A flood of me-me

[annwfyn]

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read 'em for school in the first place.

The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods
Anansi Boys*
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina*
Atlas Shrugged
Beloved
The Blind Assassin
Brave New World
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales*
The Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
A Clockwork Orange
Cloud Atlas
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed*
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Confusion
The Corrections
The Count of Monte Cristo*
Crime and Punishment*
Cryptonomicon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
David Copperfield
Don Quixote
Dracula*
Dubliners
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Emma
Foucault’s Pendulum
The Fountainhead
Frankenstein
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath
Gravity’s Rainbow
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels*
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies*
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The Historian : a novel
The Hobbit*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
Jane Eyre*
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Kite Runner
Les Misérables*
Life of Pi : a novel
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch
Middlesex
Mrs. Dalloway
The Mists of Avalon - Can I put in an anti star? I hate this book.
Moby Dick
The Name of the Rose*
Neverwhere
1984
Northanger Abbey*
The Odyssey
Oliver Twist
The Once and Future King*
One Hundred Years of Solitude
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Oryx and Crake : a novel
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Persuasion
The Picture of Dorian Gray*
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Pride and Prejudice *
The Prince
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter
Sense and Sensibility
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Silmarillion - As a note, I did finish it, but I read it in several different bursts.
Slaughterhouse-five
The Sound and the Fury
A Tale of Two Cities
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Time Traveler’s Wife
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
The Three Musketeers
Ulysses
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Vanity Fair
War and Peace*
Watership Down*
White Teeth
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
Wuthering Heights*
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values

I'm better read than I thought...

The name meme

- What inspired your nick?

At the time I was in a quite bad mental place. I also had an LJ - winterthing. I'd been reading through old entries, remembering some fairly awful times in my life, and honestly just making myself even less cheerful, which is saying something.

So, I wanted a break. I wanted somewhere new, and I ended up looking for a name which sort of symbolized a space of 'otherness', or separation from all this old junk.

'Annwfyn' is a word I found somewhere as the Old Welsh for 'otherworld'.

I maintain that the spelling I use is a valid alternate to the more normal Annwn, Annwyn or Annwfn. pierot maintains that I've spelled it wrong and refuses to write it in protest. It's about the only time he admits to any knowledge of Welsh.

- Does any particular icon that you use embody it?

Not really, although all my LJ icons do have a very specific meaning and it's normally relatively significant which one I use, although that meaning might not be obvious to anyone except me.

As a note, if I use my tarot - devil icon, it means I'm playing devil's advocate/being argumentative. If I use any of my nonsense tags, I'm babbling nonsense. If I use my worst witch icon, it means I'm either being inept at college work, or I'm doing this when I really ought to be doing college work. It's my 'bad student' icon.

- If your nick had been taken, what would you have used instead?

I've got (somewhat sadly) several 'back up' LJs. The main one is gobolina which I've considered switching to several times, but have not quite yet reached the place where I need a change. That's named partly after a kids book, and partly because Jeremiah says he thinks of me as a female goblin.

And finally...

Comment and I'll...

Tell you why I friended you.

Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Tell you something I like about you.

Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

In return, you must post this in your LJ.

You can tell I should be working, right?

Comments

[adze.livejournal.com]

I'll comment - I could do with something to take my mind of the panic!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

I can't remember. I think you were new at Zeitgeist, but we were beginning to chat, and we had a load of friends in common. Not sure if you friended me first or not either.


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Oddly for a bloke - I associate you with piles and piles of jewelery, and whenever I wander around a charity shop and see bits of tat I wonder if you'd like it.


Tell you something I like about you.

Your loyalty to your friends.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Walking around Hatfield churchyard very late at night, and you dragging me over to see the lights spilling out from Hatfield House.


Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

I think I've mostly asked these questions. Erm. Are you a dog or a cat person?


Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I like the raven thing you nicked from me, purely coz it's pretty. And I think you should use it more.

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

ditto. today is a shitty day for me.

[suave-steve.livejournal.com]

I am just killing time pre interview but don't think of that as an obligation :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

You were the ANST Mage at the time, I'd met you at a Regional, and I was sadly Cam obsessed in those days. It seemed to make sense.

Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

The colour blue. No idea why, but you've always been a deep royal blue whenever you've been on my flist.


Tell you something I like about you.

Your truly demonic sense of humour when you're in a good mood. You'll come out with the most wonderfully demented things with a totally straight face - the Ventrue Vigilante Five spring to mind.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

You sitting on the edge of a table, I think in a white dinner jacket or maybe just a shirt. I believe it was the Scots Regional at about midnight and I'd just arrived after a nightmare drive from down south.

That was my first meeting with you.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

What do you really want out of your life?

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

The default pic - the one that is you. The others all look very random and not connected to you really. That one, however, actually is Steve.

[anonymous-james.livejournal.com]

Audience participation? How splendid.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Does that mean you want me to tell you about you?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Bandwagon. Jump. Me!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

You were a Zeitgeist player, I knew you vaguely, and we had a lot of friends in common. It seemed like a good start.


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Hellsing. I think it's because you were in costume the first time I met you, as whatisname in red from that anime show. I always think of you whenever I see it now.


Tell you something I like about you.

I think you're actually a genuinely nice person. And that's rare.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

You, standing in Evil Squared's living room, dressed entirely in red with a HUGE hat on your head. I think it was a fancy dress party. At least, I hope it was...


Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Erm...*thinks*

That rhyme you use for Jack - where did that come from?


Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Your default. It's very cool and I love ginasketch's art.

[castorlion.livejournal.com]

I'll never say no to talking about me!

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, talk about me too! A lot!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

Because we had friends in common and I thought you were cool. And then you didn't friend me back for AGES and I was sad...


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.


I saw this today and thought of you for some reason. (http://bp1.blogger.com/_iXIo11DlPGY/RtnPWXVlBlI/AAAAAAAAA00/7wh1yWCl9i0/s1600-h/faeriewoodhead8x11web+(2).jpg)


Tell you something I like about you.

You're smarter than people think, and you sometimes have this amazing ability to say exactly the right thing.

Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Eating ice cream in Oxford. You are very closely associated with Oxford in my mind. I still can't quite comprehend that you live in Newbury.

Oh, and clearing your house, with your strange ugly-cute witch cat limping around looking aggrieved.


Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

It appears I am far too nosy and tend to ask things rather than letting them hang in the air. Hmmm...

How did you first get into role playing?


Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I'm torn between the fionovar tapestry one, and the venus one. They are the two I mentally associate the most strongly with Sarah, for some reason.

[windzswept.livejournal.com]

I'm biting.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

We've been friends for long before Livejournal entered my life!


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

The colour purple - or rather - a nice delicate lavender. I think coz twas the colour of that gorgeous ball dress you used to wear to play the Queen of Caledonia in changeling, and it's kinda stuck in my brain as a Steph colour.

Tell you something I like about you.

I don't know how to put it into words, but I think there's something really honest about you. You're honest about your feelings, you'll be cross about things, but then can be very forgiving and there's not a huge amount of pretense with you around people.

You're very real if that makes sense, and I like that.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

I remember a fresher standing at the GEAS stall and asking me if we ran changeling. First time I met you.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

When did you know Andy was 'the one'?


Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I am torn between the little dragon, because it's really cute, and the hiding in a bag icon, for similar reasons.

The 'bad day' icon is, however, very expressive.

[malakite.livejournal.com]

Curiosity... strikes!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

I think we'd recently met at a London Garou game, and vaguely got talking.


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

For some weird reason, Rotherhithe. I think because you were the first person I knew who lived here.


Tell you something I like about you.

You're very even tempered and I've never heard you bitch or gossip about anyone.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Too many Garou games to name!


Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

You were brought up abroad, right? How did that come about?


Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Your Francis Urqhart icon. How could I not?

[flamma-lupus.livejournal.com]

yay meme!!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

Coz pure_simon used to be on my LJ friends list, and then you changed to something else and I followed you, like a jovial stalker.


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

I've got loads of associations for you. Erm...the smell of cigarettes (you're one of the few close friends I have that smoke), almost any dodgy website, for some odd reason, flame patterns (and I don't know why) - fire and smoke in general.


Tell you something I like about you.

You're a sweetheart and you can almost always make me smile.


Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Us driving home relatively recently and you bursting into fits of giggles when I said in a fairly straight way "well, I know about horse whips, but I'm not sure if they work different on people to horses".

I must say, it was a conversation that in some odd way seemed to sum up our friendship. :p


Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

I never ask you these questions. You might tell me. :p

Erm. Why nursing?

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Your fire glory glyph. Why don't you use it more?

[badgersandjam.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm...so unless you're Jane Austen or Margaret Atwood, women writers aren't really very noticeable on that list, are they? Oh, sily me, it's canon. Even if it does haev Reading Lolita in Tehran on it.
[/mode=bitter feminist]

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Well, there are more women on that list than there are non-white writers.

I can list ten women writers who are considered 'great' of the top of my head* but I really struggle when it comes to thinking of 'great' or acclaimed non-White writers**

In general, 'canon' is really really restrictive in gender, race and class terms.


*Jane Austen
Charlotte Bronte
Emily Bronte
George Elliott
Virginia Woolf
Christina Rosetti
Hariett Beecher Stowe
Margaret Atwood
Emily Dickinson
Katherine Mansfield

**Maya Angelou
Salman Rushdie
Alice Walker

...I'm struggling

[eladriell.livejournal.com]

The Aeneid
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Oran
The Count of Monte Cristo
Don Quixote
Dracula*
Frankenstein
The Hobbit*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
Lolita
Moby Dick
The Name of the Rose
Neverwhere
The Odyssey
Oliver Twist
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Prince
Treasure Island
The Three Musketeers
Ulysses
Watership Down

Well I've read those, liked is another matter...


- What inspired your nick?

First tabletop RPG character I ever made, an Warhammer i think it was, it eventually became the name I used for all my Giants on most of the fantasy muds I played....mostly influenced by the Firbolg legens I must admit

- Does any particular icon that you use embody it?

Certainly not. LJ icons are no more windows to the soul or keys to meaning than my cock is a guide to Uranus.


- If your nick had been taken, what would you have used instead?

Probably Enki/Enlil or Ningizzida...(Probably due to my disgust with any civilisation after Sumer fell and before the Empire got everyone in line.) anyhoo, yeah.

Right, that should constitute a comment

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

I don't think I have yet, mostly because our relationship has always been so up and down, and I am a bit worried that there may be people on my LJ that make you twitchy.

Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Corstorphine Woods - the sunlight slanting through the trees.

Tell you something I like about you.

You are one of the most charismatic people I've ever known. You create these amazingly strong responses in people, and I don't think anyone who has ever met you is capable of ever forgetting you!

Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

I think that long day when we went for a walk around Corstorphine Woods, then walked back into the centre of town via the back streets of Edinburgh. It was an amazing day, and you showed me this world I'd never really seen before.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Do you still MUD? It's something I associate with you massively, but I've no idea whether or not you still do it.

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

You in that leather jacket with a beer in your hand. I way prefer that to the assorted pics of random fictional characters.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Don't talk about them, talk about ME!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

Because I thought you were deeply and impressively cool - this person I didn't know very well who always seemed very articulate and grown up on Cam e mail lists.

Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Mist on the river Yarra. You described it to me before I went to Melbourne, and then I got out there, and found myself wandering across Melbourne in the small hours of the morning, and mist was rising off the river. And I thought of you immediately.

Tell you something I like about you.

You're a wonderful writer. Whatever you write is clear, communicative and always interesting.

Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Walking across London late one evening after going to the pub to talk about wraith stuff. I thought it was a cool scenic walk. You later admitted you were just lost.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Do you miss role playing? It seems to have been such a big part of your life and now it's mostly gone.

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

The cardpic. I think it's the longest lasting of your userpics, and it amuses me.

[badgersandjam.livejournal.com]

Have you read Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydein?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Yes! And I loved them so very very much.

They were my first contact with welsh and welsh inspired myth.

[soullessflyer.livejournal.com]

Go on then, I'm sure we've done this before, but it's still fun to do :o)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Tell you why I friended you.

I knew you vaguely via CamStuff, then got chatting to you in Dundee, really liked you, and decided to use LJ to try and stay in touch.


Associate you with something - a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Ravens. Edgar Allen Poe. The word 'nevermore' :p

Tell you something I like about you.

You're remarkably easy to talk to. I really would love to get up to Scotland and see you again some day.

Tell you a memory I have of you. And you'll say 'you totally made that up!' for my memory is shockingly bad on occasion, and sometimes does just seem to invent stuff.

Sitting in a pub in Dundee, chatting for ages, whilst I got very late for a Mage game.

Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Erm...oh...this is hard.

You do lovely lovely graphics stuff. Which piece are you proudest of and why?

Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Your 'just plain insane' one.

It seems the most evocative of you!