I'm It.

[ksmith]

I've been tagged by amyirene_40

1. Total number of books I've owned:

How can anyone answer this? Thousands, roughly.

2. Last book I bought:

Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell

3. Last book I read:

Thief of Time by T. Pratchett

4. 5 books that mean a lot to me:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People by John le Carre. A two-fer, since I love them for the same reasons: The descriptions of places and people. The characters. Office politics that can get people killed. The long distance chess match between Smiley and Karla. My first exposure to the mindset of a spy.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. I think Lord Peter was my first literary crush. The fine detail of Harriet's growing physical attraction to Peter was a pleasant awakening.

Asimov's I, Robot short stories--my first SF

GWOT!, by forgotten author. I was in grade school. This book was in the kid's section. It was funny horror. "Who's got my hairy toe? Who's got my hairy toe?" "Gwot! I ate it!" It scared me at the time because the illos were gross and the story was spooky. I figure anything that's stuck with me for 40 years counts as memorable.

Horror Times Ten--horror antho from the early 70s. Forgot the editor. My first exposure to horror--I loved it.


5. Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:

alfreda89
jacardie
trolleypup
equesgal
christymarx

Comments

[betty-m.livejournal.com]

Since reading TTSP, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley's People, I've been a lifelong fan of John LeCarre. Glad to see that someone else likes him too. Of his earliest work, I think "A Small Town in Germany" is probably the best. If you read it, you'll love his descriptions of Bonn and other smaller German towns. His voice is unforgettable, even if he's gotten cranky and polemic in his latest novels.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I must read Small Town.

Other of his early works that I've enjoyed are his first two books, A Murder of Quality and Call for the Dead. *Very* short books, more novellas than novels. But even though the writing is very spare, the seeds are there--even in the beginning, he could nail a character or a setting with a sentence, or with an offhand line connect a character's past to their present with a resonance that takes my breath away even after multiple readings.

I lost patience over the years with his fascination with unattainable women who just kept getting younger and sluttier with each book--at least Ann aged along with George. I still need to read the cranky polemics. The last books I read of his were the 'middle-aged men looking for life's meaning' works, The Night Manager and Our Game. Oh, and Simple and Simple, which started out gangbusters and just limped at the end.

Yet another reason to love Google

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

There's a children's book illustrator named Stephen Kellogg, and one of his first works was: Gwot! Horribly Funny Hairticklers, George Mendoza (auth) Harper, 1967.