Answers to the Book Meme

I meant to post my answers to the Meme yesterday but got caught up in the drama and excitement of selling books! Anyway here are my answers to Friday's Meme


1. The last book I bought


'The Other Hand' by Chris Cleave, my book groups choice for this month. More on this in a later post.


2. The book I read the most as a child


'The Secret of Moon Castle' by Enid Blyton. I must have read this book 12 or 13 times


3. The book I've owned the longest


A first edition copy of 'The Secret of Moon Castle'


4. The total number of books I own


I haven't done a definitive count but I estimate over a thousand


5. The one book I would want on a desert island


'How to Survive on a Desert Island' I'd be dead in a week if I didn't have such a book!


6. The worst book I read in the last 12 months


'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. Where to start describing why I didn't like this book? It was a book group choice and for those lovers of the book most of the book group loved it. I thought Gilbert frivolous and despite her desire for change and the lengths she went to to achieve that change, by the end of the book she did not seem to have achieved any insight into herself or her situation.


7. The best book read in the last 12 months


Not many books get 10/10 but three made it into that category last year:


'John the Revelator' by Peter Murphy


'The Shooting Party' by Isabella Colgate


'The Archivists Story' by Travis Holland


If I have to chose one it would be 'The Archivists Story', a book about memory and how we use stories to make sense of our memories, both as individuals and as nations.


8. The book I most hated studying at school


'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy. I studied this for my A levels and gave up reading this most depressing book when the children all killed themselves because their parents weren't married. I never finished the book even though it was a set text. Since then I have read almost all of Hardy's novels but can not bring myself to reread this.


9. The book which made the most impression on me as a teenager


'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. Another set text but for O level this time. We were given the book one afternoon and I read it until I had finished it at 3am the following morning.


10. My favourite book Character

Either Scout from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a feisty and brave girl or, a cliche I know but, Mr Darcy - do I need to spell it out!