Made up my own survey about reading and language.

[serene]

It's short, but not very fluffy. I'll put my answers in a comment so that you can cut and paste this if you want to use it for your own answers:

1. Describe the first (or an early) phrase/idiom you remember figuring out the meaning to.

2. What is the first thing you remember reading for pleasure?

3. (Especially for porcinea) Do you consider yourself "a reader"? If not, how would you describe your relationship to books and literature at the current time?

4. What's the book (story/play/whatever) you've re-read the most often? What is it about that piece of literature that excites you the most?

5. If you suddenly woke up tomorrow with the writing talent and motivation to write anything you put your hand to, what kind of work would you start churning out?

6. Tell about the person in your life, if any, who most influenced your feelings about language and reading.

7. What are you reading right now? And do you recommend it/them?

Comments

[malte.livejournal.com]

1. Describe the first (or an early) phrase/idiom you remember figuring out the meaning to.

Well I dunno about that, but the last one was "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good". See, for years and years I thought that it just meant that the wind was bad and it didn't blow anybody any good. It wasn't till I learnt the Swedish "Inget ont som inte har något gott med sig" that I twigged.

2. What is the first thing you remember reading for pleasure?

Probably Enid Blyton's Noddy books, when I was fourish.

3. Do you consider yourself "a reader"? If not, how would you describe your relationship to books and literature at the current time?

No, I'm not a reader. Not of books, anyway. My relationship to literature is that I'm mostly scared of it, except when I'm reading something that I like, and then I'm in love with it, then after that's over I get disillusioned and can't find anything else to read.

4. What's the book (story/play/whatever) you've re-read the most often? What is it about that piece of literature that excites you the most?

Probably Tove Jansson's Moominland midwinter. It just has layer upon layer of humanity and strangeness and a collection of characters that are all fascinating and likable. And, I suppose, nothing very horrible happens and the world is an interesting place.

5. If you suddenly woke up tomorrow with the writing talent and motivation to write anything you put your hand to, what kind of work would you start churning out?

I'd do the queer immigrant geek novel version of the Asta columns a friend of mine writes. (Hey, look, she's translated one of them into English (http://www.algonet.se/~asta/Arkiv99/spring31maj99.htm)!)

6. Tell about the person in your life, if any, who most influenced your feelings about language and reading.

Reading, well, probably my mum. She has a nice attitude to books. As for language, maybe my late granny, who was a terrible one for playing Scrabble, making jokes, finding out the French for things, reusing old Scots words, that sort of thing.

7. What are you reading right now? And do you recommend it/them?

I'm reading Sara Kadefors's Sandor slash Ida, which for a Swedish youth relationships book is quite a riproaring read. It might well not ever get translated. It's okay - though I really have trouble with all these scenes of ghastly teenage parties and young-adult angst. Nevertheless I'm always impressed with myself when I get through any book with this sort of theme. The book's also supposed to be about a guy and a girl who get to know each other by chatting on the net, but it's quite clear that the author has spent a truly minimal amount of time doing that. So there's another novel waiting to be written there.