Ok so I’m back to answer the remaining book
related questions that you’ve all submitted
to me.
There’s still a ton to get through so let’s
get started.
Dan at Danmartinlikesyou, Robin Wagganer,
The Restricted Section and Heike Schmidt all
want to know: What is my favorite novel, the
one that had the biggest impact and the one
I’d pick if I had to read it over and over
again.
I know this is such a litbro answer but I
have to say David Foster Wallace’s Infinite
Jest.
I’ve read it twice already and know I’m
going to read it again.
Michael at Knowledge Lost asks: What elements
you look for in books, the thing that would
make you pick up a book instantly.
I don’t know if I have an answer for that.
I’m willing to be surprised by a book and
I know every book has a right place and time.
Sometimes I feel like a thought provoking
read, other times I need lyrical language
and other times I just want a plot driven,
page turning novel.
So yeah, I’m just willing to be surprised.
Kendra Winchester: What is your Hogwarts house?
I actually had to go and get to the Sorting
Hat to find out that I’m a Hufflepuff.
And what literary character would you want
for a best friend and why?
Simple enough, that’s Nimona from Noelle
Stevenson’s graphic novel of the same name
because who wouldn’t want a badass, shapeshifting,
all powerful best friend.
Stephen Fisher asks: You become stranded with
only 3 books, what are they?
Nice and easy Infinite Jest by David Foster
Wallace, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
And it is a tie for the third book between
A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon and The
Orphan Master’s Son.
Now the tie is determined once I finish reading
their subsequent short story collections.
I’m reading Anthony Marra’s The Tsar of
Love and Techno right now and loving it.
And I want to get to Adam Johnson’s Fortune
Smiles.
Lydia Holmes asks: What are some of the best
Korean-American or Korean-Canadian books you've
read?
And booksnq asks: Are there any classic Korean
books that have been translated that you can
recommend?
Well, for works in translation I loved J.M.
Lee’s The Investigation.
It’s a prison crime drama that explores
the power of literature, poetry and music
and it’s loosely based around an actual
imprisoned Korean poet.
And I’m also looking forward to J.M. Lee’s
new book that’s coming out in translation
called The Boy Who Escaped Paradise that’s
going to be released later this year.
For Korean-American writing it would be Catherine
Chung’s Forgotten Country which is an understated,
quiet read but I really liked how throughout
there’s these elements that are uniquely
familiar to me as a second generation Korean.
Lydia Holmes also asks: What are your comfort
reads?
My comfort reads are still comics.
I love comics.
It is super simple good vs evil, super heroics,
over the top drama and lots of pretty pictures.
Deathadderdiva asks: What was the worst book
you ever read? Well now I just DNF books that
aren’t doing it for me.
The last book I muscled through till the end
was The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.
It was referenced in the first season of True
Detective which I loved.
And it gave hints to dim Carcosa and the Yellow
King.
Anyways I finished reading it as well as finished
season 1 and the book just sucked for me.
It didn’t do anything, it didn’t answer
any questions and it felt like studying for
an exam that never came.
Ellen at ihath asks: If you were to watch
your favorite book which hasn’t been turned
into a real life motion picture, be turned
into a movie, which would you choose?
Or would you rather keep it stayed as a book?
What director would you choose for the project?
Well Denis Villeneuve directed the basically
unfilmable Ted Chiang story into The Arrival
and did a fantastic job and he’s also in
charge of the Blade Runner sequel so he’d
be my go-to man.
I’d want him to tackle Infinite Jest.
I don’t think you could do it justice as
a movie.
You’d probably need an entire season of
TV to do it but I think it would be an interesting
experiment.
Kay asks: What is one region/country you have
never read a book from that you are interested
to find more about?
That would be Brazil.
I haven’t read any Clarice Lispector or
Paulo Coelho and I need to fix that.
And Brazil looks like a great place to visit
too.
deepakris asks: Favorite graphic novels?
Y the Last Man was fantastic and I’m so
grateful to my local library for carrying
the entire run because frankly that would
have been cost prohibitive to buy on my own.
I also loved Batman Arkham Asylum.
The artwork is incredible.
Dave McKean’s work on that is unbelievable.
Same goes for Bill Sienkiewicz’ work on
Electra Assassin another series I really liked.
And Umbrella Academy Volumes 1 and 2 are way
better than any graphic novel should be considering
they’re written by the lead singer of My
Chemical Romance.
PikaaaCHEW asks: Favorite or least favorite
TV or movie adaptation?
Gone Girl was so good, but I love me some
David Fincher.
Same goes for The Arrival by Denis Villeneuve
which was frankly unfilmable but I am still
pissed off at how badly they mangled The League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
That could have been such a great movie.
EnbooEnjoyingThings: Do you have a favourite
genre to read, or if not, do you have one
genre you would always avoid?
Frankly I’m willing to read any genre but
if I look at my reading history I tend to
read very little romance, biographies or autobiographies.
Julia at Rainy Day Reading asks: Is there
a book which you didn't like but now have
the feeling you weren't ready for it and you'd enjoy it more if you read it again?
She says she often has the feeling that you
have to be in the right mood for a book to
give it a good chance, and sometimes you may
be not be in that place and she regrets that
for a few books.
I mean, I totally get that.
A Brief History of Seven Killings; lots of
people loved I DNF’d it even though it was
an evocative read that I still think about.
I just wasn’t the right book at the right
time for me and I just DNF’d it.
Same goes for Do Not Say We Have Nothing by
Madeleine Thien which everybody loved and
it made a lot of prize lists but it just wasn’t
doing it for me and I DNF’d it.
Anna at A World Hopper asks: What would you
like to see more in literature?
I’d love to see literature regain it’s place
in the cultural conversation.
I mean we think nothing about arguing and
debating movies and TV with each other but
we seem to be a little too precious when it
comes to reading and feel that it’s in this
rarified intellectual area.
And that it’s just for snobby people to
discuss over tea and it shouldn’t be that
way.
I’d love to see it become part of the cultural
conversation and be less intimidating for
people to talk about.
Not a pariah asks: Why is reading important
to you?
Well for an introvert like me, reading is
the perfect way to recharge my batteries after
doing social things.
And frankly reading is pure enjoyment.
And I also like the idea that reading teaches
empathy.
I mean it sort of shifts our default state.
We are the centre of our universe and we are
the star in the movie of our lives with everyone
else being bit players.
Reading creates a sense of empathy and gets
in the minds of those around us and tells
their unique stories.
And great authors also manage to put into
words those things that we feel or think about
that we just can’t put into words.
PeterClarktheWriter asks: If you could be
the character in any book who would you be
and why?
I love the world that Max Berry creates in
his book Lexicon in which agents use language
to hack the linguistic centers of the brain
to directly access the human operating system
and make individuals completely compliant
to command.
Agents trained in this ability are known as
poets and are completely badass.
Dr. Moostoffelees, Cow M.D asks: What is your
favourite comic book series?
Late 80’s, early 90’s X-Men written by
Chris Claremont starting with the Dark Phoenix
saga going all the way out to the spinoff
standalone X-Men series pencilled by Jim Lee
which completely blew my mind.
I loved that entire run.
Debra Hanff and Piper Obrien and Anna at A
World Hopper all want to know when I do most
of my reading.
Debra specifically wants to know how I fit
it in with the demands of work, family and
personal hygiene?
Well I read at night.
I like to try and get an hour of reading before
I go to bed but that doesn’t always happen
but that is still my favourite time to read.
Mornings are for personal hygiene.
Piper Obrien asks: How do you pick out the
next book you want to read?
I usually don’t know what I want to read
next until I’m nearly done the book I’m
currently reading and then I can sort of examine
– do I feel fact-y? Maybe I want
some non-fiction to read.
Or wordy and I want to veer off to literary
fiction.
Looking to the schedule do I have some free
time so that I’m able to tackle a bigger
book or do I need a shorter more diversionary
read.
And then I go to the super secret TBR pile
on Pinterest and pick something that sort
of catches my interest.
Joseph Quinton asks: Who are your three most
favorite authors?
Simon however wants five authors.
Alright so David Foster Wallace not just for
Infinite Jest but his essay collections Consider
the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll
Never Do Again are fantastic.
Joseph Boyden – currently embroiled in a
bit of a scandal where his native heritage
is being called into question but regardless
The Orenda blew my mind and Three Day Road
was impossibly good.
After that maybe Kazuo Ishiguro.
The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go
were both so, so good.
Anthony Marra for A Constellation of Vital
Phenomenon which is still my top five books
of all time and The Tsar of Love and Techno
I am loving so far.
And finally Adam Johnson for The Orphan Master’s
Son and hopefully Fortune Smiles proves to
be just as good.
Joseph Quinton asks: What book started your
love of reading?
What book are you most anticipating in 2017?
I couldn’t give you a specific book that
started my love of reading. I’ve loved reading
for as far back as I can remember and it probably
extends way farther than that as well.
I do know I got my love of reading from my
parents.
They were voracious readers and they still
are.
And I remember as a kid going to the library
every weekend with them.
As far as most anticipated book for 2017.
There’s a book called The Accusation by
Bandi which explores the lives of North Koreans.
Now Bandi is a pseudonym but it’s believed
that the author is actually a North Korean
writer for the government who smuggled these
pages out into China.
Anyway, it sounds like this could be a really,
really interesting read.
Jessica Poore asks: Have you noticed a change
in your reading interests through your life?
If so, how?
Have you ever reread a book and had your opinion
of it change?
Well as I get older I’m finding I’m reading
and enjoying a lot more non-fiction.
I’m also steering away a lot from the Western
canon which informed a lot of my reading in
my 20’s.
Now I’m reading a lot of front list titles
and I think that’s more because of booktube
than anything else.
As far as rereads I don’t do a lot of rereads
at all.
And a lot of times it’s, I’m old, long
enough that I’m almost going into the books
new with fresh eyes.
And finally we have a question from mlynncrew
who asks: What are your thoughts on the circulating
idea that 'Amazon is killing the book industry'
and do you have any tips for conscious and/or
ethical book buying?
This is a huge question and I don’t think
it’s something that I can answer here in
this video.
It may warrant it’s own video.
Doing a little digging I wanted to find out why is
it that we should hate Amazon.
They really haven’t screwed with GoodReads
and I’m grateful for that.
And they also own Audible which a lot of people
seem to be owning.
But at the same time I know that they really
don’t care for books and are more concerned
about the data that they can mine from us.
At the same time the publishers don’t seem
to get away unscathed from this as well.
Like I said, it seems to be a bigger picture
question that may warrant it’s own video.
As far as ethical book buying?
I don’t know.
I use independent bookshops but I also frequent
larger big box type of stores.
Here in Canada that’s Chapters.
I frequent the library, I buy e-books.
I also buy used books so I don’t know if
I’m the most ethical book buyer.
And that is a larger question to sort of unpack
and I’m not exactly sure how to go about
that especially in the changing environment
where authors are using Patreon and micropublishing.
Anyway that’s an interesting question and
something I’m going to have to dig into
a little deeper.
OK so that is a ton of questions.
I’m exhausted.
I hope I got around to answering the question
you asked.
I know I shut down the comments because I
was getting overwhelmed by the amount of questions.
Maybe I’ll do this in the next 1000 or something.
But hopefully I got the chance to answer any
questions that you had.
Hopefully I haven’t raised more questions
that you need answered.
But thanks for everyone for submitting their
questions and I really appreciate it.
It’s a great way to kick off 2017.
I hope you guys have a great reading week
and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye.
