First, Quint's answers:
1) List ten of your favorite books in five minutes.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, The Song of Roland translated by Dorothy Sayers, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers, Adam Bede by George Eliot, Barnaby Rudge and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton.
2) What's the last really good book you read?
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.
3) Do you finish every book you start?
No.
4) Do you re-read books? Do you re-read any books more than once or twice? Like what?
Yes. The Chronicles of Narnia. Lord of the Rings books. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute.
5) Are there any authors whose work you have read completely? Or almost completely? Who?
Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, JRR Tolkien.
6) Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Why?
Fiction stirs my imagination and I love a well told story. I also love excellent writing.
7) Do you recommend books? If you do, give an example or two.
Silas Marner. The Betrothed. Les Miserables.
8) Do you read books that are more than one hundred years old?
Yes.
9) What's more important to you: the way a book is written or what the book is about?
Both. A good plot is enhanced by excellent writing.
10) Have you ever written a fan letter to an author?
No.
11) Do you keep track of the books you read?
Yes.
12) Okay, take a look at the list you made at the beginning. Any changes you'd like to make?
No, maybe later; once I've had a chance to go over the books I've read in total.
Now Barb's:
1) List ten of your favorite books in five minutes.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, Les Miserables, Pride and Prejudice, All Creatures Great and Small, Winds of War, War and Remembrance.
2) What’s the last really good book you read?
Mysteries help me relax, and I enjoy them. But I wouldn’t define them as “really good” especially compared to the classics.
3) Do you finish every book you start?
No, I don’t. Especially modern books I get on Kindle. Sometimes they are so badly written I can’t make myself keep reading.
4) Do you re-read books? Do you re-read any books more than once or twice? Like what?
Yes, I do. Especially my favorites. I think I read the Lord of the Rings books at least a dozen times. I may have read the Space Trilogy that many times as well. I have reread all my favorite books, except for Les Miserables (but I have seen most of the movie versions and the musical several times).
5) Are there any authors whose work you have read completely? Or almost completely? Who?
I think I have read most of C.S. Lewis’s works, and much of Tolkien's. I have also read most of the books by Leon Uris. There are a few mystery writers that I have read almost all of their books as well.
6) Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Why?
I have a preference for fiction, because they are easier to read, but I usually have one of each that I am actively reading on my Kindle.
7) Do you recommend books? If you do, give an example or two.
I think everyone should read the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. He is so brilliant and insightful and those books are amazing. And, even if people have seen the movies, they should read the Lord of the Rings books as well.
8) Do you read books that are more than one hundred years old?
Yes, many.
9) What’s more important to you: the way a book is written or what the book is about?
By far, the way a book is written. If a book is badly written, I don’t care what it is about.
10) Have you ever written a fan letter to an author? No.
11) Do you keep track of the books you read? Not officially.
12) Okay, take a look at the list you made at the beginning. Any changes you’d like to make?
No.
And Pat's:
1) List ten of your favorite books in five minutes.
Isaiah by Isaiah...Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe...The Great Divorce by CS Lewis...The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade...Lorna Doone by Richard Doddridge Blackmore...Victory by Joseph Conrad...Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim...Peace Child by Don Richardson...Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain...A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean...Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
2) What’s the last really good book you read?
A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin.
3) Do you finish every book you start?
Nearly all…..some after putting them down for months……some for years.
4) Do you re-read books? Do you re-read any books more than once or twice? Like what?
Have read some 7-8-9 times. All on my top ten at least twice, most three times or more.
5) Are there any authors whose work you have read completely? Or almost completely? Who?
Most of Conrad, Wolfe, Sherwood Anderson, C. S. Forester, Anthony Burgess, Dos Passos, Dreiser, Orwell, Twain, Larry McMurtry up through Lonesome Dove (gaccck), all but one of Kerouac's, Wells, etc. Also with some I read all that I happen to come across. (A good portion of my books are from thrift stores.)
6) Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Why?
Ficton when I was younger, nonfiction for the last 15 years. Why? 1. Ran out of fiction I wanted to read. 2. Wanted to see if reality matches ideas/ideals.
7) Do you recommend books? If you do, give an example or two.
Have recommended all on my 'favorites' list above, and many more.
8) Do you read books that are more than one hundred years old?
Yes, as long as the cover isn't falling off, or there are missing pages. Hard to find them that old, tho.
9) What’s more important to you: the way a book is written or what the book is about?
Both, but if I am going to waste my time, I would rather read a well written book about nothing, than a great subject poorly written. Shakespeare, for example.
11) Do you keep track of the books you read?
I keep a big majority of books I read.
12) Okay, take a look at the list you made at the beginning. Any changes you’d like to make?
Yes. I need to get up earlier, and cut back on sweets.
