I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles for me to reveal my favorite book, so, because I’m a nice person, I’ll make you wait no longer. My favorite book is…
THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkein.
I thought it’d be incredibly difficult to narrow it down to one favorite book and, don’t get me wrong, I love love love about a zillion books. But The Hobbit started it all. My dad first gave me The Hobbit to listen to as a book-on-tape during a drive from Dallas to Colorado. Though I’d only been on the planet six short years, I could definitely say that that novel was the coolest thing…ever…to have existed. And it was.
After that, I listened to the book every night before bed. Following my discovery of The Hobbit, I suppose my parents got off easy on the whole bedtime story thing.
I promptly acquired the book–an old paperback edition with a map I loved drawn in the front. I tried to move onto the trilogy, but the later books were a bit hard for me at the time. So, I read The Hobbit 12 times. Count ‘em. Twelve. Until I was able to read the rest of the books in the trilogy and just about every other book that had anything to do with Lord of the Rings–including the very dry and slow-moving Silmarillion.
Anyway, The Hobbit showed me what reading should be. Becoming engrossed in another world is what we readers live for and I’ve never gotten over my love affair with the experience. We can only hope, as writers, to someday give others the feeling of total immersion and complete entrancement by words typed on a page.
These days, I’m still a huge SciFi/Fantasy geek. I’ll never give that up. I’ve read the classics of both genres such as LOTR and Dune and moved past those into the Harry Potters and Enders Games of the world.
What is your favorite genre and why??
For more posts on the writing process, check out these posts: 10 Things to Look for in a Small Press and 7 Ways to Beat the Block
Status: I’m back from Ohio and am spending one more day in DC to get a few things done before I head back to Philly and pack up for good. Last night I finished Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast. I’ve already moved onto the second book of the House of Night series, Betrayed. I’ll review Marked this Saturday because I think for those that aren’t loving the Twilight saga, the House of Night series might do just the trick. (There’s a less angsty teenage lead who is a kickass heroine in her own right and a heck of a lot more action.)
I just got another agent request for WEIRD TATTOOS. It feels strange for those requests to come in when I’m so engrossed in my next project, but I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be. No complaints here!
Today is another day to buckle down on SCOUT. I have an outline as to how many pages should be devoted to which scene, etc. So we will see how that goes. I have a detailed synopsis as well, so that will help. I’ll also be doing some work on the blog today. I’m going to add some descriptions to the books listed on the “Books I Recommend” page and do a few administrative tasks.
4 Comments
July 21, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I absolutely love The Hobbit and it is also one of my all-time favorites. Weirdly enough, we had really similar experiences too. I read The Hobbit a half dozen times (not much compared to your full dozen buy hey) and when I tried to move onto the LOTR trilogy at a young age, I just found it a little too challenging and so returned to The Hobbit. Also, Dune – heck yeah!
July 21, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Never really understood either “The Hobbit” or “LOTR” when I was in high school or the popularity of it.
My absolute favorite genre while growing up (and even as an adult today) was true crime.
Nowadays, it runs mostly mysteries, plus general fiction (for lack of a better term).
July 22, 2008 at 10:41 am
I too love the Hobbit, but I only discovered it when I was 25. I wish I’d been able to read it as a kid — same with LOTR. Read both to my own kids, though.
July 22, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Steve, I’m so glad you finally found LOTR and especially that you shared it with your kids. I hope they loved it as much as I did growing up.
And Georgie, true crimes are one of my guilty pleasures. I never buy them, but I’m one of *those* girls. I sit on the floor in the middle of the aisle and read til my heart’s content. They scare me too much to want to take them home.