Oh no, a meme!

I haven’t done one of these in ages! This one popped up in my google reader & looked fun, so here ya go. Sorry it’s not Thursday. Busy week!

1. Favorite childhood book?
Well there are about a zillion but I think if I had to choose just one I’d say The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Part of its charm for me was that I picked it off the library shelf because I liked the title. I had never heard of the book or its author, no one had recommended it to me or given it to me — I simply stumbled across it much as Lucy stumbled across the wardrobe itself: my own private discovery. And of course it is a marvelous story.

2. What are you reading right now?
Just started The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley… sigh. What I wouldn’t give to live in that world.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Pedigree by Georges Simenon and The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.

4. Bad book habit?
Oh dear. *small voice* I do sometimes fold my corners. Although a lot less often since my kids starting making bookmarks for me.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Ha ha, nothing! This is very unusual for me. I get almost all my books from the library. But I returned everything before going on vacation, and then while we were on vacation I actually bought some books, and I’ve been reading those.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Well, I have an app on my phone that I can read books off of but it is tiny and totally unsatisfying. No thanks.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Several at once, usually.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I read more self-consciously and perhaps with a little less enjoyment if I know I’m going to write a review. That is one of the reasons I stopped blogging for a while. I’m still working on this, actually.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Tough question because I usually don’t finish books that I don’t like. I guess I will say The Glass Castle, which I read for my book group. It sure did suck me in and I enjoyed reading it, but at the end I was disappointed.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius by Dave Eggers. Blew me away completely.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not very often, unfortunately.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
My zone has recently expanded to include “creative nonfiction” — particularly history and pop science. Yum! And of course re-reads of old favorites… fat Victorian novels… sci fi… Age of Sail…

13. Can you read on the bus?
Yup.

14. Favorite place to read?
In bed.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I get 99% of my books from the library so it never comes up. Or, from another perspective, I guess you could say I’m 99% in favor of it.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
*small voice again* Yes.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
NEVER.

18. Not even with text books?
Oh. Well, yes, those.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
I don’t know. I can only read English. No, wait, I can also read Latin. I forgot. :-)

20. What makes you love a book?
It varies. I love a book if it transports me to another world. I love a book if the writing is poetic. I also love postmodern-ish novels that play with form & structure, take risks, and confound your expectations in weird ways. I never feel like I get it, but I like it anyway.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Usually I can’t stop myself from blabbing about whatever I’m reading to whomever will listen, but I try not to do it too much unless I think the person will actually read the book I recommend. My success rate isn’t very high, though. I frequently get “meh” about my recommendations, or maybe those are just the responses I remember. Is there a worse feeling than someone coming back to tell you they didn’t like the book you raved about? It hurts, man, it hurts.

22. Favorite genre?
Historical fiction

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Biography

24. Favorite biography?
Um, see previous response. Well, I will answer Clara by Janice Galloway, which is billed as a novel but it is so biographical that I’m saying it counts. An amazing book, which, btw, fits all three of my criteria: it transports you to another world (mid-19th century Germany), is one big prose poem, and has some experimental postmoderny aspects too. The subject is Clara Schumann, and her life story is the most romantic & tragically beautiful thing ever.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Define self-help. I mean, you could say cookbooks are self-help books, right? I have read things like How to Start Your Own Web Design Business and Photoshop for Dummies, so if those count, yes. If you mean things like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Whatever, then no.

26. Favorite cookbook?
Main Course Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin. The recipes are not only creative, interesting, and varied, but also very well tested. If she says it will take 20 minutes, you can count on it. Simple ingredients, kid-friendly. I’m not even vegetarian.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Well… let’s see… what all did I read this year? This is why I need to be blogging because otherwise I can’t even remember what I read last week.

28. Favorite reading snack?
Pretzels.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Good question! Actually hype almost always ruins my reading experience. I like to stumble across books on my own (see answer to no. 1 above) and sometimes I find it hard to read a book even if it simply gets a rave review from a friend. I feel under pressure to love it, and what if I don’t? I have had the experience of stumbling across and loving a book which subsequently got a lot of hype; Atonement by Ian McEwan is an example of that. Amazing, amazing book which I probably (foolishly) wouldn’t have read if I had known people were raving about it to that extent.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I don’t really know. I tend to avoid books which get a lot of hype (see previous). But here’s another thing. If I go back and read a review after I’ve read the book, and the critic doesn’t agree with me, but the critic writes persuasively? I will probably change my mind about the book. For example, I loved the movie Avatar when I first saw it, but then I read all this very pointed criticism afterwards and felt like a total dork for having liked it and not noticed all the bad things. Then again, movies are quite different from books.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I once wrote a blog post where I teased my husband for liking a trashy novel and the actual author left a comment within fifteen minutes of my posting it. It was a nice comment (maybe he didn’t realize I was teasing), but still. It made me stop and think. On the other hand I think it can be really instructive and interesting to try to figure out why a book doesn’t work.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
Russian!!!

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Man oh man! The holy grail for obsessive INTJs!

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Infinite Jest

35. Favorite Poet?
Sappho

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Half a dozen or so. I can’t believe I don’t have any right now.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Dipped into but not finished, very often. Completely unread, almost never. I did return one unread recently but that was because, whoops, it was a large print edition and every instance of italics was in boldface and I just couldn’t stomach it.

38. Favorite fictional character?
Why Aubrey & Maturin of course. And yes, they count as one!

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Rosa Klebb.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Paperbacks, probably, since they’re easier to pack. As far as subject matter goes, I just read whatever; I don’t choose books specifically to read because I am on vacation.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Don’t know. Maybe the first four years of my life, before I learned how?

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. I love that book! I love it! I really do! And I’ve never been able to finish it. I’ve tried at least three times.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
The radio. My husband is addicted to NPR and he leaves radios on all over the house. I can’t think when the radio is on, let alone read. GAAAAH!

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Master & Commander. Yes it has its detractors and I agree with some of the criticism, but overall I think it captures the spirit of the age and of the series painfully well.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
The Wizard of Oz. Oh don’t get me started.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I spent about fifty bucks in a bookstore recently and that felt like way too much. On the other hand I have racked up library fines in the triple digits…

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I do that quite a lot. Often I will open in the middle, or read page 69, to decide if I think it’s worth checking out. Sometimes I think that’s a much more accurate prediction than reviews/hype.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Sloppy prose.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
I like to, but I don’t. My shelves are a hideous mess. They are in no order, and even worse, I’ve got them double stacked. One of these days…

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Well I mostly read library books so yes, I give them away when I’m done. :-)

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Graphic novels, for one.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
The Red Tent

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
American Gods

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
The Poisonwood Bible

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Patrick O’Brian, for all love.