Today's Question: What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What's the most popular book you don't have? How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?The most popular book in my library is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I have read it many, many times. I think it was the first Austen novel that I ever read and I fell in love with it. I also read Sense and Sensibility which I liked almost as much. Then instead of reading other works by Miss Austen, I reread these two over and over. Interestingly enough, after my book club chose and read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote similarly to Austen, I decided to go back and read some of Austen's other works. In a great convergence of the stars, I noticed a link to DailyLit on a Tuesday Thinger post and visited and started Emma which I have just completed and hope to post a review later today.
Without looking, I am sure that the most popular books that I do not have are the Harry Potter books. My children have read them all, but I just could not get into it, then I saw the movies and (knowing better) thought, What's the point? Almost always, the book is better than the movie, so I should have pushed forward.
I am a fairly equal opportunity reader - I will read almost anything. If I am concerned that I will not like a book, I usually look for reviews in hopes of bolstering my intent to like it. However, even if all of the reviews are negative, I will still continue with my reading and usually complete the book. So I guess I am not really guided by rankings. If I really like a book, I am always amazed at the reviews of others - things I missed, things I did not care about, things I loved that others did not include. Really, I guess for me, what other people think about books is just more reading!
The librarian in me thinks the most wonderful thing about books is that there is a book out there for everyone and a person for every book. Working in an academic library in Circulation (previous job), we used to love to see what people were checking out and thought, Isn't it wonderful that someone out there cares about the dotted snail enough to check out three books on them? And who knew there were three books to begin with? No offense to snail lovers, btw!
Have a great Tuesday!
LibrarysCat
5 comments:
P&P is among one of my favorite books too. No matter how many times I read it the story never gets old...and my heart skips a little beat whenever I read Darcy's letter.
If you like audiobooks then I highly recommend Jim Dale's reading of the HP books. He's phenomenal...and that is what first brought me fully into the series. That and my naggy friend. ;-)
I also love Daily Lit. Such a happy thing to see in my email when I am working on a subscription. =)
I just thought I would point out that Gaskell and Austen did not know each other. They lived and wrote in very different times. Austen in the Georgian and Regency era and Gaskell in the Victorian. Gaskell was born in 1810 and would only have been 7 years old when Austen died in 1817.
Gaskell was a contemporary of Dickens and the Brontes. She in fact wrote for Dickens Household Words magazine and was good friends with Charlotte Bronte and wrote her biography after she died.
Hi Jeanette,
Thank you so much - ahhh, getting old is hell! I knew that! In fact, the edition we read of Gaskell had the full bio included and we marvelled that she wrote the Bronte bio! Good thing these posts aren't graded - just embarrassing.
LibrarysCat
Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors. I haven't yet read all of her books, but I am slowly working on it. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites. I haven't yet read Sense and Sensibility, however.
I missed this one too??? Did you post a link in The Boston Bibliophile's comment section? If not that might be why.
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