Today’s questions at thefridayfive@DW

1. Your favorite book?

Still can’t name one above all others! And these can change place sometimes too!

Whispers by Dean R. Koontz – been my favorite since I was about 10, but recently I’m not sure it’s actually by its own merits or because of family memories attached. My Dad, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, who didn’t read a lot, was on sick leave and needed something to spend time on, and he started reading more. He liked this book so much that I read it too! I loved it so much that then Mom (who has always read a lot like me) read it too just because Dad and me had enjoyed it so much. Ever since Dean R. Koontz became an writer that we all read, and Mom and me continue to read to this day. It was something 25+ year tradition – only stopped because around 2011 they stopped making translations into Finnish and Mom can’t read English, so now I’m the only one who reads them anymore. And even I have been losing taste for Koontz’s books. The several last ones feel very formulaic, and like there’s always the same kind of family the focus with a genious or a supernatural kid. But his 1980s/1990s books are good!

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson – this book stuck with me in a way few other works have. I read it twice in a short period of time, and I’ll read it a third time in not too distand future. The disaster, hard survival, evolution of humanity just caught me hook, line and sinker. This is the book that got me interested in modern hard scifi. I never could sustain interest while trying to read Asimov or whatever classics.

The Expanse book series by James S. A. Corey – love the mystery and the adventure and the space travel and techonology that is totally different from things like Star Trek or Star Wars.

2. Your favorite movie?

I can’t name one that is above all the others! More like by genre. To name a few:

Scifi/horror: Alien/Aliens (in my mind these two are sort of one)

Scifi/action: The Terminator

History/drama/action/romance: The Last of the Mohicans

History/musical/drama: The Piano

Sometimes these also change if I’ve recently re-watched some old favorite!

3. Your least favorite adaptation of a book to a movie?

I’ve hated all the movie adaptions made of Dean R. Koontz’s novels. Badly scripted, badly acted, badly shot and badly directed with low production values.

4. Your least favorite adaptation ever of anything to a movie?

Same as #3.

5. Your first ever novel/comic book/movie character crush?

Novel: I can’t remember. Mom read to me since I was a baby and I’m sure I had a crush on a character when I was tiny, considering how things have gone since. First I think I remember, maybe, was Julian (although he is called Leo in the Finnish editions so he’s Leo to me) from The Famous Five by Enid Blyton. Maybe.

Comic book: Silver Arrow from the Silver Arrow comics.

I don’t remember a movie crush, but here’s the first tv crush I think I remember: Robin from the 1984 UK tv series Robin of Sherwood.