Old FB Notes - Thirty Books

So I'm just cleaning up a few old FB notes and I'm a packrat, so I can't throw them away.

This one was some sort of thirty day challenge about books. I've edited them a bit and added a few notes, because I'm well aware that some of the entries are very unusual. Blame the schools my parents decided to throw me into, I guess.

Also, for the purpose of this list, graphic novels count. Here goes nothing.

Your Favorite Book
Not answering this one, sorry.

Least Favorite Book
DooM Quadrilogy - Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver

The series went from campy video game storytelling to a major clusterfuck. I'm still looking for the second book in the series though, because that covers DooM 2.

A Book That Completely Surprised You
Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas - Bob Ong

This book showed me that someone could stray far away from the pedantic style of writing that I was so used to (at the time) and write something great colloquially. The best thing this book has taught me was that one could actually win an essay writing contest even when it has been stealthily packed with satire, but that's a story for another day.

A Book That Reminds You of Home
Dessert for the Angels - Andrew Maria Almonte

This was one of the first books I ever got as a gift (along with The Stones of the Moon and something else I couldn't remember).

A Non-fiction Book That You Actually Enjoyed
Peksman (Mamatay Ka Man) Nagsisinungaling Ako - Eros Atalia

A Book That Makes You Cry
Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

Well, it didn't really make me cry but reading about someone who looks at the concept of death from a very different perspective isn't something that's easy to swallow for the first few pages.

A Book That’s Hard to Read
Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Maybe I was too young when I read this book, but I've never picked it up again. Dune might be a good contender for this though.

An Unpopular Book You Believe Should Be a Best-Seller
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray - Chris Wooding

I'm a Mythos fan, so this is definitely biased towards that genre, something that the author managed to make his own.

A Book You’ve Read More Than Once
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

That was the first answer that came to me. On a related note, I had a couple of runs on The Horse and His Boy as well.

The First Novel You Remember Reading
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Imagine being forced to write a book report about this during fourth grade. That's sowing the seeds of a grammar nazi right there.

The Book That Made You Fall in Love with Reading
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

A Book So Emotionally Draining You Couldn't Complete It or Had to Set Aside for a Bit
Thimble Summer - Elizabeth Enright

Not exactly emotionally draining per se, but this book took me six months to finish because it bored me to death - and we had to write a goddamn book report on it. Those were days that Google was still a dream, so one could only imagine how horrible it could have been.

Favorite Childhood Book
The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss

A family-oriented Robinson Crusoe, so that's sans the cannibals and piles of corpses. Mostly. Yay!

Book That Should Be on College Required Reading List
Rizal Without the Overcoat - Ambeth Ocampo

Favorite Book Dealing with Foreign Culture
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze - Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

Yep, another book report requirement. It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, fortunately.

Favorite Book Turned Movie
The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft

Book Turned Movie and Completely Desecrated
Wanted - Mark Millar

A Book You Can’t Find on Shelves Anymore That You Love
Jeff Hawke - Sydney Jordan

A Book That Changed Your Mind About a Particular Subject (non-fiction)
I don't really read a lot of non-fiction. At least not books.

A Book You Would Recommend to An Ignorant/Racist/Closed Minded Person
The Watsons Go to Birmingham (1963) - Christopher Paul Curtis

A Guilty Pleasure Book
World War Z - Max Brooks

Favorite Series
Harry Potter

Sorry, but I feel like this needs an explanation. My classmates during my elementary days could attest to how over-the-top our curriculum was - just see the entries above. After all, if you're required to write book reviews on unabridged versions of novels like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (which I liked) or Great Expectations (which is a goddamn snoozefest), a freaking story about wizarding school is a welcome break.

Favorite Romance Novel
After Eden - Arnold Arre

For all its sappiness, cliches and mushiness, this graphic novel is nothing short of magic.

On a related note, The Princess Bride would probably be a perfect fit here, but I've only had the pleasure of watching the movie (which is still my favorite, by the way). It's essentially a fairy tale's fairy tale.

A Book You Later Found Out the Author Lied About
No real answer for this too, but see the third from the last entry.


Favorite Autobiographical/Biographical book
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Tucker Max

A Book You Wish Would Be Written
HP Lovecraft's Commonplace Book - H.P. Lovecraft

A Book You Would Write If You Had All the Resources
something that would place the Dream Cycle in a modern setting

A Book You Wish You Never Read
Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard

An Author That You Completely Avoid/Hate
Eh, I give the benefit of a doubt for any new author. Otherwise, L. Ron Hubbard

An Author That You Will Read Whatever They Put Out
Michael Crichton