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| Image credit: Imperial Scribis |
Hello everyone! And happy seventh day of the new year...how is it 1/7/22 already? Crazy times. I can't believe I used to feel like time went by slowly...it absolutely flies at all times. Just your weekly reminder to cherish the time that is given you. ;) (And do the best you can with it, of course, as Gandalf would say.)
So, I am here today with a tag that I stole borrowed, because stealing borrowing tags instead of working through my list of tags I was actually tagged for is something that I don't do very often, and it always sounds like fun. (In the way that ignoring a backlog of anything always sounds fun.) Plus, the person I stole borrowed it from (thanks Merie!) stole borrowed it herself in the first place, so I think that means that's just kind of the MO for this tag. Thus, I shall not be tagging anyone, I will simply allow you to steal borrow it if you think it sounds fun.
To give credit where credit is due: I believe this tag originated as a blog tag here.
The way it works is that I will be creating a wheel using this website full of favorite books of mine (I chose only five star reads, to make it all the more painful). The wheel will choose three at a time, and I will be, in the vein of the game "kiss, marry, kill" deciding which will get reread, rewritten, and burned.
Here's the wheel with all twelve books on it:
Round One
For this first round, we have: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Ouch, ouch, ouch. I knew this was going to hurt, but I didn't think it would hurt this much, this early.
Well, I cannot possibly rewrite or burn The Lord of the Rings, so I think I will reread it. I was planning on rereading it sometime early this coming semester anyway...
I don't think I could possibly rewrite The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, because it is too perfect, and C. S. Lewis had a purpose with how he wrote it that I don't entirely understand (Planet Narnia readthrough coming soon. ;)) so instead I will rewrite Return of the Thief and take out the few weird and inconsistent nods to political correctness that MWT added.
Which, of course means that I have to burn The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Oops. Sorry Lewis. Love you. Mean it. *watches pages crumbling into ash* *cries*
Round Two
For the second round: Leaf by Niggle by J. R. R. Tolkien, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
I thought this would be easier, but it really isn't, especially since I just reread both Code Name Verity and A Wind in the Door.
So, I guess the clear choice is to reread Leaf by Niggle, since I was planning on doing that anyway.
But now what?? I don't feel up to rewriting either Code Name Verity or A Wind in the Door. BUT WAIT. If I rewrote Code Name Verity, I could change the ending. But then would it be as good?
Okay maybe not.
I don't KNOW, guys.
Alright, I will rewrite Code Name Verity, and add more Jamie. And maybe modify the ending.
Which...means I have to burn A Wind in the Door. Dangit, I LOVE that book. *pouty sad face*
Round Three
For the third round: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Scaz. (This is my newest exclamation of dismay. I cribbed it from the Chasing Vermeer books by Blue Balliett, because yes, I am that much of a bookworm. XD)
Okay, this is hard, but I think I'm going to reread Pride and Prejudice. It's a good book, and I could stand to reread it.
Spinning Silver I will rewrite, possibly cutting down on the number of POVs or something. There are a few parts that feel a little too long to me. But overall, it's an amazing book, so.
Which means that I have to burn A Gentleman in Moscow. *sigh*
Round Four
Obviously, then, the remaining three are: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton, In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, and The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
THIS IS THE HARDEST ROUND EVER. WHY. All of these books are PERFECTLY AMAZING and I could never rewrite or burn them.
Well, since I specifically used an image of the 1914 copy of Orthodoxy that I own and would NEVER burn, I will reread it. One can never read Chesterton too many times.
I don't want to mess with Rumer Godden's writing at all, because she's such a wonderful writer, so I think I will rewrite The Awakening of Miss Prim. Do I know what I would change? Not really. Maybe more Tolkien references. XD Or more of the children.
But...that means I have to burn In This House of Brede! I guess no one said this tag would be easy...
What choices would you have made, in my place? Have you ever burned a book? I have. And it wasn't even because they were bad books. How many five-star reads did you have last year?
Sam, why did you do this tag?! You're torturing yourself and I don't like that! (Well, maybe torturing is a bit hyperbolic, but with you, burning and books is not a good pair.)
ReplyDelete"If a book is burned, it is either for a very specific reason, or else the book is not properly understood." - Somebody (AKA me)
(I think you fall into the very specific reason category. No book would be not properly understood by you.)
Burning a book!? *cries* (Okay, fine, if I was given a reason to burn Walden, I totally would. Bad memories. Tsch, tsch, tsch.)
Actually, yes, put me in your place. I would choose to just snag all of the books and run off into the sunset, cackling with glee, before anybody could stop me. There. No books burned. *Smiles impishly and runs off*
*Pops back* Wait - remind me why you burned those books? And what even were they? (I feel like I've heard this story before... hmm)
Faramir
(P.S. OH MY GOSH I need to reread the Chasing Vermeer books. Like, now.)
*whispers* I actually sometimes enjoy book burning? But it's always sad, too. Anywho.
DeleteAww, thanks. I do try to properly understand books when I read them. I attempt.
(The books that I burned were out-of-date Roman Missals, mostly. And Father DD was there, so it was ok. But if you ever want to have a Walden-burning session, I totally would.)
Ok, but that makes the tag way less fun! It's way MORE fun to agonize over book-burning choices. Just saying.
(They are SO good! I might need to reread them, too.)
"One man's meat may be another man's poison."
DeleteNever truer.
Indeed
DeleteWell I'm not familiar with a good few of these books, but I can say, one of the choices I definitely would have frowned upon had you made it was doing anything other than rereading Chesterton or Tolkien lol. I've seen other folks use this tag before, and to most people the 'worst' choice seems to be burning it, so I found it funny that for most of yours it was like "noooo can't ruin the writing style don't want to rewrite! better dead than rewritten" XD
ReplyDeleteI have not burnt a book. But I have ripped one to pieces (as an adult, not as a little kid, ha). The stuff college makes you read. *rolls eyes* My only comfort during the process was the thought of tearing the thing to shreds once I was done, and so I did it, ha.
I read a sadly small amount last year, so I don't even know that I have an answer for that one, alas! In fact, the only significant things I read were Story of a Soul and the Comic Space Opera--both of which are five stars for sure, so I guess that's two. :)
I might steal this tag. It looks temptingly interesting. I'm not sure if I could find enough books I like to fill a wheel though, lol.
God bless, Samantha!
I am of the same opinion, so I'm glad we're on the same page! (Always nice to find someone else who appreciates the incredible merits of Chesterton and Tolkien.)
DeleteLol, that amused me as I was writing it, too! I just...don't feel up to rewriting some things, and if there are no imperfections (or very few), I would ruin it! XD
Ooh, ripping a college book into pieces sounds like quite a bit of fun. I might have to try that at some point...although I haven't had to read anything absolutely horrible yet. (Maybe because I'm not in an English-heavy major.)
Well, hey, quality over quantity! Story of a Soul is one of my FAVORITES (I just reread it, at my spiritual director's recommendation, and it was so good) and Comic Space Opera, from what I've read of it (which needs to be more soon) is also fantastic. So...win on your part, I think.
I'd love to see you do this tag! I mean, I'm sure you've read at least twelve ok/good books in your lifetime, right? XD
Thank you! God bless you, too, Grim!
WOW.
ReplyDeleteJust... wow.
And ouch.
I nodded through Round One.
And then I screamed (interally, of course ;) when you said "add more Jamie" because YASSS...
I think I also need this tag, milady. It's just... too good and too painful to pass up. ^_^
(I haven't read all of those titles, but OF COURSE now I have to add 'em to my Ever-Growing TBS because you said they're all 5 star reads for you. <3)
Yeah, ouch is the right word.
DeleteI'm glad someone approves of Round One, lol.
There just needs to be more of Jamie in that book, straight up. XD
I would love to see you do it, as well! Pain for everyone! ;)
(#sorrynotsorry. I think you would/will probably enjoy every single book on this list.)
So you burned the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe... #unsubscribed
ReplyDeleteLol jk jk
What a difficult game this was, wow. I am impressed.
Haha, I honestly would not blame you. XD But I appreciate you sticking around anyway.
DeleteIt was SO hard! You should try it. Torturing one's self on one's blog is always fun.
This tag would have killed me! I could not stand to burn any books that I did not HATE WITH A PASSION. Not that there aren't plenty of those, but still. Burning Narnia is NOT OKAY. Was this tag created to cause the participant and/or the reader pain?!
ReplyDeleteRewriting books to get rid certain political correct things that don't really fit with the story sounds like an excellent idea though. It's always annoying with they slap things in for purposes relating more to politics than storytelling.
It was really, really hard, for sure! And burning books was agonizing! I'm just glad that I didn't have to do it for real. (I'm guessing that it was created to cause pain. Pain for everyone. Fun times. XD)
DeleteI knoooowww I hate it when that happens, and I wish I could rewrite books like that for real, instead of just in my imagination.
This tag is so painful I'm not even sure I would enjoy doing it. XD I also would get bogged down in, what sort of decisions am I being asked to make, exactly? Like, if we rewrite the book do we rewrite our own copy or everyone's? If we burn it are we simply burning our own copy and we can go buy another, or are we forever burning our chance of owning a copy, or are we burning all copies in the entire world???
ReplyDeleteBut um...let's see, I refuse to choose on Round One. And for round two I'd be happy to burn Leaf by Niggle, but then i wouldn't because it means so much to so many other people and I'm not a selfish monster, gosh. I haven't read A Wind in the Door, so I'd also be willing to burn that, but again, that's kind of selfish. But there are more Time Quintet books, so it's only a fifth as destructive as burning Leaf by Niggle, maybe?? I think you made the right choice, especially about rewriting CNV to add more Jamie.
Do you have a thing about not giving books five stars till you've read them at least twice? (This seems like the best place to ask this somewhat random question, lol.)
Yeah, it was hard. And really, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Like, I assumed I'd be rewriting all the copies, but only burning one. Which definitely informed my answers, because if I was destroying the book forever...there's no way that I could answer ANY of these questions!
DeleteI think that choosing to burn really any book could be categorized as a selfish decision, so I think you've backed yourself into a corner here. XD See, CNV just needs more Jamie, and that is a fact.
I do have that thing! I in fact won't give a book over four stars until I've read it at least twice. It's to make sure that my rating isn't affecting too overmuch by the circumstances in which I'm reading it (life events, age, hormones, &c), and that it's a genuinely Good Book that I will be happy to revisit any time, regardless of life events, hormones, and so on. Which I really hadn't articulated until just now, so, thank you for making me think about my exact reasons, even if it wasn't entirely on purpose. ;)
You're right, burning any (good) book is selfish. Help. (I wouldn't so much object to burning The Communist Manifesto. Especially going back in time and burning it. Or even now, just as a statement.)
DeleteThat makes so much sense, your reasoning behind it! I actually kinda noticed recently that I (unconsciously) do the same thing (though there are exceptions, like I gave a book that made me bawl five stars the first time, because look, books don't make me cry. they just don't. and this one made me WEEP.) and I'm more likely to make an exception for nonfiction or if I read something over a long period of time, but anyway I think your reasoning was also my subconscious reasoning! It just makes SENSE.
Yeah, burning bad books makes sense, and is also probably kind of fun. (I've never done it. I've only burned obsolete Mass books that had been blessed and so had to be disposed of by burning, instead of being recycled. Interesting that it's the Very good books and Very bad books that get burned. Hm.)
DeleteYes, I do sometimes give books that make me cry higher marks sooner! Because! It's impossible to do otherwise, because books don't make me cry either, and when they do, either I am at a very weird time hormonally, OR it's a really good book. And I can usually figure out which. I'm glad we're in accord! ;)