muchabstracted | Geekage and Meme

First, cut for the Meme from

navelofwine.

1. Name a book you love no matter what anyone says.
Chrome Circle by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

2. Name a book you loathe no matter what anyone says.
The only book I recall having that negative a reaction to was D.H. Lawrence's Friends and Lovers. Such an irritating man, D.H. Lawrence.

3. Name a book you think is undeservedly obscure.
You know, there used to be a lot of obscure books that I thought should be famous. But I eventually figured out that they were obscure for good reason.

Lord Dunsany's story, Kith of the Elf Folk.

4. Name a book you think is undeservedly famous.
I agree with

navelofwine on the subject of Jane Eyre. Haven't read Rebecca, so I can't comment on that. Hmmm. So many bad books to choose from...

I have it! Dr. Atkins's book!

ETA: I don't, as it turns out, agree with

navelofwine on the subject of Jane Eyre. I misread her sentence: she appears to like it. Ooops.

5. Name a book you think you ought to read.
Oooh, one of Heinz Kohut's books on self psychology. And Swann's Way by Proust, I bought that a year ago and haven't picked it up yet.

6. Name a book you think I ought to read.
Will anyone believe me if I say anything other than Paradise Lost? Well, I seem to be pimping Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers a lot recently, so I'll put down that as an alternative to the Great Pre-Woolf Love of My Life. Oooh, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie!

*forcibly restrains self from typing more book names*

And onto the Geekage. Last night, I was reading a book by William Bright entitled A Coyote Reader. It had the following lines:

Yet the trickster is not the ideal heroic type: If he slays monsters, it is through guile rather than bravery.

And I realized: if trickster went to Hogwarts, s/he would be sorted into Slytherin.

The main difference between Slytherin and trickster that I see is that Slytherins appear to have a lot more focused ambition and clear goals, where tricksters just seem to screw around. Possibly this is why I am fascinated with tricksters and generally bored with Slytherins. Of course, Rowling's probable dislike for most Slytherins does not help matters.