Friday, January 7, 2011

Books, books, and more books. . .

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Probably my collection Lloyd Alexander and Madeline L‘Engle books, since The Chronicles of Narnia have been kicked out and onto the spare room‘s bookshelves.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
Current read: Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
Last read: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Next read: Well, the next in the pile of library books is Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear, but it might get switched out for Blackout by Connie Willis.

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. I saw rave reviews all over the internet but the book is horribly written. The characters are shallow/one dimensional and somehow this fantasy manages to be completely unimaginative. AND the love story subplot wasn’t believable at all.


4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Age of Innocence. There is just something about Edith Wharton’s books that make me become distracted after the first chapter.

5. Which book are you saving for "retirement"?
I’m not that patient. I don’t really save books.


6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I never read the last page in a book I want to finish. If I begin skipping ahead in a book, I know its time to put it aside because I only do that with books that bore me.


7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
They can be really interesting. I’ve been reading these first because they give me a bit of an idea of how the book is going to go. If they are boring the book is usually boring too.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Tiffany Aching, cause she lives in Discworld and is otherwise awesome.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Emma by Jane Austen. I remember the very first time I sat down and opened the pages of my first library booksale copy. It was a magical moment. J

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
I found a first edition I Capture the Castle for free at the library, but that isn’t that interesting of a story. Sorry. I get all my books at the library book sale. I don’t really need to acquire them in any other way.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
I give my cousin Abby books that I think she might like on occasion, but most of my books go to the library book sale.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Pride and Prejudice, the one with the cover that makes it look like a bad romance novel. I’ve read that copy so many times that I finally considered it worn enough to allow myself to bend down the pages.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
Not in high school, but I was in a kids book club that read the Giver and I loathed that book the first time around. This past year I read it again and fell in love with it. I’m beginning to love post apocalyptic fiction ever since I read Canticle of Leobowitz and Hunger Games.

14. What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?
Old baseball cards.


15. Used or brand new?
Library booksale books are the best.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Genius. I just started reading his books this past year, and at the last booksale, I picked up about five of his so that I’ll have one on hand for awhile. I read three of his books in one year which is unusual for me since there aren’t many authors that I follow. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are about the only others that I read with any regularity.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
North and South. The book by Elizabeth Gaskell just wasn’t as good and looking at John Thorton is much more enjoyable than reading about him.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Twilight. Simply for the reason that the actors are horrible and there is not enough plot to make those books into interesting movies.

19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Nope.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
I don’t take advice on books. I’m super picky and freakishly controlling about my book choices.