Proust Questionairre

[GuiltyPleasure]

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
  and why?
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?

 

[butters]

why is it called a Proust Q, T? am i missing something awfully obvious?

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  Maybe Canada... where lots of trees are, and the lack of americanism that spoils some beautiful spots there for me. They speak english and have a similar sense of humour to the brits, and the weather's less awful than australia
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  that's really hard... either the daisychain made for me by a gay male schoolfriend (without prompting... the only male to have ever made me one ), or, as a teenager-with-first-boyfriend-first-xmas pressie of a teddy bear with a silver snake bracelet on its arm. other presents, like from husband no2 who i loved completely, have all been spoiled by our history and so don't count.
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  all of them, really, from gardening to knitting to painting
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  to have the ability to always make the right decision
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  saved a baby's life
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  never been on one. sigh... though the closest 'road trip' was an approx 300 mile round trip to Skegness from London and back 2 days later on the back of a moped. damn, my arse hurt for days
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  mashed potatoes, and christmas pudding
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  sad to say, probably the Narnia books read as a child... many many others have had an influence since, but reading those when i did seems to have made a solid and lasting impact on my childhood psyche.
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  Trust your instincts
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
  and why?
  I'd go back and not agree to leave school because my boyfriend thought it was a good idea, but would stay on and go on to uni as intended.... oops [edit] relive, without changing it? hmmm - i really don't know.
  
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  you don't need to be invisible; and sometimes it's ok to put your own interests first.
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  kindness, honesty, and intelligence/creativity in that order
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  the same
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  i
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  Tolkein, Walt Whitman, Byron, Shakespeare, Ben Elton, Stephen King, Oscar Wilde, JKRowling, so many... too many
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?

crikey, without going looking up names, that's hard for me... tend to like individual pieces rather than any one artist's collections of work, though there are a few

 

[Maria2394]

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  
  the place is irrelevant if you are happy
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  
  the love of my family and true friends
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  
  education, specifically psychology, geology and archaeology
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  
  I would be a teacher
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  
  left home at 15 and hitch hiked to Florida...alone
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  
  on the road with my husband, worked our way from SC to Miami, then all the way to Portland Maine
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  
  apples
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  
  mein kampf...gave me an incurable desire to know how and why people think the way they do
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  
  look out for yourself because no one else will
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
  and why?
  
  I guess it would have to be 3-23-1983, and 10-10-1988, the days my daughters were born
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  
  I have to keep that one to myself, too personal
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  
  honesty
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  
  honesty
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  
  really?
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  
  T.S.Eliot, Jack London, Michael Crichton
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?
  
  Monet, Michaelangelo, the Maya, Zuni, and the Japanese who created wondrous textiles, pottery and metal craft
  

 

[Maria2394]

Will you post your answers Tess?

 

[bflagsst]

why is it called a Proust Q, T? am i missing something awfully obvious?

Proust's answers to the confessional questionnaire sold for a zillion beans a few years ago.

 

[butters]

Proust's answers to the confessional questionnaire sold for a zillion beans a few years ago.

thankyou, bflagsst it did? wow! the older i get, the more i understand how little i know and never will. that's life

 

[ishtat]

Here are mine

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  
  I'd split my time between Sydney Australia and the West of England , which is what I do now
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  
  A piglet I called Henrietta. I had to feed her and look after her until she was about 7 months old at which point she was sold for 24 pounds, became bacon and we bought our first television with the proceeds. I liked Henrietta, but a TV!
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  
  Learning languages particularly ancient dead languages
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  
  To Fly
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  
  Resigning my first job to start my own business
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  
  Through Turkey & Iran in the seventies from Istanbul, It wasn't particularly hazardous then, though the roads were pretty dire.
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  
  Bacon.
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  
  Cassells Encyclopeadia of World knowledge published in about 1925 I discovered it when I was about 8 and read all eight volumes before I was 10.
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  
  " Jewish girls are best"
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
  and why?
  
  The day I first scored a century in cricket ( I only did it twice more)
  
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  
  "It gets better "
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  
  Honesty & integrity
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  
  I would like to say the same as for men but it wouldn't be true, I've admired some women who were terribly dishonest but boy did I admire them. The best woman of all though is totally honest, sometimes I wish she wasn't.
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  
  "You may well be right" which means "you're damn well wrong"
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  
  Jane Austen, Chaucer, George Eliot, PD James, Kipling, Gogol, J le Carre
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?
  
  I don't, I admire particular works on the grounds that great artists frequently produce dross as well as gems.
  
  Sometimes great artisanship does more for me than great art.
  
  

 

[champagne1982]

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Barbados. Beautiful climate, relatively stable economy, with a desalinator, a gardener and a solar panelled roof I’m sure I’d have a decent lifestyle, too.​

• What is the best gift you’ve received?

My cardiologist’s referral to my cardiac surgeon.​

• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

Calligraphy​

• If you could have any super power what would it be?

Teleportation/-kinesis​

• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Travelled 80 miles for a Wendy’s hamburger​

• What was your most epic road trip?

To Oakville, ON via Winnipeg (of course), 8 stops in southern Ontario, visiting family and friends and back via Calgary, by car in 3 weeks.​

• What food brings back childhood memories?

Home-made bread​

• Which book most influenced your life?

Bambi… It’s the first I remember reading. I could say all those that taught me to read, but I don’t remember the process so really, are they admissible? I chose this title by virtue of the role reading has played in my life. Just by the fact that I read it, Bambi shaped a reading life and that is a powerful influence.​

• What is the most valuable piece of advice you ever received?

If you don’t know, ask.​

• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be and why?

The day before I destroyed my knee on the ski hill… It was the last one I remember without waking up with a sore one.​

• What advice would you give your ten year old self today?

Don’t take the easy route, ever.​

• What do you most admire in a man?

Integrity​

• What do you most admire in a woman?

Integrity​

• What word or phrase do you most over-use?

So, uhm-​

• Who are your favourite writers?

If I finish a book or a piece by them, they’re on my list… Poets and novellists like Tom Robbins and James Michener spring to mind, because I have revisited their writing more than twice and still look forward to reading them again.​

• Which artists do you most admire?

Art is broad and varied. I admire anyone who can put work out there and have it enjoyed by the world. So, artists who have finished pieces and left it someplace for me to see are admirable.​

 

[CharleyH]

Like Chippy, I feel like I'm missing something ... like yes, why is this a Proust questionairre ... nevertheless I am certain you'll fill us in soon enough. In the meantime?

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Where I am, right now.

What is the best gift you’ve received?

Love.

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

Writing.

If you could have any super power what would it be?

To access 100% of my brain instead of this lowly 10% we're told we wee humans only use.

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

In Uni, when my roommates friend (who I had met a couple of times) rolled up in his 18-wheeler hoping my roomie would travel to Ohio with him, asked me if I'd like to go, I said 'what the hell', packed a bag and hopped in the cab. One of the most amusing, fun and best trips I've ever had.

What was your most epic road trip?

From Ontario through Quebec and the Maritime provinces in 10 days.

What food brings back childhood memories?

That's a hard one when you don't qualify good or bad memories - lol

Bad: Spaghetti
Good: None, specifically. We ate out a lot as kids, but fire alarms do remind me of every time my mom tried to cook anything - lol -that's why we ate out a lot.

Which book most influenced your life?

I am not sure that any book has ever influenced my life per se, but Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' certainly solidified my love for writing.

What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?

Well, I've given loads of good advice, but I am not sure I've ever received any good advice (always been a strong independent spirit). Thinking more deeply, I suppose the most valuable to me was when a passionate relationship ended in Uni and I called my mother crying and she advised, "come home".

If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?

None. As much as I enjoy memories and old songs etc., I like to move forward. I would rather live every second right now.

What advise would you give your ten year old self today?

Do not regret a second of your life.

What do most admire in a man?

Openess

What do you most admire in a woman?

Openess

What word or phrase do you most over-use?

It's nothing personal, or, no offence.

Who are your favourite writers?

Obviously Thomas Hardy, but also Marguarite Duras, Bret Easton Ellis, Aldous Huxley, Franz Kafka, Dorothy Parker, Gene Genet ... but I also like my own writing and that of friends.

Which artists do you most admire?

Artist is a broad word. I admire artists who move me and those who do have my admiration.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

For those inquiring minds....................

In late nineteenth century Britain a kind of autograph book was popular called a “Confessional Album”. Instead of leaving free room for things such as poetry or comments, it provided a formulaic catechism. The genre died out towards the end of the century but the questions that the Confessional Album contained live on in the Proust Questionare often used for celebrity interviews.

Why is Proust's name attached to it?......

The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one's personality. Its name and modern popularity is often used as a form of interview..
When Proust was still a teenager he answered a questionnaire in an English-language Confessional Album belonging to his friend Antoinette Faure. At that time, it was popular among English families to answer such a list of questions that revealed the tastes and aspirations of the taker.
Proust answered the questionnaire several times in his life, always with enthusiasm.
James Lipton, the host of the TV program Inside The Actor’s Studio, gives an adapted version of the Proust Questionnaire to some of his guests. Lipton has often incorrectly characterized the questionnaire itself as an invention of Marcel Proust.
A similar questionnaire is regularly seen on the back page of Vanity Fair magazine, answered by various celebrities.

 

[Tzara]

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  
  Seattle, or maybe Portland, OR, ideally with a second home on San Juan Island.
  
  I would like to live in London for a year or two, though.
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  
  When I was 11, my aunt gave me some Hardy Boys books for Christmas. I had always been a reader, but never owned any books of my own. That gift led to the bibliomanic mess that is my home and, at least in part, to my marriage, as my wife is as bad (or as good) at wanting to buy books as I am.
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  
  I'm not sure this is exactly a "hobby," but I'd like to have the time to take some university classes, especially in languages and literature. And science. And history. And music history, or art history. And political science. And philosophy.
  
  You get the idea.
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  
  The ability to fly. On a more mundane level, the ability to see without glasses.
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  
  Giddily choose "plastic" over "paper" on the spur of the moment. I am not a spontaneous person.
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  
  This summer M and I drove from Seattle back through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota to Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, and just to see the great emptiness of the western plains. It was glorious.
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  
  I'm not sure I could name the taste of anything in particular, since that would be tied to how, say, my grandmothers cooked things or how my mother used to cook things. What does evoke childhood memories is seeing certain retro kinds of products—Beeman's or Black Jack chewing gum, for example, or certain kinds of bottled soda, like Bubble Up or Nesbitt's—though that is primarily the look and feel of the packaging as much as anything.
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  
  B. F. Skinner's Walden Two, which I read in high school and which influenced me to major in psychology in college. I was convinced behaviorism was The Answer to understanding human behavior.
  
  Fortunately, I learned enough computer programming in grad school to get a real job.
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  
  My graduate advisor used to have a favorite phrase: Anything worth doing is worth doing badly, which I carry around with me as my personal motto, slightly rephrased as Do not be afraid to be bad.
  
  The original statement, as best I've been able to determine, is from G. K. Chesterton, who intended it as an insult toward some other writer he thought kind of worthless, but I find it an important statement about confidence and taking pleasure in doing something you enjoy, even if you aren't very good at it.
  
  Like, um, poetry.
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be and why?
  
  This is a tough one. There are events I would re-live, but a whole day? I'm not sure I could choose a whole day.
  
  Perhaps I might pick the day I first experienced professional theater, at a performance of In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Seattle Repertory Theater when I was a junior in high school. It was a revelatory experience—not the play itself, but the experience of live, quality theater—as strong and moving an emotional experience I've ever had in response to art.
  
  Seeing Tristan und Isolde live at the Seattle Opera with Jane Eaglen and Bryn Terfel was pretty damn emotional, too.
  
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  
  Be more confident; you're neither stupid nor dorky. Well, you're not stupid, anyway, and everyone else is dorky too.
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  
  Intelligence, a sense of humor (presumably similar to my own, of course), and a willingness to laugh at oneself.
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  
  Is this a trick question?
  
  Actually, same as above.
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  
  Anyway, as in so anyway or {some kind of statement}, anyway. It's a tic.
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  
  Novelists: Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, Knut Hamsun, Ross Macdonald, Junichiro Tanizaki.
  
  Poets: Yeats and Eliot, Kim Addonizio, Alan Dugan, Kenneth Koch.
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?
  
  I assume the question is about visual artists: Jan Vermeer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, later Monet, Piet Mondrian, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin.

 

[CharleyH]

For those inquiring minds....................

In late nineteenth century Britain a kind of autograph book was popular called a “Confessional Album”. Instead of leaving free room for things such as poetry or comments, it provided a formulaic catechism. The genre died out towards the end of the century but the questions that the Confessional Album contained live on in the Proust Questionare often used for celebrity interviews.

Why is Proust's name attached to it?......

The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one's personality. Its name and modern popularity is often used as a form of interview..
When Proust was still a teenager he answered a questionnaire in an English-language Confessional Album belonging to his friend Antoinette Faure. At that time, it was popular among English families to answer such a list of questions that revealed the tastes and aspirations of the taker.
Proust answered the questionnaire several times in his life, always with enthusiasm.
James Lipton, the host of the TV program Inside The Actor’s Studio, gives an adapted version of the Proust Questionnaire to some of his guests. Lipton has often incorrectly characterized the questionnaire itself as an invention of Marcel Proust.
A similar questionnaire is regularly seen on the back page of Vanity Fair magazine, answered by various celebrities.

Well , Fuck (modern term) I'm just going to have to archive every single answer now. Nice ones, btw - enjoyed learning about you all and sharing something of me.

 

[vrosej10]

[*]If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Hmmm, a toughy. I have a list: New Orleans, Seatle/Vancouver, or maybe Edinbourgh. I also fancy Tasmania and Christchurch a bit. Truly though I think I'd be happiest moving back to my home town, Bellingen, but its become the new Byron Bay and lots of celebs moving in.


[*]What is the best gift you’ve received?

It's a tie: The Italian barbie my mother gave me at 10yrs old. I loved that damn thing. I was getting bullied a lot and it made me cool for two seconds. It is also the only good gift my mother ever gave me. She's a bit daft and always gives the wrong thing to the wrong child...The other gift was a cup I got for Mother's Day this year. It was lorikeets perching on grevillia and I was wicked surprised the the husband and son had noticed I enjoy watching lorikeets feed on the nieghbour's trees.

[*]Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
Lacemaking. I used to be a prize winning lacemaker before I had my son. It's a real time sucker and not really apporpriate when you got rugrats. I still dabble but not the real demanding stuff.

[*]If you could have any super power what would it be?
Control time. I will not elaborate.

[*]What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Deciding this october, in ten seconds, to go 500km to see my sister.

[*]What was your most epic road trip?
1300km in one day, covering most of the northwestern area of NSW.

[*]What food brings back childhood memories?
Sweet curry made with lamb and it has to be Keen's curry powder. I swear I can feel my Nana's presense when I smell it.

[*]Which book most influenced your life?
Two on equal first: Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. It taught me about how people get so locked into their only reality paradigms that they cannot possible accept anything that doesn't fit into them. (This book explains a lot of the insane circular arguments going on in other forums on Lit). The second one is kind of informed by the first:Fat!So?: Because You Don't Have to Apologise for Your Size by Marilyn Wann. This book changed my life. I started livng large and gave up letting other people make me feel like shit about something I have no real ability to change (20 years of dieting and lapband surgery proved this to me).

[*]What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
That going to school didn't have to lead anywhere. I had a fabulous therapist who sensed I had a terminal fear of success (I rarely fail at anything, so I don't fear that). I got me off my bum and back into education...and succeeding.

[*]If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?
The day I found out i was pregnant. I was so stunned that I never got to enjoy the moment or my husband's reaction.

[*]What advise would you give your ten year old self today?

That kids are arseholes. Don't hate yourself for being who you are. That them bullying you about your weight shows that they are shallow and unworthy.The one day you will be happy and to stop trying to kill yourself. To leave home as fast as possible and not to marry that man.


[*]What do most admire in a man?
Placidity. Lack of superficiality.

[*]What do you most admire in a woman?
Confidence and a strong maternal instincts.

[*]What word or phrase do you most over-use?

Shit and fuck. Aussies tend to swear a lot.

[*]Who are your favourite writers?
I love Nabokov. Also an obscure Japanese haijin named Masajo Suzuki. To me her work shows exactly how powerful good haiku can be.

[*]Which artists do you most admire?
Klimt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Mucha (love him a LOT), Modigliani (I grew up around an artist who loved him) and Norman Lindsay (that was a man who enjoyed his women naked).

 

[sweepthefloor]

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Egypt, with a Bedouin tribe.

What is the best gift you’ve received? Some jewelry from Tiffany's.

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time? Quilting.

If you could have any super power what would it be? Invisibility.

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done? Climbed to the top of a water tower.

What was your most epic road trip? On a Greyhound bus with a one way ticket to Hollywood.

What food brings back childhood memories? Peanut butter.

Which book most influenced your life? Lolita (I was too young to be reading it)

What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received? Take care of yourself.

If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why? I am not sure.

What advise would you give your ten year old self today? I am not sure.

What do most admire in a man? Confidence.

What do you most admire in a woman? The same.

What word or phrase do you most over-use? I got boot-straps.

Who are your favourite writers? I don't have one favorite yet.

Which artists do you most admire? My Father.

 

[Angeline]

[*]If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Where I live now. Asheville is so beautiful and the people are lovely. I love my house and I love living there with T.

If I were very wealthy I would live in NYC. That is one great city to live in if you're rich, but I don't forsee that happening.

[*]What is the best gift you’ve received?

A dog that I named Shakespeare. He was a birthday present and he was seven weeks old when I got him..

[*]Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

Visual arts, not sure which, maybe painting and/or photography. Or maybe playing piano. It frustrates me that there are creative outlets that I haven't really explored.

[*]If you could have any super power what would it be?

The Bewitched nose wiggle would be great. I could clean my house, have dinner on the table and wiggle myself off to Paris while um my confused aunt had my daughter change her father into a newt....

[*]What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Thrown a lemon merengue pie in a guy's face. It was divine.

[*]What was your most epic road trip?

Maine to Asheville was pretty effin epic.

[*]What food brings back childhood memories?

Blintzes and mazoh ball soup.

[*]Which book most influenced your life?

Dickens Great Expectations. We had to read it when I was in eighth grade (imagine eighth graders having to read it now!). Even though he was writing about a time and place foreign to me, his characters are so lively and authentic and his understanding of the human condition so keen that I wanted to read more and then I wanted to write. Anyway I've always been a fool for sentiment.

[*]What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?

"Do the best you can and don't worry about it afterward." That was something my father told me shortly before he died, and it's still the best I've ever heard.

[*]If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?

When I was very young (like 5 or 6) my mother and I were living with her parents near Miami. Every morning my grandfather and I would walk to the beach together and swim and talk and sit on the beach for a while and then stop and buy fruit at a little stand on the walk home. I think I'd really like to live one of those mornings again.

[*]What advise would you give your ten year old self today?

Choose piano lessons over ballet school. And that's just for starters. What else? Um...there's a rumor going around that the brown acid is not so good. Don't take it. Etc.

[*]What do most admire in a man?

Sincerity.

[*]What do you most admire in a woman?

Strength.

[*]What word or phrase do you most over-use?

Can't pick just one, but I think they're all adverbs.

[*]Who are your favourite writers?

William Butler Yeats. Charles Dickens. Ted Berrigan. Forough Farrokzhad. John Irving. Chaim Potok.

[*]Which artists do you most admire?

Picasso, Chagall.

Lester Young, Billie Holiday, John Lennon, Laura Nyro.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

________________________________________
• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
• I’m very happy right here but my own pacific island would make a nice alternative.
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
• A buoyant nature.
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
• I would love to learn to scuba.
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
• To breath under water then I wouldn’t need scuba lessons.
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
• That’s a hard one, I’m not very spontaneous. After much thought I’ve got nothing.
• What was your most epic road trip?
• From Wellington N.Z. to Christchurch by bicycle.
• What food brings back childhood memories?
• Oatmeal with cream and brown sugar.
• Which book most influenced your life?
• “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith which started my love affair with books.
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
• Things will look better in the morning; also never go to sleep angry.
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be and why?
• The day my mother died in a car accident, if I’d joined her I might have prevented it.
• What advice would you give your ten year old self today?
• Self-confidence comes as you get older.
• What do most admire in a man?
• Humour and integrity
• What do you most admire in a woman?
• Easiness with silence.
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
• Bugger and fuck (I swear way too much).
• Who are your favourite writers?
• There are not many writers I go back to repeatedly – Dickens, Ian McEwan, Barbara Kingsolver.
• Which artists do you most admire?
• Constable, Vermeer, numerous Chinese water colourists.

 

[CharleyH]

Great Expectations. We had to read it when I was in eighth grade (imagine eighth graders having to read it now!). Even though he was writing about a time and place foreign to me, his characters are so lively and authentic and his understanding of the human condition so keen that I wanted to read more and then I wanted to write. Anyway I've always been a fool for sentiment.

Agree, I can't get through the season without Dickens. Funny story? When I first visited London in 2006, I totally forgot that the whole city was rebuilt after WW2 ... I expected to walk into Victorian London - boy did I get a surprise! lol

 

[Angeline]

Agree, I can't get through the season without Dickens. Funny story? When I first visited London in 2006, I totally forgot that the whole city was rebuilt after WW2 ... I expected to walk into Victorian London - boy did I get a surprise! lol

Yeah well, all the best places are in my imagination anyway, I've found. And Dickens' London hasn't changed a bit there.

Actually my favorite Dickens novels now are probably Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby, but I haven't read either of them in a long time. I think I'm due to revisit one of them soon. But Great Expectations is iconic, at least for me. When I was a college undergrad I did a two-year honors study on Dickens and I've felt very close to him ever since. I used to dream about him, about talking to him about his novels. I used to feel that if I thought about him any longer or harder his ghost might appear before me and help me write the damn thesis!

 

[bluerains]

good questions!!!

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Hawaii

What is the best gift you’ve received?
1980's Aigner Boots thigh high....leather....yes

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
painting

If you could have any super power what would it be?
time travel

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
quit jobs

What was your most epic road trip?
Blue Ridge Parkway

What food brings back childhood memories?
the ice cream truck

Which book most influenced your life?
Running From Safety

What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
move on

If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?
A lost Relationship ...I would have fixed...
What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
Don't get married

What do most admire in a man?
Honesty

What do you most admire in a woman?
authentic

What word or phrase do you most over-use?
Really

Who are your favourite writers?
Heinlein, Bach, Rodenberry

Which artists do you most admire?
Lennon

 

[UnderYourSpell]

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Lots of places are enticing but I still think I would settle for my England for all her faults, although somewhere warm to jet off to like now when we have all this snow would be nice!
What is the best gift you’ve received?
When I was a child money was tight for anything that wasn't essential but one Christmas my mother bought a lot of books from someone who's daughter had outgrown them and I discovered the delights of What Katy Did

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
I might give painting another go I wasn't too bad at one time

If you could have any super power what would it be?
I did think that I couldn't be injured in anyway (whatever the word for that is) but I don't want to live forever so I'll settle for flying something I've always wanted to do after reading Five children and it

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Joined the WRAF one lunchtime!

What was your most epic road trip?
Canadian Rockies

What food brings back childhood memories?
Tomato soup
Which book most influenced your life?
The Incredible Journey and I still turn into a weeping mess when that old dog appears over the horizon!

What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
You can walk away

If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?
The day he left everything behind to be with me

What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
Don't give up ... keep telling and somebody somewhere will listen and will stop it, will realise why you are desperately seeking attention through bad behaviour

What do most admire in a man?
Compassion, Intelligence and a Wicked sense of humour

What do you most admire in a woman?
The same

What word or phrase do you most over-use?
In a minute

Who are your favourite writers?
Ruth Rendell (but her earlier books more) Susan Sallis, Rebecca Shaw, Phyllis A Whitney

Which artists do you most admire?
Salvador Dali, Jack Vettriano

 

[EroticOrogeny]

• If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
  Hawaii would be quite nice - not too hot or cold, mountains and oceans, ...
  
  
• What is the best gift you’ve received?
  Train set for Christmas when I was just a boy.
  
  
• Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
  It's been ages since I've played bridge - my wife doesn't and the club I often played at doesn't do games anymore.
  
  
• If you could have any super power what would it be?
  Omniscience - to me knowing and understanding have always been paramount.
  
  
• What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  Taking off my shirt the first time getting things started with my wife.
  
  
• What was your most epic road trip?
  Bus trip from Chicago to Montreal for the Expo with a friend in high school.
  
  
• What food brings back childhood memories?
  Spritz Christmas tree cookies
  
  
• Which book most influenced your life?
  Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
  
  
• What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
  Don't compare your insides to other people's outsides.
  
  
• If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be and why?
  A day is hard to pin down, perhaps I could pick one from a summer full of promise that never came to fruition, mostly due to my fears and inhibitions.
  
  
• What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
  To not be fearful and proceed in desired direction.
  
  
• What do most admire in a man?
  Be honest and open
  
  
• What do you most admire in a woman?
  Be honest and open
  
  
• What word or phrase do you most over-use?
  'Why' with myself
  
  
• Who are your favourite writers?
  Yeats, Tolkien
  
  
• Which artists do you most admire?
  Escher, Bach

 

[bflagsst]

[*]If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
In a town that reminds me of a novel

[*]What is the best gift you’ve received?
8-bit Nintendo

[*]Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?
Witchcraft

[*]If you could have any super power what would it be?
intelligence beyond all mortals

[*]What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Join the Army

[*]What was your most epic road trip?
NY to Chicago to Minneapolis to Toronto

[*]What food brings back childhood memories?
Halupki

[*]Which book most influenced your life?
Ada, or Ardor

[*]What is the most valuable piece of advise you ever received?
Don't get mad, get paid.

[*]If you could go back and relive one day in your life. Which one would it be
and why?
First day of vacation at the lake. Perfect night with my future wife, didn't know baby was already on its way.

[*]What advise would you give your ten year old self today?
study finance earlier

[*]What do most admire in a man?
passivity

[*]What do you most admire in a woman?
stubbornness

[*]What word or phrase do you most over-use?
for real

[*]Who are your favourite writers?
Yeats, Proust, Nabokov

[*]Which artists do you most admire?
writers of novels

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Wouldn't life be awfully boring if you were more intelligent than everyone else with nothing else to look forward to learning?

 

[bflagsst]

Wouldn't life be awfully boring if you were more intelligent than everyone else with nothing else to look forward to learning?

You could look forward to teaching.

 

[CharleyH]

You could look forward to teaching.

Chuckles.