The Four Ages of Poetry

Amy at Book Musings tagged me for this award, the rules of which are as follows: You're tagged if you have under 200 followers and do a good job blogging. Those who are tagged then share 11 random facts about themselves, answer 11 questions posted by the person that tagged them, and then create their own set of 11 questions for others to answer.  Thanks, Amy!

11 Random Things About Me (I'm running out of Random Things)

1. I've lived in California almost my entire life, but I've never actually felt an earthquake.  I always seem to be on the wrong end of the state. 
2. Confession: My kids really want a pet and I don't want one.  I can't keep up with life as it is.
3. I just finished a neat embroidery project that was also a series of lessons in different techniques.  I'm quite proud of myself.  (If you're into embroidery at all, read Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread blog, which is where I took the class.)
4. Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's 12th birthday!  She is very happy to finally be 12.  Secret: her friends are planning to heart attack the yard tonight.
5. I'm a Facebook addict, but dislike Twitter.  I'm afraid to try Pinterest.
6. I wish I could learn more languages.  I'd pick Greek, Hindi, and relearning Russian.  I like different alphabets...
7. Here is what I want to sew next.  I'll give it to a niece.
8. My favorite fruits are nectarines and strawberries.
9. I took June completely off from homeschooling, but now I'm getting the planning bug again.  My chemistry book is calling me.
10. When I was a kid I liked to build things out of paper, like castles or houses.  I still think it's neat, but somehow don't seem to have as much time for it.  BUT I do have this really great paper Unseen University book.  At the very least I should make the library, right?
11. It is really super-hot outside right now, and I'm hiding in the air conditioning.  In my opinion air conditioning is one of the great advances of modern civilization, like hot running water and good dentistry.

Amy's Questions

1. How do you feel about the reading you were assigned in school? Dislike? Appreciate?

Actually a lot of it was not bad.  I remember my sophomore year, which featured Fahrenheit 451 and The Good Earth.  I skipped out on my junior year (which should have been American Lit) and spent it abroad, but my senior year had Beowulf, Macbeth, and the poetry of William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others.  I went to a pretty bad high school, but they did try to have us read actual literature.

I was a literature major in college and appreciated a lot of what I read. 

2. Is there a book you have read so many times you almost have it memorized?

Quite a few.  Fire and Hemlock, and other DWJ books.  Certain mysteries I read when I'm not feeling well.  When I was a teen I knew lots of second-rate fantasy almost by heart, but that's mostly gone now.

3. What's your favorite non-fiction genre?

History?  Social issues?  Education and child development?  It's hard to pick.

4. Do you listen to many audiobooks? Why or why not?

I don't like audiobooks.  They go too slowly and I get impatient.  I do like to listen to lectures on audio, especially history or religion in history.  So I have some podcasts I subscribe to, but if it was meant to be read I prefer to read it.

5. What's your favorite movie based on a novel?

Hm, hard to say, especially since I forget them quickly.  Some favorites are the Sullivan Anne of Green Gables movies (not 3, which as we all know doesn't exist), the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Twelfth Night even though it's not a novel (the one with Helena Bonham Carter), Persuasion (the one that ends with the parade in the background)...if I could only pick one to keep forever I guess it would be P&P.  But I'd be very sad to lose Anne (and Gilbert).

6. Do you talk books with anyone in real life? Who? Or is your blog your only avenue?

I am a librarian, like my mother before me, so my mom and I talk books and frequently loan them back and forth.  Mom's house is a treasure-trove of books (and larger than my house).  I also have a good friend and we sometimes talk books, but she has more kids and less time to read.  My other booky friend started law school last year--and she is a superstar!--and has had to forsake literature for the time being.

7. Is there any book you associate strongly with a particular place or time in your life?

Lots of them!  Many of my books make me think of a particular spot or time period.

8. Where and when do you do most of your reading?

If I'm not reading while wandering around the house, I'm probably on the couch or on my bed.  Or the floor in the schoolroom.  And, I read whenever I can!  I'm good at grabbing moments; sustained reading time is not something I get much of.

9. What period in history have you read the most about (either fiction or non-fiction)?

Either the Middle Ages or the Victorians, not sure which.  The UK in any case.

10. What kind of poetry (if any) do you read?

I try to like poetry, but I mostly fail at it.  This year of course it's mostly translations from ancient Greek, but otherwise, Elizabethan I suppose.  I have been slowly reading my way through the Oxford Book of English Verse (the Quiller-Couch one) and Walter de la Mare's collection Come Hither.  For a long time now, because I really meant it when I said slowly.  I want to enjoy T. S. Eliot, and Spenser and Henry Vaughan, but I have my doubts that it will ever happen.

11. What is the funniest book you've ever read?

Another difficult choice.  Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog is wonderful.  P. G. Wodehouse is a comic genius.  I just read a really funny book from about 1917 called Bab: a Sub-Deb, by Mary Roberts Rinehart of all people, and I loved it (review coming soon!).  When I was a kid I loved Lois Lowry's Anastasia books--I read them over and over and laughed too much every time.  One of my all-time favorite funny bits is from Fire and Hemlock--the letter Polly gets after writing a story that is largely sentimental drivel.

Questions from Me

1. Do you quit reading books you don't like, or do you grit your teeth and finish no matter what?
2. What is a literary genre or time period that you avoid if at all possible?
3. How on earth do y'all think up piles of random questions?  I do not know how people do it.
4. List 3 of your favorite things about the place where you live.
5. List 3 all-time favorite non-fiction books.
6. Do you play a musical instrument or do other musical stuff?
7. Tell about the last historical place you visited.
8. List 2 favorite classic novels.
9. What, besides reading, do you do for fun?
10. What holiday could you really do without?
11. Worst book ever?

I'd love to see anyone's answers, but I'm only going to tag one person and she probably won't take the bait.  I tag my MOM at goldfields.  Ha!  (But go take a look at her cool blog.)