Reading around this morning in the Ciao Café I came across a challenge that looked both intellectual and testing (none of this ‘What time did you start this challenge?’ ‘What time did you finish?’ kind of stuff). This was a test that you couldn’t just blag through or cheat in, you had to have an imagination and a will to read.
Oh yes a Literary challenge.THE LITERARY CHALLENGE
1. What is your favourite genre?
I enjoy reading so I go through many genres when doing so ranging from fantasy to crime/thrillers and magical legends I get pleasure from fictional novels rather than non-fiction tales as I like to seep into the book and escape from reality.
2. Do you read the classics i.e. the great authors of the 18th and 19th century?
Unluckily I got seriously traumatised by these books during school years, there is a limit to how many times you read and deconstruct any book, so no I don’t go near them anymore, although I have seen many of the classic novels on TV such as Oliver Twist and of course the fantastic modernised Romeo and Juliet.
3. Are you interested in thrillers?
I haven’t really read enough Thrillers to say that I'm mainly interested in them although I did enjoy Clive Cussler’s novel ‘White Death’. I enjoy Crime/Thrillers as I mentioned in question 1. Robert Crais is a particular favourite at the moment as is Tom Claney, Dan Brown and Michael Crichton.
4. What about Horror stories?
Horror really isn’t a genre I would choose for myself although I have read, or tried to read several books I tend to get bored of the constant tension and gore. I enjoy watching horror as I feel seeing the story makes it an easier subject to understand. Perhaps my imagination is limited to the point that I can’t envision someone’s head rolling through a door or people running around with no arms squirting with blood. I'm so innocent. Ha ha.
5. Do you read science fiction?
Only one book comes to mind is ‘Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams. That’s it I think I have of course read all four of the novels in this trilogy (those of you who have read it will understand this) ‘The Restaurant at the end of the Universe’, ‘Life the Universe and Everything’ and my personal favourite ‘So Long and Thanks for all the Fish’.
6. How many Harry Potter books have you read?
? Do I want to admit this?
In my household we own all five dog-eared novels in the series so far, plus cassette tapes of them all read by Stephen Fry.
Ok that’s a secret don’t go spreading it round!
7. Have you read and enjoyed biographies, autobiographies?
This is one kind of book I'm completely not interested in at all. I hear enough from celebrities out of magazines and the newspaper that I don’t need to know any other personal details about how they felt when their dog ran away or when their hit movie plummeted in the box office? Why? It’s just another way for the rich to get money out of the poor.
8. Do you remember the books you read and loved as a child?
‘The Hungry Caterpillar’. It was my favourite till I was about seven or eight them I enjoy Roald Dahl books I can’t remember all the titles but I can remember reading them in class when I was at primary school, I remember getting deep into The BFG watching the film as well as reading the book.
Once I got to high school, between eleven and sixteen I read a lot of Terry Pratchett’s Disc-World novels, which is properly how I got so into fantasy.
9. Have you re-read these as a grown up?
I have read ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ to my younger cousins several times and often read Terry Pratchett’s novels but I hardly, if ever pick up my BFG book as I'm no longer interested in it.
10. Is there a book that you can say has influenced you?
? This is difficult. I feel influenced by most book as I think they improve my understanding of the world and how different people look upon it, however because the majority of what I read is fantasy I think the only thing constructive it has done is to give me an overactive imagination.
Non-fiction, study books that I read such as Basic Photography by Michael Langford and Available Light Photography by Lou Jacobs Jr influence me in my studies and help me to create better images for my course, by the way I'm a photographer. However I see fictional books as an escape and often don’t look at them in an influential way.
11.Which are your favourite Authors?
I really respect Robert Crais, A.A.Milne and of course Enid Blyton for creating some of the best and most read books in the world but my favourite of them all has to be Terry Pratchett, I love his books and to carry on to question 12 . . .
12. Which book would you take onto a desert island?
. . . I would defiantly take the disc-world series with me onto a desert island. If I weren’t allowed to take all twenty-five books then it would have to be ‘ The Colour of Magic’ which is the first in the series, its humorous, clever and easy to read and I could read it over and over again without getting bored.
13. What is your attitude towards translations?
I think nowadays translations are purely for money gain. For instance Harry Potter has been translated into more than a dozen different languages, although they have been changed the story stays the same but it looses its charm, its magic. The story was successful here and so it was translated to make more money. It’s the same for films although several of my foreign friends enjoy English films to the ones they have at home they agree that the storyline is ruined by the translation and they prefer to watch the film in the original language.
14. Do you buy your books/get them from the library/borrow them from friends/steal them?
I tend to use the library for research purposes so normally I buy the books I want from the shop or borrow them from friends, once I have read them I have, in the past sold them at car boot sales or swapped them at second hand book shops, either that or I pass them on to friends or family, it really depends on whether I enjoyed the story or not, if I feel I could read it again then I'm more likely to keep it.
15. When you buy books, do you prefer hardcover editions or pocket books?
As a student I tend to buy the book at the cheapest price so normally I would buy pocket sized versions or paperbacks.
16. Have you tried audio books?
The first audiotapes I listened to were ‘Truckers, Diggers and Wings’ by Terry Pratchett which was absolutely brilliant.
When the Harry Potter tapes came out my mum bought them and they were good to, great for if you’re busy or driving.
17. List your favourite books:
Well as you can probably guess I love the Terry Pratchett Disc-World series and Robert Crais, Elvis Cole series but I don’t have a favourite.Anyway, that’s it I hope you have enjoyed reading this Please feel free to join in this challenge, it’s a great way to find out more about ciao readers.
Kirsty
The Literary Challenge 
