Fullness of Joy Literary Tag

Fullness of Joy is celebrating their 4-year anniversary with a literary tag.  Below are my answers but I also encourage you to take a peek at Joy's blog.  She has a giveaway there, if you are interested.  :D

"Fullness of Joy Literary Celebration Tag"

1. What is your favourite "happy" sort of book? (a book that either has joy/happiness as a major theme, or a book that gives you a happy, cozy feeling inside).

     Pollyanna is a "glad" book!

2. Did you ever have, in your childhood/youth, a certain book that launched you into a serious love of reading which made it something bigger than a mere hobby in your life?

     No, I don't remember NOT reading.

3. What is one overhyped novel that people nowadays term as a "classic" that you really didn't like as much as everyone else? What made you dislike it so much?

     The funny thing about my brain is that I will "humph" at it for a week and then promptly strive to forget all about it.  I know I have read some classics that I didn't care for, but now I have forgotten what they were.  

4. What makes you motivated to blog, and what is your favourite aspect of the blogging experience throughout the years you've been writing?

     I needed a literary outlet.  I had been journaling and writing pieces of stories for years, but it was stagnant.  

     Favorite aspects:

          a. Being able to write, knowing that somebody is seeing something that I have written.

                b. Getting feedback from other readers/writers on my work.

              c. Making connections.  Meeting people.  Being able to comment on their blogs and have them comment on mine.  Being able to follow their feeds and learn from them.

5. What are 4 works of literature that you are particularly looking forward to reading in the near future?

     Sense and Sensibility (again)

     The Best of James Herriot: Favourite memories of a country vet

     Hunger Games trilogy

     To Darkness Fled

6. What are some of your favourite non-fiction books?

     The Bible

     God's Smuggler

     The Hiding Place

     biographies, survival books, high school math and science books, writing tutorials.

7.  What are some of your favourite time-periods to read about?

     Bible times.  Medieval.  Colonial America.  Mid-1800s.  Wars.  Future.

8. Is there a special book that influenced you to do something new in your life, or changed you in a profound way?

     Do Hard Things.

     Little Women.

     The Hiding Place.

     God's Smuggler.

     Bible.

9. Do you have a favourite contemporary fictional novel?

     No.  There are a number that I like, but I don't have a favorite (using the American spelling of favorite).

10. Persuasion is a very autumnal book, and many authors and poets have beautifully described and romanticised that season, which leads to the question: why is autumn so often idealised, and does it hold that certain magic and charm to you? What is your favourite season?

     Autumn is special.  The colors are vibrant and warm.  The heat of summer fades away to a delicious chill.  The harvest comes in -- sweet and rich -- everything that you have worked for all year.  And, just as the fullest bounty comes in, you store it away for the coming winter.

      Because it is no longer so hot, it becomes the time of year for snuggling with your family and lighting bonfires and roasting apples.

     I do not have a favorite season.  I love the flowers and fresh new green buds of spring.  I love the thunderstorms and wind.  Summer is probably my least favorite -- heat, annoying insects - but even it has its charms.  Autumn might be my favorite -- I love the way it feels.  And then winter comes with its snows and hot chocolate and sledding parties.  I love winter.

11. There are many novels set during the era of the French of Revolution, especially books written in previous generations by authors such as Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, and Baroness Orczy. Which, if any, are your favourites?

      I've read Dickens and Dumas and liked both of them.  I admittedly love the way Dickens writes in general.  I haven't read Hugo, but I watched an older Les Mis movie.

12. What excites you the most about literature and its influence in culture, and how it effects the way people think and act?

     It excites me that literature can influence for good. I am not excited that it often works the other way around.

     I like to broaden people's minds to other (good) ways of thinking.  It's so easy to get caught up in one way of doing things and not even realize that other people may approach the same problems differently.

     Literature should make people think, and it should inspire them for good.

13. Is it ever a struggle to reconcile reading fiction/entertainment with the struggles of reality, and to place the importance of fiction within one's daily Christian life and walk with the Lord?

     Sometimes.  If I err, I probably err on the side of too much fiction.  But for me, it is refreshing and relaxing.  And I like the chance to face the struggles of reality in a story form, where the bad guy is defeated when you finish the book.

14. Would you rather you lived in the countryside of England during WW2, or in the American Prairie during the 1800s, or during the Neoplonic Wars in Europe? (basically favourite historical era/setting to live)

     Ahk!  Impossible question!

     This is why we read books.  So we can live all of those places.

15. What is your favourite Jane Austen novel? Do you have a favourite film or tv adaption?

     I like Pride and Prejudice the best.  Sense and Sensibility is a close second.  And then Emma.

     The 1995 Pride and Prejudice with Firth and Ehle.

     The 1995 Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet

     The 2009 Emma with Romola Garai.

16. Describe your ideal reading nook! 

     A window seat with lots of cushions.  And maybe hidden from the rest of the house by curtains.

17. Is there a particular book that is quite underrated and yet you think is undeservedly so and should be read by everyone? 

     Socks.  By Beverly Cleary.

18. Do you have a favourite Parable that the Lord Jesus told? What inspires and encourages you the most about it?

     My favorite changes from one to the other as I need it.  ;)

     At the moment, it is the one about "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" because one person in the crowd can influence the mass for good or evil.  I am inspired to be good leaven in my crowds.

19. Name a book you've reread more than twice. 

     Oliver Twist.

     (and over a hundred others -- I like to reread, and spent a lot of time at home as a child with nowhere to go but into one of the books in our cabinet)

20. The main character in one of the giveaway books (Until that Distant Day) is a superb cook. How fond are you of cooking/baking and homemaking in general? 

     I love it if I have time and am home all or most of the day.  If I am rushing in after work and after I've been up all night at a birth, then I'd rather open a can of soup.

      But generally, I love to cook and create and keep house.  :D

21. What is a book you're intimidated to read but really want to read in the near future?

     Heart of the Sea

22. What 3 novels (or series of novels) would you like to see adapted to film or television?

     Jill Williamson's Blood of Kings trilogy

     Rachel Heffington's Fly Away Home (but only if we could get a young Gregory Peck to star - disappointed face)

     A Tale of Two Cities (a newer and more accurate version than the one I've seen)

23. What would be the first thing you would like to say to/ask your favourite author if you had the opportunity of speaking intimately with them for ten minutes?

     "Hi.  Nice to meet you."

25. Favourite quote by your favourite author?

     Hard to pick a favorite -- He said so many great things!!!!

     The first quote that comes to mind is "Lo, I am with you alway - even to the end of the world."

26. What is your greatest wish/purpose in picking up your own pen and writing?

     To be some leaven.  To say what God has for me to say.