How come this isn't reflected in my writing?

English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 61% on Beginner You scored higher than 61% on Intermediate You scored higher than 75% on Advanced You scored higher than 97% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

That Book Meme

dobbed in by ashamel

1. Total number of books I've owned: At least 2,000 at the moment, according to murasaki_1966. We are trying to winnow it down to something vaguely manageable. Azathoth knows how many over the years, though I still have some of my favourite books from childhood (mostly concerned with magic tricks.)

2. The last book I bought:

Book shaped thing was the first issue of Dr Slump in English (Yay!) and the fourth book (The Miserable Mill)in the Lemony Snicket series for murasaki_1966. Last real book for myself would probably be Kaaron Warren's The Grinding House.

3. The last book I read:

Lately I've become hopeless at finishing books. I still haven't finished White Apples by Jonathon Carroll, and the book I currently carry with me is The Great Unravelling by Paul Krugman - which is a collection of essays on US economics and politics under the Bush Jnr regime. The last book I finished would have to be Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command.

And I'm still reading bits of Daikaiju and Agog: Smashing Stories

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

I'm cheating here as there are collections of books that all came along around the same time with the same effect.

1) Strange Stories, Amazing Facts. Published by Readers Digest this big purple hardback was my first exposure to the wonderful world of real-life weirdness. It was a pretty comprehensive compendium of forteana for the time. I have no idea where my copy is now, but fortunately murasaki_1966 still has hers.

2) Shudders / Night Frights / Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV. My first introduction to Robert Bloch, M.R. James and Ray Bradbury's nasty side. Appallingly influential. Shudders was the first collection of horror stories I remember reading (I still have that copy.) Night Frights was edited by Peter Haining and I borrowed every other anthology of his from Central Library in Canberra. My dad had Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV supposedly edited by Alfred Hitchcock (but later I realised it was a collection from the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.)

3) The Phantom Tollbooth / A Wrinkle in Time Used to read both of these books each year when I was in primary school and early in High School. murasaki_1966 bought me a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth when she was in LA.

4) The Illuminatus Trilogy - for those too cool for Lord of the Rings. Primed my occult conspiracy fascination.

5) Bridge of Birds - murasaki_1966 and I bonded over this book. I keep thinking of it though as Minder in Ancient China. One of the best non-Western mythology based fantasies.

5. Tag five people and have them fill this out in their Ljs...

I'll try...

murasaki_1966 (of course)
chrisbarnes hasn't done it yet
kalenture definitely has to do it
iwoolf should join in the fun
gurudata should be able to offer a foreign perspective