Theediscerning has read the first two Artemis Fowl, though. They're so much more "in" than Harry Potter, don't'cha know?!
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Q: Have you
ever read and enjoyed biographies or autobiographies?

A: It depends. There has been a time when theediscerning has picked up a life of, or some easy-to-churn-out, unrevelatory biography, of people he has some interest in. But as for all that piffle about Rab End, Angela's Ashes, A Child Called Dave Pelzer ~ why, why why???? Who on earth could wish to depress themselves so much as to read about some other person's gloominess so heavily? Life's bad enough as it is without reading about monotonous hardship. And theediscerning knows whereof what he speaks ~ at 6th form he was forced to read the first Maya Angelou book, and managed all of 26 pages. If a stranger came up to you in the street and waffled on for hours about being raped, or growing up poor in Lancashire, you wouldn't pay much attention. So why would you pay £7 to read the same person write about it?!
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Q: Do you remember any of the books you read and loved as a child?

A: Of courses, some are still kept, and some still collected. The shelves of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books are getting no shorter, at least. While some items theediscerning would prefer not to return to, Stig of the Dump et al, he never got round the whole Narnia cycle, for example, but has them shelved, near some silly little bits and pieces ~ Helen Cresswell (signed, you know), The Terrible Term of Tyke Tyler, and what's it called, Bottersnikes and Gumbrills? Something like that, with great humour and pictures.

And can this be called a brief plug for the brilliant Norman Hunter ~ Professor Branestawm is a classic that is so rarely mentioned, the creation must be bought by all who believe in theediscerning. Excellent books, one and all.
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Q: Have you reread these books as a grown-up?

A: The signed Cresswell was only picked up 18 months ago, so that got re-read. Some were certainly given a second goi
ng-over in theediscerning's late teenage years, when some didn't survive the cull (Geoffrey Treacey (sp), for one).
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Q: Is there a book of which you can say it has influenced you?

A: The Perfect Present, perhaps, one of the shortest and most simplistic "self-help" fables around. Of course a lot of other books influence one's life, even if they only take three days to read, it's three days gone when you could have been inventing anti-cancer drugs, or something.
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Q: Which are your favourite authors?

A: Ah, where to begin? Conrad, Greene, Mark Z Danielewski (yes, he's only written only one book, but what a book!!), lots of sci-fi and fantasy people, Perec, Beckett, Arthur Miller while we think of plays... the list will never be finished, so perhaps it should never have been begun.
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Q: Which book would you take with you on a desert island?

A: "How to get off a desert island quickly" by whoever. It would be hellish. And if someone had "kindly" left either old Bill S or The Bible, well they would just be kindling, I'm afraid. (The books and the person who left them, that is.)
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Q: What is your attitude towards translations?

A: As long as they're good, they're essential. How else do we know what the majority of the world is reading? Theediscerning doesn't, and never will, know any other tongue enough to read its fiction in the original, so there's no getting round it. It just seems that a lot of the older editions' translations are so much less sprightly, and clumpingly dull compared to modern ones. Why 30 years can make such difference in mood to Kafka (as a random example) is beyond thee'.
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Q: Do you buy your books/get them from the library/borrow them fro
m friends/steal them?

A: Yes.

Oh, sorry, this isn't one of those flippant questionnaires, now, is it?! OK. Yes, many books are bought, but mostly they will be from charity shops, discount stores for much less than £3, and so on. Yes, a lot are taken from the library, especially those ones that theediscerning takes a fancy to and hasn't seen around in shops before. Some, but only a small proportion, are borrowed from friends. As for the latter option, well, that's not strictly true. Perhaps buying a book for 20p from a charity shop, reading it, sometimes reviewing it, and selling it on amazon for £3 is a bit immoral, but that would be as far as stealing goes.
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Q: When you buy books, do you prefer hardcover editions or pocket books?

A: Oh paperbacks, of course. Much more preferable ~ easier for carrying, reading, and less space on the shelves. And cheaper. And easier to sell on.
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Q: Have you ever tried Audio Books?

A: No. The very few times theediscerning has tried to listen to plays and other fiction on the radio have been complete failures, and he has fallen asleep. Audio books could be no different.


So there you go. It's a shame we weren't asked our least liked authors (too many "classics" to mention, but let's pick on Jane Austen, shall we, as that's an easy target, while in modern times, Paulo Coelho is pure tripe through and through), and it's a shame we weren't asked about our regular reading habits (theediscerning likes to plough through from front to back, with obligatory breaks for bodily functions, edibles, etc, and really dislikes having to break from a book once his Sunday has started to do something else. In fact he sometimes thinks of them as being scheduled like some bizarre TV studio ~ 'tonight and tomorrow, here on channel theediscerning, it's something by s
omeone, 5-8.30 tonight, and however long what's left takes tomorrow' ~ is it that weird to set time aside like that?), but as it stands, the questionnaire was fine. As far as the very cagy and bet-hedging answers go, well...

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