After listing the questions, I will post my answers below -- and Claire's too.
Then I'm going to send the questions to my fellow members of the Notting Hill Napoleons, our long-standing literary club. Maybe they'll send along answers I can post here as well. And if you would like to join in the project, send your answers along.
Here are the Tantalizing Twelve questions:
1) List ten of your favorite books in five minutes.
2) What’s the last really good book you read?
3) Do you finish every book you start?
4) Do you re-read books? Do you re-read any books more than once or twice? Like what?
5) Are there any authors whose work you have read completely? Or almost completely? Who?
6) Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Why?
7) Do you recommend books? If you do, give an example or two.
8) Do you read books that are more than one hundred years old?
9) What’s more important to you: the way a book is written or what the book is about?
10) Have you ever written a fan letter to an author?
11) Do you keep track of the books you read?
12) Okay, take a look at the list you made at the beginning. Any changes you’d like to make?
And now for our answers.
Denny's answers:
Heaven by Randy Alcorn
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Volumes) by Shelby Foote
A Christian Manifesto by Francis Schaeffer
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Whichever Charles Dickens novel I last read
Claire's answers:
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
The Mitford series by Jan Karon
The Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Heaven by Randy Alcorn
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
2) What’s the last really good book you read?
Denny's answer: Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow
Claire's answer: The Gentleman from Indiana by Booth Tarkington
3) Do you finish every book you start?
Denny's answer: No.
Claire's answer: No.
4) Do you re-read books? Do you re-read any books more than once or twice?
Denny's answer: Yes. Along with those mentioned in #1, I re-read with frequency the novels of Dickens, Dumas, Buchan, Tolkien, and several others.
Claire's answer: Yes. The Mitford series. The Chronicles of Narnia. The Tolkien books. Charles Dickens. Heaven by Randy Alcorn.
5) Are there any authors whose work you have read completely? Or almost completely?Denny's answer: Yes. Shakespeare. Solzhenitsyn. Dostoevsky. Dickens. Tolkien. Lewis. Chesterton. Schaeffer. James Mills. Erle Stanley Gardner and a whole lot of other mystery writers.
Claire's answer: Willa Cather. Jan Karon. Arthur Conan Doyle. Tolkien. C.S. Lewis. Charles Dickens. Alcorn.
6) Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Why?
Denny's answer: Fiction. Because it's often more true.
Claire's answer: Fiction. I love the combined experience of learning, entertainment, challenge, and appreciating the creative talents of storytellers.
7) Do you recommend books? If you do, give an example or two.
Denny's answer: Yes. Besides the Bible, my most regular recommendations are Heaven by Randy Alcorn and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
Claire's answer: Yes. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute, the Mitford series by Jan Karon, and Heaven by Randy Alcorn.
8) Do you read books that are more than one hundred years old?
Denny's answer: Yes, many.
Claire's answer: Yes.
9) What’s more important to you: the way a book is written or what the book is about?
Denny's answer: Both.
Claire's answer: Both.
10) Have you ever written a fan letter to an author?
Denny's answer: Yes. The most notable was one which created a friendship between James Mills and I.
Claire's answer: No.
11) Do you keep track of the books you read?
Denny's answer: Yes.
Claire's answer: Yes.
12) Okay, take a look at the list you made at the beginning. Any changes you’d like to make?
Denny's answer: Only if I could add to the number.
Claire's answer: I couldn't take any of them away, but I could certainly add a lot more.
