- Favorite childhood book?
A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett, or all of the Little House books.
2. What are you reading right now?
Just finished The Girl Who Stopped Swimming so I am currently between books.
3. What books do you have on request at the library?
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
Still Missing – Chevy Stevens
I’d Know You Anywhere – Laura Lippman
Room: a novel – Emma Donoghue
Live to Tell – Lisa Gardner
The Two Towers [audio CD] – J.R.R. Tolkien
Artisan bread in five minutes a day – Jeff Hertzberg
Artisan Breads – Eric Kastel
Artisan baking – Maggie Glezer
The Tiger in the Smoke – Margery Allingham
A Duty to the Dead – Charles Todd
An Impartial Witness – Charles Todd
Julian of
The Secret Wife of Louis XIV – Veronica Buckley
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating – Elizabeth Bailey
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise – Julia Stuart
Cut to the Quick – Kate Ross
4. Bad book habit?
leaving them open-faced, splayed?, instead of using a bookmark. Drives my hubby crazy.
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Aside from a bunch of superhero books for Gman
The Lodger – Maria Lowndes
Greatness to Spare; the heroic sacrifices of the men who signed the Declaration of
The secret language of churches & cathedrals: decoding the sacred symbolism of Christianity’s holy buildings – Richard Stemp
The Levee – M. K. Shuman
Peter Reinhart’s artisan breads every day – Peter Reinhart
Lost to Time: unforgettable stories that history forgot – Martin Sandler
The girl who stopped swimming – Joshilyn Jackson
The
The captain and the enemy – Graham Greene
In the Shadow of
Why Shoot a butler? – Georgette Heyer
Angel with two faces – Nicola Upson
Black Sheep – Georgette Heyer
Churches of Soulard – Joan Huisinga
The skinnygirl dish – Bethenny Frankel
Uncommon Arrangements: seven portraits of married life in
The copycat crime – Devin Grayson
Hello Goodbye: a novel – Emily Chenoweth
An Accomplished Woman – Jude Morgan
An expert in murder – Nicola Upson
The island – Elin Hilderbrand
The Tower Treasure [Hardy Boys book 1] – Frank Dixon
6. Do you have an e-reader?
No.
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once?
It depends. I usually have only one but if it’s not holding my interest I’ll start others. I may finish reading the original or I may give up. Or I may feel guilty and leave it sitting around for months and then pick it back up.
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a
Yes, but it's more a result of reading
9. Least favorite book you read this year?
If I don’t like a book I generally don’t finish reading it. See above.
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins. I really liked how the heroine suffered from PTSD. In so many novels the hero or heroine goes through harrowing experiences and the next day they are just fine. I like that the heroine in this book was affected by what she went through and then had the strength, over time, to keep going on. I like that she was human.
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
rarely.
12. What is your reading comfort zone?
non-fiction and really heavy philosophy or theology [which is amusing since I have a degree in philosophy]. And horror, I hate horror stories. And things that deal with psychic powers to some extent. I really hate the genre of romance novels that use psychic powers [favorites of my mom and younger sister].
13. Can you read on the bus?
no reading on moving vehicles – even stories to the boy – makes me motion sick.
14. Favorite place to read?
curled up on my couch under a blanket.
15. What is your policy on book lending?
I lend them to family since I know where to find them. I don’t have a lot of friends that read the same things I do.
16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
often, even my Missal.
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Nope.
18. Not even with text books?
I would highlight in school and then never go back and read the highlighting. No point in writing in the margins if I’m not going back to read it. I can usually remember where something is in a book and read around until I find what I’m looking for.
19. What is your favorite language to read in?
English. It’s the only language in which I am literate.
20. What makes you love a book?
plot. characters. Good writing.
21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
I have to love it and think about it when I’m done and rewrite any parts that I didn’t like or didn’t live up to my standards, etc. Same for movies.
22. Favorite genre?
It used to be fantasy/science fiction but I think more drama these days. I wish I could say Saint Biographies or treatises on faith, but nope.
23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?
see above.
24. Favorite biography?
see above.
25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
I’ve skimmed but I can’t commit to reading a full book. Even when undergoing much trial with Gman, I couldn’t make myself read a whole parenting book. I checked them out by the dozen from the library and then only skimmed the ones and the sections that I thought applied.
26. Favorite cookbook?
I have so many. The Joy of Cooking, or The Fannie Farmer Cookbook or Southern Living [all of them]. Unfortunately when our house flooded last year and the water drained down from the second floor into the basement it ran in a path through the stairwell. My books were under the stairwell and got drenched. Ironically enough, I had just rearranged my cookbooks so that my favorites were on the top shelf, uncovered by an overhanging shelf, and those were the books that got ruined. I guess God was helping me to let go of some of my materialism.
27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or nonfiction)?
It wasn’t a book, it was a journal article, a short biography of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
28. Favorite reading snack?
Diet Pepsi, in a 24 fl oz bottle
29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I think it was Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I don’t think it was the hype so much as my expectations. I loved The Hunger Games so much that there was no way the 2nd book could live up to it. And truthfully, I have rarely found the 2nd book in a series to live up to the first. The 1st and 3rd in trilogies are usually the best in my opinion.
30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I generally don’t read critical reviews. I find that critics look at stuff that doesn’t matter all that much to me. I do read reviews from other bibliophiles on their
31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I don’t like to do it, but I will.
32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
Italian and Latin. I love the Italian language. I wish I was fluent in it.
33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
The only one that comes to mind is The Elegance of the Hedgehog, but now that I’ve read it, it doesn’t seem intimidating and I can’t remember why I found it so to begin with.
34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
War and Peace
35. Favorite poet?
Auden, Keats, Victorian poets
36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Generally between 25 and 50 [which is the limit at our library]. Usually about ½ are for Gman. Last year they didn’t have a limit and I could get over 100 for me and Gman.
37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?
often.
38. Favorite fictional character?
Talia, Katniss, Sara Crewe, Tamrissa Domon, the list could do on forever.
39. Favorite fictional villain?
Miss Minchin? Eltrina Razas? Uriah Heape? President Snow? Again, another list that could go on and on.
40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Whatever I can get from the library in time.
41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
a few weeks when I’ve not had a chance to get to the library. I may reread a bit here and there if I can find something in the house that catches my interest.
42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
I can’t even remember the name of it. It was for an English class in 19th or early 20th century literature. The entire book revolved around an incident where the hero[?] if you can call him that, was climbing on a windowsill, the window slammed down and cut off the tip of his penis. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Gman and hubby but not much else.
44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy or Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, because who doesn’t like looking at Viggo Mortenson or Colin Firth? Emma with Gwynneth Paltrow [even though I really don’t like her as an actress].
45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Pride and Prejudice with Kierra Knightly,
46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I can’t remember and I wouldn’t admit it if I did. Let’s just go with …. way too much.
47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Often. Sometimes I read the end before I even start the book.
48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
If it just didn’t catch my interest.
49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Divided into genres, then alphabetized by author’s last name, then the genres are alphabetized. I also have a shelf for my favorites.
50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I used to keep everything but hubby hates clutter. Now I give away anything that I don’t plan to read again, didn’t like, ruined in the flood, or is not of monetary value.
51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, Watership Down, all sorts of theology and philosophy that my hubby wants me to read so we can discuss it. I think I fried my brain in college. I don’t want to read anything heavy anymore. I feel like 10 years of reading textbooks has make me avoid anything overly intellectual and hubby is a massive brainiac.
52. Name a book that made you angry.
Nothing comes to mind but I’m sure it’s out there. I can remember being angry at a book, I just can’t remember which one it was.
53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Loved it so much. It was like reading a Merchant/Ivory film. Even translated, the words were just lyrical. It made me think of all those times when a moment just holds you, a quiet comes over you and you are balanced in time…..looking at a redbud tree covered in a purple mist just waiting to explode into leaves, the sound of Gman’s breathing in the dark nightlight lit room when I wake in the middle of the night, the sound of bare feet walking over the hardwood floor after hubby gets home from work and starts up the steps at the end of the day…..no background noise, just the music of God’s great gifts to me.
54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Usually the 2nd book of any trilogy. Not to say I hated them, just that they don’t live up to the first or third.
55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
see above. And I really like young adult stuff that’s supposed to be too young for me. Silly, but I really do. I think because I spend so much time on the children’s floor of the library where they all are.
1 comment:
This was really neat! I got a lot of good ideas to add to my reading list - thanks!!! :)
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