Larocque and Roll

Snow/Larocque

In the spirit of trying to blog more often, I volunteered to let Dr. Beth interview me. She’s sent five questions for me to answer:

1. You are a librarian, so I assume you’ve read every book ever written. In your opinion, what is the best book ever?

There are literally dozens of books I could recommend here, having read from just about every section of the library. In the end, however, I’d have to go with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. The illustrations are wonderful, and it teaches the value of not only being nice to your neighbours, but also getting both sides of the story before you rush to judge someone. [1]

2. If you were hosting a 24 movie marathon (a la Dave from Touch You Last), what movies would you show?

To get things started, we’d have to start with something energetic and slightly off-kilter – Tank Girl is just the thing for this. Then we’d move on to some Canadiana, like New Waterford Girl and Wilby Wonderful. We need a kid’s movie now, so let’s watch Finding Nemo. By now, it’s getting to be around suppertime, so I’m going to put on Big Night to enjoy with dinner. Afterward, we’ll need a comedy and an action-adventure to carry us into the midnight hour – Live Free or Die Hard fits the bill in both categories. Now we’re going to need something to usher us into the late evening, something serious and cerebral, but not anything too complicated. I saw Urbania in late 2007, and loved the story on so many levels. We’re starting to feel a little tired now, so let’s go with something lush and colourful like The Fall. Now that we’re into late, late night territory, let’s scare the bejezus out of everyone still awake with either Outpost or 28 Days Later [2]. To cleanse the palate, let’s watch Mystery Men, followed by Coffee and Cigarettes (I’ve always thought the Iggy Pop/Tom Waits episode was the best). To end, I’m going to go with the very fitting Last Night.

3. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Paperback romance novels are always something I feel silly about reading in public, but they’re like chocolate truffles – empty calories, no nutritional value, and yet they taste oh so good and before you know it you’ve eaten the whole box. I don’t read them exclusively, and I read them for a specific purpose: like a dish of sorbet between courses of a meal, romance novels sometimes help with the transition between books of different genres. Or if I have reader’s block, I’ll grab a couple from the paperback rack and race through them so it feels like at least I’ve read something to help me get over it.

4. What was the best present you got for Christmas this year? The worst?

The best present I got was the copy of The Joy of Cooking, which I’ve only been asking for it for the past six years or so for my birthday and/or Christmas. It’s more than just a cookbook – it’s a little like an encyclopedia of cooking and food preparation. The worst? Someone gave me a cold, so I’m not to happy with that.

5. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

I’m not all that crazy a person in my public life, so some of the stuff I’ve done doesn’t seem all that crazy. One instance of crazy I can think of was the time I drove to Grand Island, NY to go roller skating with a group of friends from fencing. I think the flat-out craziest thing I’ve ever done is the time I got my hair cut when I was ten. I’d never cut my hair until that point, and it was really long – like, past my butt long. It was difficult to take care of, and washing it was a two-person job, usually in the laundry tub, so I decided to get the whole thing cut off. I didn’t tell anyone at school I was doing it, and showed up the next morning with hair that was cropped close to my head – it took a while for people to notice because they thought I was a new kid and didn’t recognize me without my hair. [3]

Are you interested in being interviewed? Email me and I’ll try to send you five scintillating questions within 24 hours for you to answer on your blog/Facebook/MySpace page.

[1] Note to Beth: your niece will love this one some day. I’m just sayin’…
[2] Say what you will about the Japanese horror oeuvre, but zombie movies scare the living crap out of me.
[3] I thought I had pictures of it when it was short, but apparently I don’t. Or just can’t find any right now.