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Oct. 9th, 2009 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nilchanceSince you all are off in Denver, galavanting about with other fangirls while I suffer in a sufferingly suffer...ish way, I will meme! Ha!
Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Meme snagged from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
krisomniac. I took way more than 15 minutes. Can I count the extended time as an accommodation for my short attention spa-- look, a squirrel!
1. Undisclosed book of Russian fairy tales in a picture book: I remember this being my first burst of LIKING to read, not just spelling out words. I was in a Montesorri school. There was a phoenix in the book, with big gorgeous colors.
2. Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher. My first taste of feminism; I read it and re-read it during my middle school years of trauma.
3. Guilty Pleasures, LKH. Ohhh, you burned me, sister. You burned me hard. But I loved the idea of urban fantasy, and badass chick with a gun hunting down monsters instead of being seduced and devoured. What some women I know had with Buffy, I had with Anita. Sniff.
4. The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf. A gift from my mom after I read Reviving Ophelia a few thousand times. I immediately became shunned at my school (even MORE) but it got me through some rough times, including first menstruation and pulling my hairs out by the dozen. I tossed away my Baby Fresh perfume over this one and wore XL shirts + jeans. Fuck the man.
5. Salamandastron, Brian Jacques. This is the middle of the Redwall series, but it's my favorite. A brotherhood/priesthood of badass hares, plus a badger with PTSD. I read it until it fell apart, and then I read some more.
6. Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey. I listened to this on the drive to and from Louisville with my dad. Menolly running from Thread until she shredded the bottoms of her feet! Her fire lizards! The school for Harpers! Oh, love.
7. Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop. Teresa sent me all three in the early days of our courtship, when we were in different states. I devoured it. All id fic, all the way, but it hits my brainkinks and pleases me deeply.
8. To Stir a Magic Cauldron, Starhawk. Sigh. Okay, I never knew about Wicca, I was raised Catholic, and this was my entrance into paganism. I finally had a connection to spirituality and I never looked back.
9. Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg. This revolutionized how I see writing, and also led me into a deeper interest in meditation.
10. The Culture of Fear, by Barry Glassner. This was a) the first book I read for a sociology class, which led me into my undergrad major, and b) a huge part in my learning to analyze media. And, y'know, to drop my overwhelming anxiety disorder.
11. The Hot Zone, Douglas Preston. I read this a lot as a kid. I was a strange child.
12. Kushiel's Chosen, Jacqueline Carey. This book reminds me of working at the bookstore, standing in the cool storage room to breathe deeply in the smell of books. Also, I learned that kink is hot and I needed to step my game up as a writer.
13. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeannete Winterson. My first GLBT lit class; my professor was gay, out, coupled and okay. It helped this wee closeted scared lesbian more than he'll ever know, just to see that I would be all right and that I could love my girl without the sky falling.
14. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood. High school lit. Dystopia, my love, I still remember what you wore the day we met.
15. The Obesity Myth, Paul Campos. What do you mean, I can be fat without being lazy and morally corrupt and DOOMED? A breath of fresh air into my stagnant crypt of body hate.
Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Meme snagged from
krisomniac. I took way more than 15 minutes. Can I count the extended time as an accommodation for my short attention spa-- look, a squirrel!1. Undisclosed book of Russian fairy tales in a picture book: I remember this being my first burst of LIKING to read, not just spelling out words. I was in a Montesorri school. There was a phoenix in the book, with big gorgeous colors.
2. Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher. My first taste of feminism; I read it and re-read it during my middle school years of trauma.
3. Guilty Pleasures, LKH. Ohhh, you burned me, sister. You burned me hard. But I loved the idea of urban fantasy, and badass chick with a gun hunting down monsters instead of being seduced and devoured. What some women I know had with Buffy, I had with Anita. Sniff.
4. The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf. A gift from my mom after I read Reviving Ophelia a few thousand times. I immediately became shunned at my school (even MORE) but it got me through some rough times, including first menstruation and pulling my hairs out by the dozen. I tossed away my Baby Fresh perfume over this one and wore XL shirts + jeans. Fuck the man.
5. Salamandastron, Brian Jacques. This is the middle of the Redwall series, but it's my favorite. A brotherhood/priesthood of badass hares, plus a badger with PTSD. I read it until it fell apart, and then I read some more.
6. Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey. I listened to this on the drive to and from Louisville with my dad. Menolly running from Thread until she shredded the bottoms of her feet! Her fire lizards! The school for Harpers! Oh, love.
7. Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop. Teresa sent me all three in the early days of our courtship, when we were in different states. I devoured it. All id fic, all the way, but it hits my brainkinks and pleases me deeply.
8. To Stir a Magic Cauldron, Starhawk. Sigh. Okay, I never knew about Wicca, I was raised Catholic, and this was my entrance into paganism. I finally had a connection to spirituality and I never looked back.
9. Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg. This revolutionized how I see writing, and also led me into a deeper interest in meditation.
10. The Culture of Fear, by Barry Glassner. This was a) the first book I read for a sociology class, which led me into my undergrad major, and b) a huge part in my learning to analyze media. And, y'know, to drop my overwhelming anxiety disorder.
11. The Hot Zone, Douglas Preston. I read this a lot as a kid. I was a strange child.
12. Kushiel's Chosen, Jacqueline Carey. This book reminds me of working at the bookstore, standing in the cool storage room to breathe deeply in the smell of books. Also, I learned that kink is hot and I needed to step my game up as a writer.
13. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeannete Winterson. My first GLBT lit class; my professor was gay, out, coupled and okay. It helped this wee closeted scared lesbian more than he'll ever know, just to see that I would be all right and that I could love my girl without the sky falling.
14. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood. High school lit. Dystopia, my love, I still remember what you wore the day we met.
15. The Obesity Myth, Paul Campos. What do you mean, I can be fat without being lazy and morally corrupt and DOOMED? A breath of fresh air into my stagnant crypt of body hate.
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Date: 2009-10-09 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 09:54 pm (UTC)I've ranted over the degeneration of Anita Blake many a time. It pisses me off, because the series started off SO GOOD...Anita, with her sand-papery tenderness and Issues, reminds me of a supernatural V.I.Warshawski (book, not that damn movie!). The books were very good mysteries, above everything else, with a touch of romance to them. I loved the first, say...three...and liked the next couple. Then LKH hit the skids right into loony town and that's all she wrote for me. Literally, lol. I did try to read Obsidian Butterfly, because I love Edward, but...gah. I'd bump off that stupid girlfriend, personally.
But yes, to Anita being to many women what Buffy was to others. That kind of "trying to do the right thing, even though it hurts" angry nobility; and a lot of self-pity, with a huge chunk of courage...complicated women, who DO THINGS. I loved the idea of integrating the supernatural into the real, "legal" world. Sookie Stackhouse, I like you a lot, you're fun...but you're a rip-off, baby. :)
Black Jewels, ohhhh! All kink aside (and ok, it's a lot of kink and hard to put aside...whoooboy), I loved the reversal of ideas about light/dark imagery. I love that she didn't explain everything in a prologue or something, just plunged you into it and you figured the vocabulary out as you went. I love the idea of the Blood gravitating toward natural "queens", like bee queens, and forming around them; they didn't have to be powerful, themselves, they just had the right...vibe. Smell? Taste, lol. Acted as a grounding force for the dangerous/protective/horny guys, ha. I love the way she played with gender roles, too-the women were the ones more naturally dominant, there, and their strengths were being deliberately destroyed in what was, for their world, a role reversal. Mind fuck!
I didn't like most of Jaqueline Carey's Star Trek books, so I never was interested in the Kushiel series. I do want to read The Handmaid's Tale, someday, when I can bear to read much fiction again.
I've read many a book that's influenced me, but hell if I can remember their names.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 10:50 pm (UTC)