Tuesday, March 24, 2009

My very, very favorite is...Tuesday Thinger!


Questions, questions, questions....all Wendi, from Wendi's Book Corner, host of Tuesday Thinger, ever has is questions and this week Tuesday Thingers has several, and they are very good ones! So let's see if I can think of a decent answer!

Questions (yes - there are a bunch - answer one or two . . . or all of them!): What is your favorite book (yes - this may be a hard one!!)? Is your favorite book listed in your LT library? If it is listed, do you have anything special in the tags or comments section? Have you looked to see if you can add any information to the Common Knowledge? AND a little off topic, do you find that your 5-starred books are consistent with your favorites, and is your favorite a 5-star rated book in your library? How have others rated your favorite book? :)

Ok, I best mosey over to Library Thing and check this out. I filled out my profile when I joined LT, a year of so ago, and I rather forget what I listed as my favorites.
Well, I do have favorite authors listed, four of them in fact. Willa Cather, Dean Koontz, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien. But I don't have favorite books listed. Was that a question in the profile? So, let's look at the books that I gave 5 stars to. That would be 46 books out of my current library of 1153, or .25%. Gosh, that seems pretty low...I guess I am a hard grader. And actually, looking at them, I see a number that I think I will knock down half a start. Because for me, to give 5 stars, to say it is the best, is a BIG deal.

So what are my favorites? Well, the books of the four above would be in that group. Not necessarily all of them, because Koontz alone has written more than 46 books I think. But Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop and My Antonia, Tolkien's Lord of the Ring, O'Connor's Collected Works, any number of Koontz's books...these would be the books I would grab if I were told I had 5 minutes to pick a handful of books to take to a desert island.
And a survival guide and a book on shipbuilding of course.
Or if I had someone standing in front of my bookcase, he/she had never read any of them and I had to pick a book for them.

But pick one favorite book?! That would be like picking your favorite child...and I don't even have children.

It also depends. It depends on what sort of book you want at the moment. A huge epic (LoTR), something dark and odd (O'Connor), a bit of history (Cather), sci-fi-ish thriller (Koontz), a touch of something apocalyptic (Father Elijah by Michael O'Brien), a classic (Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder), a children's book (Lady Liberty by Doreen Rappaport) , or even a cookbook (Recipes from a Very Small Island) ...I mean you could go on and on. All very different but each excellent in their own way.

Are they all five star rated? Yes, if not...well, I would think you are not using your stars correctly, if I may say so. That is the point, right?
How do others rate my favorites? Well, they seem to range from 4 to 4.8 stars. But you have to take any ratings with a grain of salt. As always, the Da Vinci Code lists as the 'top' book after all the Potter books. Really...you have to be kidding! And the top book "by star rating" (and I have no idea what the difference is, I assume it has to do with the number of people owning it also figured in) is a book called
'Spam' by spammer with a perfect 5 rating by everyone that rated it. But I really doubt that is the best book ever written.
Have you looked to see if you can add any information to the Common Knowledge? No, I am not going to! Because if I do, I will find some that need work and then I will have to work on them, looking the stuff up and fixing them, all nice and neat and before you know it another day off will be gone and I still did not do the laundry or get to the supermarket and I will be forced to chip something out of the freezer for dinner while dressed in my PJs.
Yes, again.....

...and now, because you have been so good as to read my random thoughts, your reward, a picture of The World's Cutest Dog, Bandit! Stop by his own blog to say hi...and see more cute pictures!


15 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, he is precious! As a confirmed dog lover, I am sending him a virtual kiss on the snout. Loved your answers.
    LibrarysCat

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  2. very well said, I'll have to check out my Library at library thing as well. It might take me most of the day before I have a post up. I have children, and grandchildren and I agree with your comparison. The more children you have the more you love them all and appreciate the unique talents and characteristics of each. The more books you read, the more you open your self up to enjoying a variety of genre's, and the more enjoyable your reading experience becomes.

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  3. Aaaaah, what a cute pic of Bandit. Buddy and I are such fans of the little guy.

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  4. yes kaye, to a degree it is like comparing apple and oranges. each offers something different.

    well Dar...he is the Cuties Dog in the World! But Buddy is a close second, especially since they looks like brothers ;-)

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  5. I've decided I'm a non-conformist grader. Quite often, it seems like my ratings are the opposite of the norm. I wonder what that says about me. I can't pick a favorite book or author either. I can pick a favorite dog, though, and while Bandit is awfully cute, Milou's still my number 1.

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  6. 46 favourite books seems perfectly reasonable. Bandit is utterly gorgeous but I believe that the cutest dog in the world lives in my house and her name is Briar. If she ever learns to blog she will definitely be paying Bandit a visit!

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  7. Oh, you dog owners...you just can't admit the truth! I understand that..but it is a shame...lol

    FF...by the time I take another look at that list and start taking away half stars, that list will not be 46!
    Kathy, looking at my reviews, I often seem to be listing to my own drummer too. And personally, I think that is just fine.

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  8. hi guys. thanks for all of your kind comments!! and to you kiki, well, i dont have much to say but hi!!

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  9. See, if you post a picture of your pet on your Tuesday Thinger, you can write WHATEVER because nobody's gonna read it. They go straight for the cuteness every time. Take from someone who has learned the hard way ;)

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  10. Awwww, thanks for the pic of Bandit. If you want to see Bailey, just go to the lower left side of my blog : )

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  11. I hear you. Enjoyed reading your list of favorites.

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  12. I have many, many favorite authors listed on my LT profile, and it's very hard to come up with just one or two favorite books. Guess I'm a hard grader, too - I think I've only got about 20 books rated as 5-stars. And yes, Bandit really is the world's cutest dog!

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  13. Bandit....keep sending those pictures....then next week's post will just be
    "blah, blah, Tuesday Thinger, blah...oh, here is a picture of Bandit!"

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  14. Well, every time you have a rating out of 5 stars it's going to be imperfect. On Amazon, some books will get five stars because relatively, for their genre, they are excellent books. But they might not rank up there as favorites. For instance, the silly book "Sideway Stories from Wayside School" will get a five-star rating because I recommend it to its target audience, but it is not remotely as incredible as, say, "The Master and Margarita". They cannot be compared. This is a very interesting topic. I'm curious to see what others have found.

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  15. Oh - that picture of Bandit is adorable!!

    Sometimes I wish I had your help writing the posts for TT!! I wish I would have thought of comparing the favorite books to the ones you would grab if you only had 5 minutes to grab items!

    Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I've got the post up for this week, what do you do for your least-favorite books? ~ Wendi

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please speak up, I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!