Book Reading Meme

Last seen with kradical

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Northanger Abbey (since probably a dozen people have beaten me to Pride & Prej.)

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
The only one I'll admit to is Prince Richard from the Lord Darcy series.

What are you currently reading?
My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd. (So sue me, I'm about to be ears-deep in mysteries, I wanted a little fluff.)

The last book you bought is:
Simultaneous purchase - Corset Diaries and Hard Day's Knight, both by Katie MacAlister. They had been recommended by the wenches, as Knight is dedicated to the International Wenches Guild.

The last book you read:
All the way through, as opposed to skim and dump? Undead and Unemployed by Mary Janice Davidson. Highly recommended

Five desert island books:
Austen omnibus
collected Lord Darcy
Watership Down
Jeeves omnibus
The Custom of the Country

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Like Keith, I have too many bibliophile friends not to pass this on to everyone

Question - if you were bidding on this, what would you want?

The next big Team Wench do is the Midsummer Fantasy Ball for MS, also known as the MSFB. (Link for details on right on my LJ under "Team Wench".) The main moneymaker is always the raffle. Since I never get around to making the quilt I intend to donate and I'm rolling in books, I have decided instead to donate a series of book baskets.

My question to you - aside from the books, what would you want to see in each of these baskets? What would encourage you to put in a few bids?

#1 - Romances
1 dozen paperback romance novels; big, thick ones, all new; mostly historical but one or two moderns. The Corset Diaries and something else rennie-ish will be prominently featured. I was thinking of adding a bottle of Calgon and calling it the "take me away" basket, but I'm not sure how many people remember those ads. Other ideas were to include a box of bonbons and a candle, or bath oils and a scrubbie.

#2 - Fairy Tales
This one is close to complete, but if anyone has a good inexpensive idea, I'll take it. This contains Annotated Fairy Tales (a huge hardback), The Gentle Knight and the Bold Princess (a hardback anthology), Desperaux (a French fairy tale about a mouse), a blank paperback book with a picture of Puss in Boots on the cover, a treasure candle, and the Ever After game. (ETA - it's not new, but I have a spare copy of the 10th Kingdom VHS series, and it's tempting to toss it into the pack.)

#3 - Mystery
I can't list titles here because I'll be drawing heavily on the trade table at Malice for the stock; what I'm thinking of is a random selection with one or two hardbacks or trade paperbacks (the new Lillian Stewart Carl about Bonnie Prince Charlie has been set aside for this) and then maybe half a dozen paperbacks. Since this won't be a theme, I'm not sure what else to put in there.

OR

I have the option of using fewer books, but making theme baskets. For instance, a couple of English themed books and some tea. A couple of crafter books, some yarn, and knitting needles. A couple of cookbooks (I have two mystery themed ones, one of which is signed) and some cookie cutters or something. (If I dig around enough, I might have the option of doing an all theme cookbook one - some mystery cookbooks, some fantasy ones, etc.)

If you were bidding, would you go for quantity (many books, fewer side items) or quality (theme)?

I have the same questions about #4 - Fantasy/SF
Before I even contact the folks I know to ask if they'd be willing to donate, I can scare up about a half-dozen hardbacks and an equal number of paperbacks. Thing is - do I want to do Big Basket O' Book Doom with just the hardbacks? Do I want to try to pick themes?

And finally, speaking of themes, what do people think about the possibility of #5 - Creatures of the Night? I could make a Boogieman Basket out of Love at First Bite (the book, not the movie), Single White Vampire, Blood Games, and Curse of the Zwillig. That's two mass market paperbacks and two trades; two mysteries and two romances. Would you bid on such a thing? And what else would you want in there? Black candles? Bloody mary mix?

Or maybe just a dealer's choice basket, with a little bit of everything?

I've got a huge stack of books and no inspiration. Ideas would be wonderful.

ETA: To give some idea of other raffle prizes, I've seen a "romantic massage" basket, and there will probably be several trays of decadent fudge sold in 2# batches, homemade soap baskets, jewelry, etc. The biggie so far is a My Fi XM radio with complete accessories.

Resolution update

I was going to wait until Thursday night to do this, but I'd rather be at the early admissions for Malice. And all the stuff I have to do between now and then is boring crap that doesn't get checklists, like bleeding the radiators and doing the laundry. So...

Guys, this month by month "do this" list? Is not working for me. I keep wanting to do something that I'm "not supposed" to be doing yet, or not getting something done in a month or whatever, and it's all just too overthought. So it's back to sorting the list by type of project, with the mental note that I have to spend at least two weeks a month dealing with *something* on this list.

To Be Read: 149

( The Rest of the Resolutions )

As for the "I'll exercise every day" thing, I failed. It's the usual thing - there always seems to be something else that needs to be done, although I will argue that walking for Team Wench and mowing a double-lot lawn counts as partial exercise.

Blasphemous thoughts

When Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came out, I got it, I read it, I loved it. Repeat x3 for the sequels. (I gave up after #4.) So you'd think that I'd be beside myself with joy over the new movie, which looks like it is really well done.

And... I'm not. I'm not because in the time since then, my tastes have changed. I'm more into the relatively restrained parody of Pratchett and Whedon than Adams. Although my friends rave about them, I'm not carried away by Jasper fford or Robert Rankin; I think they're a little too much in love with how cute they're being at the expense of actually telling a story.

All the delighted squee in my f-list over the new movie just hammers home to me that if someone handed me Hitchhiker right now, I'd toss it away after three pages. It's a wierd feeling. I'm not going to say I "outgrew" it, because that's the wrong word; it is what it is, and what it is, is famous. I just prefer other things now.

Doubling the wierd is that the last time I felt this way was also after a movie. The Lord of the Rings trilogy inspired me to pull out The Hobbit, another beloved former friend. And I don't like it anymore either. What profiteth a fan if she gain the whole trilogy but lose the Hobbit thereby?