the "more than ten books" meme

[supercheesegirl]

Got this meme from quebelly...

I've read at least ten books by each of these authors:
- Robin McKinley (as far as I can tell I've read everything of hers)
- L. M. Montgomery (and I've only read the first two or three Anne books! I filled up on Emily of New Moon!)
- Ursula K. Le Guin (I'm proud she makes this list, I've been working on her)
- Terry Brooks (everything Shannara except the current trilogy (because I'm pissed he killed off Walker Boh), and most of the Magic Kingdom series)
- Anne McCaffrey
- Anne Rice
- L. J. Smith (vampires and witches and psychics, oh my!)
- Ann M. Martin (hooray for the Babysitters' Club!)
- Francine Pascal (Sweet Valley Twins, anyone?)

Robert Jordan almost makes this list, but I still haven't read the tenth Wheel of Time book. I got discouraged. I figure I'll go back and read all of them when he either finishes the series or dies. I'm trying to think of others... Jacqueline Carey just has the one trilogy (and the new book, now). I've read six of Robin Hobb's books but she only has nine altogether (at least, under that pen name). There aren't ten of the Narnia books. I've read several of Gary Fincke's books out of professor loyalty but I'm sure I haven't read ten of them (though he has that many and more). I wasn't that big into R. L. Stine or Christopher Pike as a kid (I was reading L. J. Smith instead). Stephen King is an almost, considering that I read The Green Mile in the original six books, plus The Stand and maybe one or two others. A few more and I can add Asimov, since I've been through, what, five Foundation books? Jane Austen doesn't have ten books but I've read all of hers. I've never read ten books of poetry by any one person, not even Li-Young Lee. Most of the poets I like don't even *have* ten books. Eavan Boland comes closest, I took a whole class on her. Yeats too, though I was reading from an anthology that semester so it technically only counts as one book even though I've read most of his poetry, a lot of his stories, and several of his plays. I'll have to think about this some more.

Comments

[sarahpender.livejournal.com]

I just finished The Hero and the Crown, and I really liked it.

Unfortunately, Jacqueline Carey's new book might as well have been written by someone else. The trilogy was sparkling and alive, with vivid characters that I cared about deeply. The new book, Banewreaker, is so distanced from its characters I really don't care whether they live or die, and I had to stop reading it. I don't know how an author can go from terrific to mediocre so quickly...

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Yay for my favorite book ever! Glad you liked it. :)

I'm sorry to hear your were disappointed with the new one. I wasn't planning on reading it any time soon, but now it's moved farther back on the list. It sounded from the descriptions I'd read that she put a lot of distance into this new book, that it's on a "grander scale" or something. I can understand wanting to try something different, but with as good as the Kushiel trilogy was, there was no reason to change tactics so drastically.

[sarahpender.livejournal.com]

The problem with "grander scale" is how easy it is to just move the camera back from the characters until you can't really see them anymore. I think what a lot of Tolkien imitators forget is that the hobbits serve a narrative function: they are everyman, the viewer, the ordinary person looking up at the mythic figures. Without that ordinary person to connect with, grand-scale mythic sagas are... boring. I really don't care what the gods do in their spare time. I rarely even care what *royals* do in their spare time, but then I've always been more inclined to want to know what the peasants are up to.

It's just... gah, Kushiel's Dart had some of my favorite characters ever, a slow-cooking romance that floored me, political intrigue done just about right, and a heroine with no super powers, magic, or fighting ability, relying only upon wits and inner strength.

Now that I think of it, that was a very hard story to follow.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent point about hobbits that I hadn't thought of before. Thinking of some of my favorite Tolkienesque books (notably, the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams and the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay), they both had at least one or two ordinary durfy guys (who of course prove their heroic mettle) through whom we view the grandeur of the elves and the gods and whatever else.

And you know, maybe, coming off of such as a success as Kushiel, Carey had to screw up. It would be hella difficult to top that, so maybe she thought she'd experiment and if it didn't work, oh well. Now at least there's nowhere to go but back up.

[sarahpender.livejournal.com]

After she finishes these books about the Boring Gods Of Eternal Grudge, she's apparently going to do a follow-up story involving Imriel from the Kushiel trilogy, so maybe that will be a good thing.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I had heard she was going to write about Imriel next, which is why I was so surprised to see that her new book was about the Boring Gods of Eternal Grudge (whom I think I may start worshipping, since I wouldn't want them to have an eternal grudge against *me* and plague me with boringness).