#6: Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs

Well, after you see a movie more than 10 times I think you get to know it pretty well, so I'd have to say Sound of Music. But I may have mentioned before that I'm really terrible at remembering lyrics so 'all of the lyrics to all of the songs' would yield 0 movie musicals. That's why there's 'Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music' to help you do it karaoke style.

Another one that comes close is The Phantom of the Opera. I used to listen to the London cast recording on repeat so I'm fairly certain of most of the lyrics. I'm not sure if there were any lyric/song changes in the film version, though, because only saw it once. I found it quite vapid.

Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#5: Name a film that you can and do quote from

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. It has so many quotable lines in it. My friends and I do the Swedish penis enlarger sketch where Austin has been reanimated and is collecting his belongings: "Honestly, it's not mine" / "One book by Austin Powers: 'The Swedish penis enlarger and me: This sort of thing is my bag baby'."

I also have a mug with the Dr Evil auotobiographical monologue: "He used to accuse chestnuts of being lazy..." and I love "DOCTOR Evil—I didn't go to evil medical school for six years just to be called mister, thank you very much" and "You're the Diet Coke of evil. Just one calorie, not evil enough."

"My name is Richie Cunningham and this is my wife Oprah."

"One million dollars!"

"All I've ever wanted was to have sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads. So what do we have?" / "Sea bass." / "Sea bass?" / "They are mutated, sir." / "Are they ill tempered?"

I'm actually really bad at direct quotes (which is why, as a journo, I record my interviews and transcribe them word for word) but the best thing about quoting from movies is you only have to get the voice and the words approximately right to get a laugh.

Another movie my friends and I do is Zoolander. Zoolander quotes work best when any of us bring them out when the others least expect it.

Oft-repeated quotes:

Derek comes back from being brainwashed and he's asked where he's been for several days. "I've only been away for one day. At a DAY spa. D-A-I-Y-E."

"Eugoogly."

In answer to any question in which one does not know the answer: "Mugatu?"

The saddest thing about these movies is that there are kids now in high school who were born after they were made, which just makes me feel old.

Oh, and I should mention Life of Brian too: "What have the Romans ever done for us?" etc...

Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#4: Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film

'Less likely' is a wonderful qualifier. I wouldn't completely ignore films with the following actors in it, but if the premise of the film was 50-50 and the movie contained one of these people on the billing, I'm afraid the cinema has lost a patron because of:

Will Ferrell: I admit that he's been good in a few films. I liked Zoolander and Anchorman and Stranger than Fiction. But I find him odd and unsettling. He acts like he isn't supposed to be there and this displacement makes me confused and repulsed by him.
Adam Sandler: He's not funny. At all. The brattish behaviour just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid.
Chuck Norris: *shudder*
Mariah Carey: Okay, so I liked Precious (where she played a fairly minor part), but I've also heard Glitter was the "biggest waste of time and brain power ever experienced" by several friends.

Day 05 - Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#3: Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film

Well, I'm glad today's meme used the term 'more inclined' because I certainly haven't hunted down the filmography of each of the actors I'm about to name.

What I will say is, if the movie sounds okay and then I learn that any of these people are in it, I will more than likely end up seeing it. If the movie sounds shite, no amount of actor magnetism will lure me.

So here goes...
Maggie Gyllenhaal: She's cool, and I like her indie films. Didn't like her in The Dark Knight, though.
Cate Blanchett: A wonderful actor is always interesting to watch, no matter what the role. Totally robbed of an Oscar for Best Actress in Elizabeth. Gwyneth Paltrow knows it too.
John Cusack: He still had that cynical Gen X thing going that makes him quite alluring despite the fact that I think he's past his prime. Enjoyed High Fidelity and Hot Tub Time Machine much more than I should have.
Hugh Jackman: Incredibly watchable. Don't mind if he takes his shirt off. Cue movies like X-Men and Australia.
Kenneth Branagh: Has branched out from Shakespeare into some interesting projects. Unfortunately spends more time behind the camera than in front of it nowadays, but I will still heed his name on the billing. Liked his Hamlet better than Laurence Olivier's (that ham!) and enjoyed him in some of his smaller films like Peter's Friends and Dead Again.

Day 04 - Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Day 05 - Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#2: Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema

I don't think I've ever seen a film more than twice at the cinema so the word 'multiple' sort of rules everything out.

Actually, I have seen something three times: it was a short called The Adjustable Cosmos, which screened ahead of two films I saw at last year's Sydney Film Festival. I then saw it again in a collection of animated shorts for the Fantastic Planet film festival. It's a funny film that kept the laughs through multiple viewings and I became quite fond of it.

Some films I've see twice at the cinema:

• American Pie: The first time it'd screened as a 'mystery film', the second time I went with friends who'd missed out. Should I be admitting this?


• American Beauty: I was a bit WTF? the first time so I thought I'd see it in a break between uni classes back when cheap Tuesday tickets were actually cheap.


• The Dark Knight and Sherlock Holmes: These films screened after Clash of the Titans at a movie marathon. Although my movie friend and I had already seen both of them, we'd decided they were good enough to see again, particularly on the big screen. Just as well, because Clash of the Titans was shithouse, so we needed two decent movies to wash our eyes out.


• Inception: Saw this with my movie friend, a much anticipated film. Then it featured as part of my first date with my current boyfriend because I recommended it and I wanted to see if I could pick up anything further upon second viewing.


• Boy: Saw this at last year's Sydney Film Festival and *loved* it. I later went to see my sister in Canberra and she doesn't often get time to see movies (despite being a Dendy Club member) so I recommended it. There are so few cinema complexes in Canberra, and so few screens in each complex, that this ended up being the only decent thing showing. Just as well it was a top film. The most interesting thing about it is the first time I saw it I remember laughing so hard I cried. The second time I saw it, I cried so much I had to laugh.

I'm a fan of going to the cinema for the big screen experience. My tiny townhouse will not fit a big screen and sound system (well, the wall will fit a big screen but I just don't have the space to have my couch as far back as it needs to be, a la Roy's place in The IT Crowd episode 'Moss and the German'). A film's run also forces me to watch it in a set time, which is more than I can say for my DVD queue at Quickflix.

I will try and see a film at the cinema more than once if I think it warrants the big screen experience but in general, with movie ticket prices being what they are, I like to see something new each time.

Day 03 - Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
Day 04 - Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Day 05 - Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#1: Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times

Well, the Sydney Writers' Festival came to a close tonight, which can only mean Vivid Sydney and the Sydney Film Festival are on their way. What better time to pull out a movie meme..? The first topic is: Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.

I can name at least four: The Last Unicorn, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Life of Brian and The Sound of Music.

My family had a pirated version of The Last Unicorn on video given to us by a well meaning Malaysian relative who had also bought us the copy of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (the animated 1961 version). Both got a massive workout over the late 1980s to early 1990s when family friends came over for dinner and we had to entertain their kids. I thought they would get sick of it "again?"-style, but actually they seemed to look forward to coming over to see either of these two films. We didn't own any other decent children's videos.

I actually don't remember very much of The Last Unicorn, despite having seen it so many times. I remember an incompetent magician, a witch and the titular character having to wear a false horn in some sort of circus. I remember the scary fire bull and then a sea of unicorns.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians I remember much better, probably because I was heavily into trying to get my parents to agree to a pet dog at the time. In those years I also read the novel by Dodie Smith, which would've consolidated the main plot points of the film, although I know there are some major differences; for example the book has three adult dogs, while the movie has two (the extra dog is a female who helps nurse the puppies in addition to the dog couple).

Monty Python's Life of Brian I have seen many a time, by itself and whenever a friend hosted a Monty Python movie marathon. In more recent years it has become staple Christmas viewing. My family groans whenever I pull it out (I also watch It's a Wonderful Life, though I've probably only seen that five or six times) but they all inevitably sit down to watch it by a few scenes in. My favourite part is the graffiti scene, which rivals the Philosophers' Football Match as my top Monty Python segment of all time.

The Sound of Music is one of my mother's favourite films. She absolutely loves Julie Andrews. As I sort of implied above, we never had a lot of videos when I was growing up (we tended to borrow or hire them rather than buy them) and we never owned The Sound of Music. However, it was an annual event to show it on TV. So from the age of about 6 to probably 22, I watched The Sound of Music every year on TV. To this day I can tell you where the ad breaks were. At school, you could tell who had watched it on TV by who was trying to do the best yodel.

The last time I saw it was at a special event 'Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music', which involved dress-ups, vocal audience reactions (hissing at the Baroness, for example) and karaoke for the musical numbers. The whole shebang makes the already long movie a 4.5-hour experience. I clearly remember, when I was younger, that I had to go to bed when the children sung 'So Long Farewell'. I'm not sure whether my parents were protecting me from the Nazi bits or whether it pushed into my bedtime due to the ad breaks. I have since bought my mother the special edition version on DVD.

When I went to Austria in 2005, I stopped in Salzburg for a couple of days and did the Sound of Music tour, which takes you to the locations where the film was shot. The guide, whose name happened to be Maria, said for years the locals had no idea why all these English-speaking tourists kept trying to sing on the hills. They soon cottoned on and now make a pretty penny with the guided rides.

Day 02 - Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.
Day 03 - Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
Day 04 - Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Day 05 - Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#30: Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to pretend I dallied and drew this meme out to coincide with the opening night of the Sydney Writers' Festival but I'm too honest and the truth is that I've been hella busy this last week or so and therefore rather neglectful of my digital life.

The book I am about to mention comes laden with baggage. Which is to say my boyfriend bags out anyone who can categorically say that something is their 'favourite' anything.

This meme and I have gone through our ups (favourites for various reasons) and downs (hates and overratedness) and have skirted around naming the one book to rule them all (and in the bookmaker's workshop, bind them).

I've mentioned the book, of course. But will the favourite book of my favourite author prevail over the favourite book of my favourite series? Will childhood triumph over my favourite book turned into a movie? Well none of this matters because the book I most consistently name my favourite is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, which I mentioned back on Day #2 as a book I've read more than three times.

Just so you know, I don't have a permanent favourite, but Catch 22 regularly turns up in my top 3 list more often than any other book, albeit not always at the top, so it's my ersatz pick. For the others that often rotate in that top 3—have you been reading this meme?

Anyway, I like it because it's different every time I read it. No matter how many times I read it, and no matter how often I think I 'know' it, it never gets old. Heller never came close with his other writing, but that's almost part of what makes Catch 22 as brilliant as it is—he put all his mojo into this.

"[Yossarian] had decided to live forever or die in the attempt."

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#29: A book everyone hated but you liked

I mentioned William Golding's Lord of the Flies in passing on Day 9 and it's the first one that comes to mind for this topic.

I can think of plenty the other way around, ie 'a book everyone liked but you hated' (Jane Austen books come to mind...), but this topic is a difficult one seeing as I generally buy and read books that come via recommendations, therefore 'a book everyone hated' is too narrow considering the field from which I have to choose.

A lot of my friends detested the books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. I quite liked them, despite their flaws, but to say everyone hated them is wrong because I know a number of other people enjoyed them.

Hard one to answer! Tomorrow's will be even harder!

Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

Screen time

So Sydney Film Festival season is upon us. The full program was released this week and Sir and I are madly coordinating which sessions we'll attend together.

What I want to know is why hasn't anyone coded a program that will let you save a film onto a personal calendar as you're browsing so you can then open the calendar and make your final selections based on times, venues, and clashes?

In an ideal world, this would not just be a planner but a way you can buy your tickets.

For example, I have a Flexipass20 but I am probably only going to see about 15 films, 5 of which I will be accompanied by my boyfriend or movie friend. In my head, there is a program that allows me to:

• see all the sessions for films I've flagged as possibilities;


• select everything I want to see or deselect the duplicates;


• select how many tickets I want for each session;


• redeem my flexipass against them all in one hit.

How about it Sydney Film Festival?

#28: Favourite title

I've already mentioned this on Day #22, but there are a few others:

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. It's a Discworld book about vampires, so you'll appreciate that it translates to 'seize the throat'.

She's a train and she's dangerous edited by Lizz Murphy. The subtitle is 'Women alone in the 1990s': I'm assuming it's a feministic text as I haven't actually read it. I found it secondhand in an op shop in Woy Woy. My friends and I used to go for what we called 'Woy Woy Joyrides' where the whole day would be spent there op shopping and lunching. I bought it purely for the title.

Slaves of the Volcano God by Craig Shaw Gardner. I don't actually own this book, nor have I read it. I saw a guy reading it on the train. It was 2004 or 2005 and the title stuck with me because it was such a change from everyone else, who were reading Harry Potter books and Dan Brown novels.

Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#27: The most surprising plot twist or ending

The end of Markus Zusak's The Messenger.

I'd read The Book Thief before this novel, which is an earlier work, and knew he was on his way to establishing himself as a master storyteller. I wasn't disappointed: The Messenger holds the reader's attention right the way through like a mystery should. Then, at the very last, the book suddenly becomes crap because of the ending.

I found it suprising because I'd expected more of Zusak.

(spoilers here)

I'm not entirely sure what this meme topic can accomplish from people who don't want to reveal the twist...

Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#26: A book that changed your opinion about something

Nothing springs to mind in the sense of me having some minor epiphany about an issue or person from a book I've read. I'd like to think this is because I'm open-minded (so much so that my brain has fallen out of my head) but more than likely it's because I don't read enough books that challenge my status quo.

So I've chosen to reinterpret this meme topic. And the books I've chosen are Enid Blyton books, JRR Tolkien books and Dan Brown books, which all have in common the same opinion-changing element: they all have good plots but are poorly written, yet still sell millions of copies.

I'm just re-reading the Adventure series by Enid Blyton and find her prose utilitarian and oversimplistic, which I suppose is all right when you're seven or eight but actually gets kind of grating when you're an adult. And yet, she is one of the world's most popular authors.

Conversely, Tolkien's prose is convoluted and riddled with unnecessary, overdescriptive elements. And terrible poetry. It took me nine months to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I was 20 at the time, so this wasn't a 'reading age' problem) and I don't plan on trying again any time soon. And yet, I found myself wanting to find out what happened next. The plot was so compelling that I was willing to sift through the guff for the nuggets of narrative gold.

I know Tolkien was a linguist but LOTR is seriously a case of him showing off to the detriment of a good story. The books could have been written with a lot more clarity and concision without losing the decoration or the essence. Case in point: The Hobbit had less fancy pants stuff going on and was a better read. I understand Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children's book, but just because you're an adult doesn't mean you want uninteresting linguistically charged text challenges in a narrative. I should also note that Tolkien has also sold millions of books.

And what can I say about Dan Brown? I've only read one book, The Da Vinci Code, and yes I did finish it. It didn't find it as terrible as some people said it was and I think it's jealous overexaggeration to say "Dan Brown can't write for shit", but I do take the point that Brown does a lot of 'telling' rather than 'showing'. He has also sold millions.

The lesson I take from this is that you don't have to be a good writer for your books to be popular, which changes my opinion about readers. I used to think that any reader would do, now I value discerning readers a lot more. High book sales = good for bank balance; discerning readers = good for writer's ego; high book sales to discerning readers = win-win.

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#25: A character who you can relate to the most

When I read a book, I tend to relate to almost all the characters but different aspects of each, so this is quite a black and white question for something that needs to be elaborated on in various colours.

Despite this, I've decided to pick Sophie from Patrick Gale's Friendly Fire. A good overview of the book is on Patrick Gale's website.

Reasons I relate to Sophie:
Included and supportive, yet excluded. Sophie makes friends with the boys in the novel and supports their homosexuality and yet was always the outsider because she is a girl. I felt like that a lot when I was at school; I knew I had good friends on whom I could rely and yet in some ways I was always going to be excluded in some way or another because I was never someone's best friend.

Interest in homosexual culture. I get the feeling I was gay in a past life because I have such a keen interest in homosexuality and yet I'm not gay. I'll put it this way, I prefer men but I'm not completely closed to other options.

Unrequited (somewhat impossible) love. That was me for 21 years.

Love of learning. It's lifelong. And it keeps you warm at night when other types of love go unrequited.

Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#24: A book that you wish more people would’ve read

This is kind of like Day 7: Most Underrated Book, and I would have nominated that book so to avoid repeating myself I'm going to sit and have a think for a while.

I'm going to say that I wish more people would read books on spelling, punctuation and grammar. The English language is going down the toilet. I don't mind new words and portmanteaus (or is it portmanteaux?) and interesting plays on words but really, you have to know the rules before you can break them.

I saw a press release with the word its' the other day and could do nothing but shake my head (and tweet about it). And the fact that Fairfax has sacked all its subeditors gives me the heebie-jeebies. I'm glad I stopped reading the SMH a long time ago.

So listen up kids, learn your grammar good and then you can tell me what's wrong with this sentence.

Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#23: A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

And once again the shame I feel for not having read a lot of classics falls upon me. There are three books in particular I feel I ought to read: Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.

I feel I ought to read Great Expectations because I keep getting it mixed up with Jane Eyre. As I understand it, they are totally different stories but both feature a mad old lady (Miss Havisham and doodlesquat's wife... Mrs Rochester).

Jane Eyre I know I've wanted to read for a long time because I wanted to be one of very few people who have read Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (its prequel) before Jane Eyre itself. I read Wide Sargasso Sea about a decade ago (so long ago I've forgotten what happens), but for reasons I can't remember I never got around to reading Jane Eyre. Another reason I want to read Jane Eyre (and more classics in general) is to understand the jokes in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books.

And American Psycho—I started reading this and got about three chapters in (liked it, wanted to keep going), then my sister, who owned the book, lent it to a friend of hers. Before she got it back she had moved to Canberra and I have never had enough motivation to borrow it from the library (is it banned?) or buy it since.

There you have it, the shame.

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

Don't be a dick

I love this video so very, very much.

#22: Favourite book you own

Well, this is sort of a stupid meme topic. Who wouldn't own their favourite book? I have to agree with The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush that today's meme topic is conspiring with #17 to make me reveal my favourite book before day #30.

Instead, I'm going to tell you that of the books that I own, my favourite book title is I have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes by Jaclyn Moriarty, which is close to having the best book cover as well.

However, the best book cover... actually, I don't have a lot of books with awesome covers as I tend to find out about books through word-of-mouth or read a review so the cover usually doesn't do anything for me.

But below are a few that I like. They are all slightly sinister.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold


Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger


... and anything by Josh Kirby for Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.


I once bought a calendar featuring Kirby's Discword art and ended up liking every picture so much I preserved them all by wrapping them around exercise books. Most of these ended up with my boyfriend because I don't actually use exercise books, but what the hey.

Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

#21: Favourite book from your childhood

Wow, childhood is really very broad.

I'll start with early childhood. My favourite book when I was three would have been Dr Seuss' Hop on Pop. I have not seen this book for more than 25 years and I still remember the pictures and some of the content ("We like to hop on top of pop / STOP", "Pup up, Brown down" > this has to be a cricket-related headline one day).

When I was able to read novels I was heavily into Enid Blyton. My word that woman was prolific. I read quite a lot of Wishing Chair and Faraway Tree books as well as most of the Famous Five series, but my favourite was the Adventure series. I had a three-book omnibus of The Island of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure, and The Valley of Adventure. I can count an omnibus as my favourite book, can't I?

(Oh my! They have all eight books in the series for the Kindle. My omnibus was so careworn I think my mum made me throw it away. I'm so tempted to buy them... UPDATE: Blytons bought)

In my early adolescence I read Babysitters Club books, Nancy Drew novels and those schlocky horror stories by people like RL Stine, DE Athkins and Christopher Pike. The one I re-read several times, because it had such a beautiful ending, was Carolyn Keene's The Clue in the Crumbling Wall, #22 in the Nancy Drew series. And you know what? I only just discovered via Wikipedia that Carolyn Keene was a collective pseudonym.

Sorry to disappoint you, I was not some kind of freak wunderkind who read classics at the age of 10. For some reason people still see me like that.

Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.