[TAN]: A List

I *said* I'd post the list I was working on here, to counter my recent
listlessness.

(Cross-posted from my LiveJournal, which has review links:
<http://www.livejournal.com/users/kate_nepveu/32182.html>.)

Last Wednesday, in the car on the way to Thanksgiving, Chad was
telling me about his blog post on different kinds of "'favorite' book
lists"
<http://www.steelypips.org/principles/2003_11_23_principlearchive.php#106988339888174200>.
I had a rotten headache and, without realizing it, was well on my way
to an excellent case of car-sickness, so I was only listening with
half my brain. Across the other half, book titles quietly floated
past. When I noticed this, I realized that my backbrain had come up
with its own definition of "favorite" and was tossing up titles.

So, two things resulted from this. One, of course, was a list of book
titles. The other was a question: when confronted with the question,
"What are your favorite books?", is there any definition of "favorite"
that comes first to your mind? Or is it solely dependent on the
context?

I'm putting my definition and list under a pagebreak, to (maybe) avoid
prejudicing any instinctive reactions on readers' parts.



My backbrain's definition of "favorite": books that inspire a wordless
passion, that's something like a feeling of completion or satisfaction
(somewhere around my sternum, I think), but is incredibly hard to
describe fully or accurately. (Often I can verbalize what's good about
the books; it's my reaction that's hard.) It's not co-extensive with
quality or favorite authors; notice that there's no Bujold here. It's
not a desert island list; notice that The Lord of the Rings isn't
here, either (it only gives me that feeling in parts). How do you
describe love? I've never been any good at it.

The list, vaguely in the order they occurred to me that night:

* _Freedom and Necessity_, Steven Brust and Emma Bull
* _The Last Hot Time_, John M. Ford
* _When the King Comes Home_, Caroline Stevermer 
* _Spindle's End_, Robin McKinley 
* _Gaudy Night_, Dorothy Sayers 
* The Sarantine Mosaic, Guy Gavriel Kay 
* _Pride and Prejudice_, Jane Austen 
* _Element of Fire_, Martha Wells 
* Sandman, Neil Gaiman 
* _Look to Windward_, Iain M. Banks
* _Bridge of Birds_, Barry Hughart 
* _Deep Secret_, Diana Wynne Jones 
* _The Innkeeper's Song_, Peter Beagle
* _Good Omens_, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 
* _Last Call_, Tim Powers
* _The Lady's Not for Burning_, Christopher Fry
* _Possession_, A.S. Byatt

Interestingly, I just went upstairs and perused the bookshelves, and
didn't come up with any additional entries than what I'd come up with
in the car--not what I expected with my memory like a whatchamacallit.

So, comments?

-- 
Kate Nepveu
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home: http://www.steelypips.org/
Book log: http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/