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bookish-moony · 2 years

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End of the year reading survey

How many books did you read? Did you meet your goal? I read 69 books, and my goal was 45. So yeah, I met my goal. Honestly I’m surprised I reached 60 because I had so little time this year.

Most read genre? Fiction, I guess? I don’t know, I was all over the place this year. They’re novels and poems and plays and memoirs. Letters, journals, historical fiction, mystery, epic poems and short stories. I’m going through the list right now and they’re are plenty of essays, analysis and nonfiction, too. I’ve really got to pick my territory…

Longest and shortest books you read. Shortest: maybe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard. Maybe Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Maybe the Old man and the sea. Maybe the Importance of Being Earnest, or Twelve Angry Men. I’m not sure if plays count. Longest: Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment with Ovid’s Metamorphoses a close second (although the latter is a reread).

Favorite book published in 2021? I don’t think I read a single one. I mean, Hamnet is 2020. That’s not far off

Favorite debut book in 2021? I Never Promised You a Rose Garden was a debut, I think, but not 2021. And In the Woods. I liked I Never Promised You a Rose Garden better. If you want your heart torn out.

Favorite book not published this year? Haha… how are we defining “book”?

Favorite novel: If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Favorite play: Ros and Guil

Favorite Poem: Dante’s Inferno (Kaddish is a close second). And lots of Rilke and TS Eliot and Sappho.

Favorite short story: The Metamorphosis

Favorite mythology(?): Ovid or Virgil (both rereads)

Memoir: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit or I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Letters: Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet

Analysis: Art: Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Writing: On Poetry and Poets by T.S Eliot. Specific: The Figure of Beatrice by Charles Williams (oh the lengths I went to find that one…)

Historical Fiction: Lincoln in the Bardo

Mystery: My annual reread of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Magical Realism: The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings (reread).

A book that lived up to the hype. Um. Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. You see quotes across half the internet… and it’s just a beautiful read.

A book that did NOT live up to the hype. I don’t think Hamnet did. It was good but not brilliant. I’d still recommend it.

Book that felt like the biggest accomplishment. Fucking Crime and Punishment took me MONTHS to read. I read other things at the time. I mean, I loved it, but it took a lot of time.

Favorite character. Fictionalized Virgil from the greatest (and only) self-insert/celebrity-Christian-Bible-fanfiction-that-become-canon you’ll ever read: Inferno.

Least favorite character. Charles Kinbote from Pale Fire (I loved him and thought he was an absolute douche) or Svidrigailov from C&P (just an unbelievably awful guy).

Most shocking book/moment. The Catcher in the Rye when JD Salinger ended it without an ending. Jane Eyre when… the plot twist. It gets me every time. And Great House when you realize who “your Honor” is and what happens with Dov. Fucking a.

Favorite couple/OTP. Razumikhin & Dunya 4ever

The best written book you read this year. If I say Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms will someone kill me. Just kidding. Maybe The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende or one of the Metamorphosis(es).

Book that you pushed the most people to read in 2021. Dante’s Inferno and Letters to a Young Poet. One friend in particular.

Favorite book cover of the year. Okay, I got the Hemingway library edition of A Farewell to Arms and it’s gorgeous. And the Vintage cover of Pale Fire is stunning. And the Penguin version of Metamorphoses (Ovid). And I just love the Pocket Poets series by City Lights, so add Howl and Kaddish to the list. And the Vintage International version of The Plague.

Favorite translation (I added this prompt): Inferno: Dorothy. Sayers. I swear by her translation. If your reading it in English only read this one.

Crime and Punishment: Oxford edition by Nicolas Pasternak Slater. I hear there are other decent translations but I thought this one was very good.

Favorite book adaptation.

I have developed a list over the years:

Ordinary People

Hamlet (David Tennant)

Atonement

The Life of Pi

Shakespeare in Love

12 Angry Men

Brokeback mountain

The only one I both watched and read for the first time this year is Brokeback Mountain. The short story killed me.

What book made you cry the most? Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg (poem) makes me cry every time. Brokeback Mountain made me cry. And a really good production of King Lear (not a book. who cares). It was the first live theatre I’d seen all year (that I wasn’t involved in). I think I also cried after the Count of Monte Cristo because it was finally over. I liked it but it was a lot. It was actually the second book my grandfather ever read, the first being The Three Musketeers. Bastard out of Carolina and Ordinary People and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden all made me cry the first time around, but not this year.

What book made you laugh the most? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead killed me. I loved it. It might have also made me cry I don’t remember. Oh! There’s a good filmed adaptation as well! It’s directed by Tom Stoppard. I’d recommend that too

A new favorite author you discovered this year. Rilke. Rilke. Rilke. Also Kafka. And Borges. And Virgil. And James Baldwin (well, I first read him a couple years ago). And Dorothy Sayers for sure. I read a lot of Camus and Hemingway but I wouldn’t say they’re favorites (yet). I read more Dorothy Allison but I think I discovered her last year. And I wouldn’t say she’s a favorite but Patricia Cornwell is really fun if you’re every looking for a forensic/mystery/thriller.

Favorite book you re-read this year. Oh no. Good question. Okay: Ordinary People by Judith Guest.

What is the best non-fiction book you read this year? Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. Runner up is The New Jim Crow (did I read that this year?) or Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst.

Thank you @figuringthengsout for tagging me <3 I picked up some good recommendations from your survey

If you got through my whole mess of a survey consider yourself tagged. And my lovely mutuals, especially @youareapipedream <3

#im so sorry i never figured out how to use Tumblr formatting #anyway #reading #books

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transbodyhorror · 3 years

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If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog!

I received... 3 of these from awhile back so I'll do nine :-) apologies for the wait but thank you for the tag (including @homo-intrinsic)

1. I have a vehement hatred of watermelon. fruit is nourishing, flavorful, but watermelon is the equivalent of celery

2. a month ago I got a library card and have already read 20+ works?? far too many were put on hold yet I love not having to purchase any work I have a vague interest in

3. speaking of reading, I only got enthralled by poetry relatively recently - it's one positive of quarantine + having some dynamic life changes, so far adore mary oliver, ilya kaminsky and ocean vuong

--> and my subsequent metamorphosis to a notepad poet oop

3. in relation to quarantine, I was intending on majoring in linguistics in order to do fieldwork pertaining to recording marginalized languages yet for years I've always had robin williams whispering 'carpe diem' in relation to pursuing english. thus I took the leap! looking into studying in dublin

4. my first language is hungarian but my english is significantly better given that I live in the states but I also know french! also started russian right before my school year

5. I enjoy watercolor :0 particularly the process of blending and layering, it's quite therapeutic

6. if anyone has a craving for banana bread I can make a mean loaf ❤

7. forests > beaches

8. I read les misérables in about 7th grade and reread the work annually

9. I listen to podcasts on walks, lately it's been poetry unbound + history of literature (always looking for recommendations!)

#hopefully this was sufficent lol #this was a long time coming and i don't do personal posts often? but hey here you go #asks

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