In which my weird aunt interviews me
1. What is the fiction book that you have read that you were most surprised to have liked? Why?
It would probably be War and Peace. Prior to reading it, my only strong association with it was Charlie Brown struggling through it in "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown." I was expecting something I would have to slog through for the sake of having read it, as I did with Moby Dick. Instead I found Tolstoy's insights into the human psyche to be fascinating. Of course, it may have made a difference that I was 20 when I first read War and Peace and twelve when I tackled Moby Dick. I should probably try Moby Dick again.

2. Where would you most like to visit that you have not been?
Scotland.

3. What talent that you don't have would you most like to have? Why?
I'd like to be able to sing well. I love singing but I know full well I'm much better in the chorus with someone strong to follow than I am trying to sing on my own. Most other things that I would like to be better at I think I could improve to where I would like to be if I just had the patience to work at it, but I don't think I could with singing.

4. Assume that you are going to spend 300 years as a tree. Describe your ideal tree-life.
I first read this as spending 300 years in a tree and spent a couple hours designing a fancy tree house. . . . OK, as a tree. I'd be a California Redwood in a remote valley within sight of the ocean on one hand and the mountains on the other. The redwoods forest is the treeiest place I've ever been, and if I were a tree I wouldn't mind living in California.

5. What are your three favorite fairy tales (folk tales, fables, myths)?
King Thrushbeard, Sir Gawain and the Loathely Lady, and the homecoming of Ulysses. I realized once I compiled this list that all three hinge on disguise, and disguise of a particular type: the friend disguised as a foe, the beautiful disguised as the ugly, the master disguised as a stranger.

All right, now according to these chain-letter like rules, I must offer others the option of requesting interviews from me. I wonder if I broke the chain I would have seven years of bad luck?

1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your blog with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.