Thursday, April 18, 2013

Pass the Parcel




I learned about this fun blog party from Ivy Miranda of Revealed in Time.  I love YA fiction, so couldn't pass up the chance to participate.  Click on the button above to go read more about the game and enter yourself.  You can also go here to learn more about the party, find out what kind of games and interviews are included.

1. Name your top 5 favourite YA authors!

Robert Louis Stevenson
J. K. Rowling
S. E. Hinton
L. M. Montgomery
Lauraine Snelling

2. What's the last YA book you read and what did you think of it?

Pies and Prejudice by Heather Vogel Frederick.  I loved it (read what I thought here), and I want to read more in the series.

3. What's your favourite YA genre? (Dystopian, romance, sci-fi, contemporary, etc.)

Historical fiction.

4. Let's talk characters! Pick a character you love and tell us why?

I love Ponyboy Curtis, protagonist of S.E. Hinton's classic The Outsiders.  He's smart, he's a little shy, and he's loyal -- three things I've tried to be for a long time.  He likes Robert Frost's poetry, and so do I.  I guess I love him because I see a lot of myself in him.

I think I was either Ponyboy's age (14) or a year older the first time I read the book, and my brother and I used to measure our ages by who we were the same age as ("I'm 17, I'm Sodapop's age!"  "I'm 20, I'm Darry's age!" etc) until we were over 20, and then we were older than all the Outsiders, and we were very sad.  (That was only a few years ago for my brother, but 12 for me, sniff sniff.)

5. Top YA villain?

I should probably say Voldemort, but no, I'm going to go with King Galbatorix from Christopher Paolini's "Inheritance Cycle."  He's got more of Darth Vader's swagger and hubris, and somehow, I understand him a little better than Voldy.

6. Top YA couple?

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from the "Anne of Green Gables" books by L. M. Montgomery.  When I read these as a young girl, I had this sinking feeling that I would end up falling in love with someone who originally annoyed me.  I did.

7. With dystopian on the decline, what do you think will be the next hot-trend in YA?

Shakespeare adaptations!  (I wish.)

8. What's the next YA book on your to-be-read pile?

Eye of the Crow by Shayne Peacock

9. What's the fastest time you've ever finished reading a book in? (And what was the book?!)

One night, so about 12 hours.  Back when I was first married, my hubby and I worked third shift.  When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, I read the whole thing on my night off.  I think that's the first book I've read all in one day since high school, and already then I liked to savor them by stretching them over at least two days.

10. (And now for the burning question) Do you think books should be sorted according to colour or title? (This matters.)

Well, personally (and that means in person), I have mine shelved alphabetically by author, then alphabetically by title if I have more than one by that author, or in series order if they're a series.  So, um, sort of neither, I guess.

10 comments:

  1. That, my dear Hamlette, is exactly how I shelve my books! *fist bump* Great minds think alike! :)

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    1. Shiny! I have too many to do any other way -- I'd never be able to find anything! I should say, though, that it's only the fiction and poetry I shelve that way. My history books are arranged chronologically by what era they talk about.

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  2. Isn't Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows like, three inches thick?! And read in one night?! I'm impressed! :)

    Anne and Gilbert were always a good match. They hated each other so much, they were perfectly hilarious. It's like in the Horse and His Boy--they had to get married so they could go on arguing more conveniently.

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    1. Um, yeah, it's huge. I had no kids, and my husband worked that night, so I just devoured it.

      I forgot that bit in The Horse and His Boy -- how could I? That's my favorite Narnia book! Thanks for the reminder ;-)

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  3. Loved your answers! Thanks for doing the tag with us!

    I really loved Ponyboy. (Actually, I loved their whole family.) The Outsiders was one of the most brilliant books I've ever read, sticks with you forever. Have you read SE Hinton's That Was Then, This is Now? I loved it too! Just not as much as The Outsiders. ;)

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    1. When I was a teen, I had this little fantasy where we adopted the Curtis brothers and they became my brothers, and their lives were much happier from then on :-)

      I've read all of Hinton's YA books, including That Was Then, This is Now, but I didn't love any of them the way I love The Outsiders. I did really like Taming the Star Runner a lot, though.

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  4. I'm totally with you on question 10! I do the exact same thing. It gets a little difficult as I have to double stack on the shelves, but I make it work. :)

    Love Anne and Gilbert! How funny that your feeling came true about your husband. :D

    That's great that you can hold out on reading your books for several days. If I'm really into a story, I can't hardly put it down. It seems most of the time anymore, I tend to read them all in one sitting. I should be more like you though! Hmmm. Need to work on that.

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    1. When we were house-hunting, I turned several nice houses down because there weren't enough blank walls for bookcases.

      I have 3 small kids, so it now takes me about a week to read a novel. Sometimes less, if it's a mystery and I'm really into it. Then I sneak it in the bathroom with me and stay up a bit late reading. But I love to savor a book, and make it last as long as I can sometimes. That lets me think about them while I'm not reading and still in the middle of the story.

      I also sometimes read 2 or 3 books simultaneously. When my youngest was a baby, I would have a novel going on each floor of the house, so I had something handy whenever she was ready to nurse.

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  5. HP7 is almost 700 pages long!!!! The most I've ever been able to read in one night is maybe (MAYBE) a 500 page book. *Applauds* Well done!

    Have you ever listened to the Harry Potter books on audio? Jim Dale is AMAZING. He does every character's voice differently. It's like reading the whole series for the first time again. I practically have the whole series memorized, so I like listening to the books as I fall asleep. It's usually very soothing (unless there's some epic battle going on. Then I get hyped up). ;)

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    1. I read a lot, so I read fairly quickly. But yes, that was all I did all night long. I probably made myself a sandwich at some point too, I suppose.

      Nope, I've never heard the audio versions. Except for about an hour after they're in bed, my kids are around me alllllll the time, and they're only 1, 3, and 5, so not old enough for HP yet. But thanks for the recommendation -- those would be great for a car trip when they're older!

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