BBAW: Reading Habits

Whew! I'm a little late on this one, but today's BBAW activity is a little reading meme.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

Potato chips. I'm a potato chip junkie.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I'm too horrified by the thought of writing in books to answer this question. Okay, seriously though, I don't mind writing inside the front cover like inscriptions or Bookcrossing info, but the idea of marking within the text still kind of scandalizes me. I'm much more of a post-it note sort of girl.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?

Definitely not dog-ears. Ugh! I have a ton of beautiful bookmarks but still somehow end up marking my place with whatever junk happens to be at hand - old receipts, junk mail, used post-it note reminders to self. When I do manage to have the presence of mind to actually use one of my spiffy bookmarks it's usually one that I won from Nymeth because they are so super cool (and she made them!).

Laying the book flat open?

Blargh!

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Both, but probably a little more fiction.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Hard copy. I never have managed the audiobook thing. My dad and I even took a road trip across the country, and none of the ones we picked out ever made it into the CD player.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

Any point.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

Nope. I usually write it down and then lose it/forget to look it up. =P

What are you currently reading?

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

What is the last book you bought?

Walking with the Wind by John Lewis for Amy's Newsweek 50 Books For Our Times Project thingy. And it's very long. And I think I might be insane. Maybe it'll be a really good massive tome. I hope....

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can
you read more than one at a time?

One in my bag to take to work and one at home. Lately I've been trying to have one ARC/review copy and one book from my considerable TBR pile going at once.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

I like to read during my lunch break and generally shun the company of others to do so. My best reading, though, probably happens either in my bed or on the front porch with a glass of lemonade on a beautiful day.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

Stand alones. I have a bad habit of reading the first in series, enjoying it, and yet still failing to read the rest of said series.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

Hmmmm... The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Oh, wait, you only wanted one? ;-)

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

I organize my books in such a way that the most will fit on the shelves. AKA - there is no organization, but "AHA! There is a hole big enough for this one!"

It *knows*!

Wow, here's a post that has nothing to do with anything. I found this link to The Typealyzer over at Book Zombie. You type in your blog URL. It "reads" your blog and tells you your personality. Now, usually I try all these things that I find, get a laugh over them and move on to other things, but this thing totally has me pegged. Therefore I feel I must share because I find that it's a bit on the astounding side that it can "read" my blog in like half a second and pretty much spit out an utterly accurate description of my personality. I also think that it's cool that I must really come off as me on my blog if this thing is any indication. That's probably a good thing...


ISFP - The Artists


The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.



Seriously, it's kind of creepy.

Anywho. Hope all the rest of you folks in the US had a fabulous Thanksgiving and got to spend lots of time with the people you're thankful for doing the things you're thankful for! =D

Sunday O'Meme

Greetings, earthlings.

It has come to my attention that I haven't afflicted all of you with a "life-y" post lately. Since we are leafing through my life here, it seems only right that I should talk some about, well, me. I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend complete with book sale and excessive laziness and maybe even a nice wrap up post for last week's Weekly Geeks, since I actually achieved the goal set forth therein, but alas, it was not to be. On Thursday, my best friend broke up with her dirtbag (opinion subject to change based on when/if she decides she can't go on without him) boyfriend, and being the good friend that I like to think that I am, I said, "you should drive down and hang out with me this weekend because I can't do anything for you from here." So instead of moping around all weekend and taking him back in a weak moment, she came down and uh...crashed my nice, easy, relaxing weekend. And I had good time - a great time even (and I didn't even miss the book sale!) - but I'd hardly term this weekend relaxing. Oh, we went to the movies (may I recommend not seeing You Don't Mess With the Zohan?), we wandered aimlessly about town, we made terrible jokes at each other's expense, we went to the local amusement park in the 90 degree heat to ride the roller coasters and that big huge ginormous log flume that soaks you so much that you leave a trail of water around the park and people that ride the roller coaster after you get an unpleasant surprise, we ate breakfast, we took pictures of ourselves (on roller coasters!), we played cards and ate fatty food. It was delightful. And not relaxing. I fear that it will be some time before I achieve any measure of relaxing during any time of the week.

Not that I need any help to talk about me, but Rose City Reader did tag me for that Six Random Things About You meme that seems to be always floating around. Since I don't seem to have the mental fortitude for much else (I need more relaxation, darnit!) Much to my surprise, I did manage to come up with six exceedingly random things to share today, so here it goes.

- I loathe eggs and milk. Yes, these two staple foods I simply cannot stand. According to my mother, I loved eggs for the first 5 or so years of my life. Now just the smell of them is enough to make me gag. I love dairy products - cheese, yogurt, ice cream - you name it, I want it. But milk? I can't remember ever liking milk. I begrudgingly put it on my cereal, but only in miniscule amounts. But I wouldn't dream of drinking the stuff!
- I love to dance in random situations. I am not a good dancer. I do not look good dancing. But I uh..."break into" dance at random intervals. I amuse my coworkers by grooving to the oldies at work. I dance to music on commercials with only my arms from the comfort of the recliner. I "dance" alone in my car (and with people in my car) proving to any passing motorists that I am, in fact, insane.
- I love riding rides at the amusement park. Okay, this isn't that random. But I used to be terrified of the rides with big drops or that went upside down. Now I love them and can barely handle rides that spin - which I used to love.
- I'm a science-phobe who works in a lab. All of my best friends are biology majors. Yet, despite testing into high school honors' science, science has always frightened me. I managed to dodge ever having to do a science lab in my college years despite the fact that I was probably required to do one. I slipped through a loophole. Now I practice amateur chemistry, file human tissue embedded in paraffin wax into tiny little drawers, and carry around coolers containing things like amputated legs and placentas that need to have parts prepped for microscopic examination. And I kind of like my job, and I'm rarely terrified by it's science-y implications. It's true that wonders never cease.
- I drove cross-country to Montana. Lots of people dream of taking a road trip across the United States. Most of them don't do it in January. Because that's stupid. I was going to take a job out there, then I didn't. So my dad and I drove all the way out. After two hours at the destination, we turned around and came back. The icy cold January wind nearly blew my debit card away twice while I was fueling up the car, my driver's side view mirror was nearly taken off by that same wind, and the gas cap was nearly swept away in similar fashion. It was 7 days of driving non-stop from before sunrise to after sunset (some days as many as 800 miles), except for our "tourist" day when we saw Mt. Rushmore and Wall Drug and drove a mere 280 miles. My dear old car, Buddy the Subaru, got us there and back. Amazingly. He's since been laid to rest. I still miss driving him.
- I moved to the city then moved back to the country and the thing I miss most is the public transportation (and my job at the bookstore! That was cool, too!) It used to be that I could travel back and forth to work (and pretty much anywhere else I felt like going) for a paltry $15 a week and read while traveling. Now I spend around $40 or $50 a week just to drive back and forth to work, and I lost all that reading time. And no, you're not going to sell me on listening to audio books. It's just not the same. Besides, I have to listen to the radio - and dance. ;-)


All right. That's six. And since I'm still at this meme thing, Mariel over at Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops tagged me for that one with the three sentences from page 123 one.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

It happens that I've got a stacks of recent acquisitions piled all around me (more on those later - the month o' book sales has surely arrived), so I had some options. I kind of enjoyed the one from I Know You're Out There by Michael Beaumier the most, so that's what you're getting.

When he would visit my parents, he'd arrive with a goat in the back of his truck, which he would roast to perfection, or bags of beautiful organic tomatoes that he'd serve to them with mozzarella newly flown in from Italy, or gorgeous fillets of salmon caught wild in Alaska, or dry-aged steaks from Argentina, everything fresh, everything the best. Dad would shake his head and criticize Colin for spending his money on such frivolous, indulgent things - but mom would sit in the corner of her kitchen, watching, proudly amazed, not quite believing a son of hers could so confidently know his way around a kitchen.

My taste buds are far more welcoming of protein shakes and microwave popcorn, meals that are thoughtlessly easy to make and hardly require the annoyance of "savoring" or appreciating their "subtle delicacy" - so when Colin pontificates about food, I know to keep my mouth shut.


I'm not tagging for either, since I seem to see them around everywhere already, but if you want to do them, I'd be happy to read them!

On Non-Fiction

CJ tagged me for the non-fiction meme that's been going around, so I guess I'll be using it to *gasp* actually post more than once in a week. Who knows? Maybe it'll become a trend!

I, too, have noticed that non-fiction is a bit of an underloved stepchild in the book blogging world, and I too have underloved it. Last year my non-fiction reading clocked in at only 8 titles of 57 which is kind of shabby. This year is on pace to be a bit better since I've already read one title, I'm reading one now, and a few more are in the immediately to be read stack. But enough structureless blabbering, on to the meme!

1) What issues/topics interest you the most?

If I had to pick my favorite non-fiction genre, I'd have to go with memoirs. I guess I love that sensation of being able to jump inside someone else's head and see what's happened to them and how they've dealt with it and how it felt. Maybe, though, it's because a lot of memoirs read just like fiction, so it's almost cheating.

I love books about countries or places where I've never been and probably never will be. I was an under-traveled international relations major in college - my ultimate focus being economic development of poorer countries. I devour books about micro-credit. Muhammad Yunus's book Banker to the Poor about his "invention" of micro-credit is probably one of my favorite non-fiction books and one that inspired my honors' thesis. I'm really interested in reading books about African and Asian developing countries, the problems they're facing, and how the natives of that country and even outsiders are working to fix those problems. Travel books are fun, too, anything that gives me a good look at someplace I've never been in a readable way.

And history. I love books on history, but not really old history. 19th and 20th century preferred. I'm interested in books on Europe during the World Wars and Russian history and Chinese history (okay, some of this can be a little older) and, and...even some American History with emphasis on the Civil War or the Roaring 20s or even the Great Depression. Ah, history. I was always jealous of the nifty books all my history major friends were reading for class while I was stuck with some obscenely dry tome on comparitive politics or foreign policy - which can be interesting, but not in the books I was reading for college!

Last but not least, I like books about current events or issues facing society, I don't know - like the problems of the juvenile court system, or deforestation, or the overabundance of partisanship in politics that can keep us from solving many of the problems in our country, but at the same time protects us from every moronic whim that sweeps politicians. You name it - if there's a few sides to the story and few ethical dilemmas, I'm all over it.

And that was an obscenely long answer to that question, proving definitively that college really did steal my ability to be reasonably concise...

2) Would you like to review books concerning those?

I'll make up for the last question by saying, "Well, yeah, of course." I have before and I will again, very soon actually.

3) Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.

Sure, I'd love to be paid for it. Who wouldn't want to be paid for something that they enjoy doing? That said, however, I wouldn't want paid reviewing to be on a very tight schedule, especially with non-fiction. It often takes me longer to read which makes it hard to review on any sort of schedule at all. I'd hate to take my reading and make it into a chore just to get paid for it. I'm happy to do it as a hobby, too. Especially when it involves free books, but even when it doesn't! Sometimes reading a really excellent book that teaches me something I didn't know, shows me something I haven't seen, or even challenges my opinion or pre-conceived notion of an issue or a person or place is a payment in and of itself.

4) Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

Sure, I'd recommend my favorite non-fiction. I guess maybe it's a little harder because there's so much that falls under non-fiction it's not always easy to find someone who shares my same non-fiction interests. But I don't hesistate to recommend any book that I find to be a worthwhile read if I think it is something someone would enjoy.

5) If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.

Um, like my reviews? Or what? Okay, how about From Ashes To Life or Have You Found Her? I'm sure I've reviewed a couple more on the web, but I'm too tired from answering the first question to bother going to find them.

6) f). Please dont forget to link back here or whoever tags you.

See top.

Still tired from that first question so no tags. You see this? You like? You write! (And you link in comment, so I read!)

The Meandering Reading Update

The good news about this week is that my absence from blogging has been indicative of my preference for reading over the internet. Since that's been a little rare lately, I decided to run with it. I'm still plodding through Schindler's List at a somewhat steadier pace than I have been, but it's still slow going. I have, however, reached the final eighth of it, so that's a good sign that the end is near.

I've been alternating it with a few rather engrossing magazine articles including one from New York magazine about Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee and steroids as well as a nice breakdown of Super Tuesday and what the future looks like for the American presidential race at this point from The Economist. If I haven't mentioned my love for The Economist lately, I must say that I appreciate that it can be counted on to provide some fairly trustworthy news and smart analysis, the kind of which doesn't seem to emerge so often from the wildly scaled down reporting in what we (or I) suppose to be "news" magazines in America. I like to believe that I'm a thinking American who wants to know more about what's going on in the world and it feels as if The Economist treats me as such while magazines like Time seem to get fluffier and fluffier. Or maybe reading The Economist just makes them *seem* fluffier. Sure, I could get quality news from the internet, but I prefer the feel of the magazine in my hands and the fact that I can carry it around whereever I may go. Okay, that's the end of magazine snobbery. For now.

I sit here now wondering if snobbery is indeed a word. In a last ditch effort to find out definitively without trying too hard, I've clicked the spell check button on Blogger only to be reminded that it's not working. Which leads me to a question. Do a lot of you actually use the spellchecker in your blog? This is assuming you use Blogger, otherwise I don't even know if your blog edit page *has* a spellchecker. I've seen the non-working of the Blogger spellchecker has been troubling a few bloggers, which made me notice something about myself. I don't use it. Unless, of course, I'm worried that I'm using a non-word. I re-read my entries and edit them the hard way. Is that unusual? I usually don't find too many screw-ups (that aren't intentional) anway, but it just struck me as funny that it doesn't even occur to me to use the spellchecker. I am my own spellchecker! Oddly enough, spelling something wrong would really bother me (despite my disuse of the spellchecker), but I don't seem to have any problem with over-abundant and awkwardly constructed parenthetical phrases nor does it bother me that I have a tendency to use lots of sentence fragments (for example, the above "Unless I'm worried that I'm using a non-word."). Sure, I could write it correctly, but I like how it sounds. It sounds like it's coming right out of my head. Which it is. Maybe my blog is meant to be read aloud? Okay, that's the end of spellchecker and standard grammar pondering. Aren't you wildly tempted to fill me in on all the terrible errors I've made in this post now? =P

Last but not least, and possible the most coherent of everything in this post, a meme! Susan tagged me for this one, and it seemed fun and easy, so here it goes!

The Rules:

1) Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2) Open the book to page 123
3) Find the fifth sentence
4) Post the next three sentences
5) Tag five people

Well, there are a couple of books sitting near me. I hesisitate to spring some painful image from Schindler's List on people without due warning, so I'm going to use my mom's current read: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

She was twelve years old, lying still like this, waiting, shivering in the narrow bunk with polished mahogany sides. Her mind was a blank, she felt she was in disgrace. After a two-day crossing, they were once more in the calm of Carteret harbor, south of Cherbourg.

I'm going to break the fifth rule and not tag any specific people, but it's a fun and easy little meme, so if you haven't done it yet, I invite you to do so!

Eva's Reading Meme

Hey, Eva made a meme (with a bunch of magical fairies granting me cool wishes), and who can resist fun bookish wishes?

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

War and Peace. Everybody's talking about their sparkly new translations and I have a perfectly acceptable old translation lying around, and I really, really want to....but it's so...so...huge. I'm afraid I won't be able to stick with it for wanting to read the 10 other books I could have read while I was reading it that I never start it all. *sigh*

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

I don't know what sort of a event I'd like, but I think I'd have Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings - seems to me like he'd have lots of stories to tell and fun way of telling them. Annnnd...Alice from After You'd Gone (pre-tragedy) because she seems like such a free spirit and also a big bookworm. Annnnd Parsifal from Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant because the book tells his story after his death, though he makes several appearances in dreams, from sketchy details meted out by his assistant, and I want to know his whole story! And now that I think about it, I think we should just all go out for drinks and tell stories because in my experience that's what you do when you go out for drinks or stay in for drinks or do anything with drinks. *shrugs*

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

Argh...Of Human Bondage. The one and only book that I merely "pretended" to have finished for my senior year AP English class. I think it was the first required reading that I deliberately didn't finish as opposed to passive-aggresively "ran out of time" to read. *whistles*

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Hmmmm....this is a toughie. I guess maybe Orwell's Homage to Catalonia for class toward the end of the semester in my junior year of college. I think the whole class was just pretending. It was that time of year when you're so busy writing papers and all sorts of junk like that, so doing reading for class falls to the bottom of the priority list. I still want to read it sometime, but I sure hadn't read it when we "discussed" it!

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

I can't recall ever doing this, actually.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

I guess if my goal were just to get said VIP to read any book just to see that well, reading is fun and you should do it, I'd have to say Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. My dad's not a huge reader, but he read this and raves about it irritatingly much. Oddly enough, *I* haven't read it. But intend to.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Russian. There's a hugely amazing body of work that I've hardly scratched the surface of, and to do it with no translation needed - even better!

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

I am not much of a re-reader, but if I had to choose one, I'd say A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I remember my mom read it to me when I was a kid, and it's always a good way to get into the right sort of Christmas spirit around the holidays.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

This is also a hard one, as I still feel like a baby book blogger. As a part of bookish communities in general, I've acquired a healthy interest in sci-fi/fantasy type books that I've never had before. And I guess, in general, through blogging, I've found that authors are rather more accessible than I expected them to be. Turns out they are combing the internet, too, and happen to actually make contact with even baby book bloggers like me, on occasion, which is a pretty neat experience, especially when you aren't expecting it! It's nice to see "normal" people just out there writing awesome books and wanting you to read them and enjoy them and willing to communicate with the average joe/jane to that end instead of just being some pillar of literary awesomeness hovering out in the ether somewhere.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

I've got a huge weakness for trade paperbacks. They feel nice when held in the hand, they're pretty, and they travel well. So, all trade paperbacks, probably! Books from my wish list would magically appear. And if this is reaaaaally a dream library - every book would fit into my house onto shelves where they can be viewed - regardless of how many or how few books are a part of the collection. I hate a book in box, and I hate double-stacked shelves, but alas these things often happen to my unfortunate book collection. So in my ideal library, some magical enchantment would allow everything to be on glorious display!

And now, let’s say everyone has to tag four people (more than that becomes a hassle, imho) I tag…

CJ
Literary Feline
Jill
KookieJar

Of course, only if it pleases you to do so! No pressure! =)

Almost - AKA Monkey See, Monkey Do

So I was blog hopping at random this evening and what did I come upon at A Fraternity of Dreamers but a fun meme. I said to myself, hey this looks fun. I'll just try it, but I don't need to post it, except I am...because it turned out to be really fun and who wants to miss all this....fun?

Here's how it goes...

Set your Mp3 player on shuffle and write the title of the first song that comes up as an answer to each question no matter how stupid it sounds...

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)


HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Chasing Cars (Well, I need a car, but I haven't really started chasing them yet.)


WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Haven (Hmmmm...okay, sure)


HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW?
Strong Enough (Oh, that's a pretty good one)


WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Turn Me On (Uh. No comment)


WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Tell Me Ma (apparently they get a lot of info on me from my mother??)


WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
She's My Kind of Rain (*shrug*)


WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (I love that some of these could actually be true...)


WHAT IS 1+1?
Sugar We're Going Down


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
You Belong To Me (Nice!)


WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Getcha Some (if you mean books, that is, or maybe some dictionaries...I mean...getcha?)


WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LOVE?
Dance, Dance (Ha!)


WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Addicted (Uh...I tried to make you happy but you left anyway?)


WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST??
I Don't Wanna Be (Um?)


WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
One Last Drink (Hah! I think I will wait til tomorrow to die...?)


WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Blessed Be Your Name (not so much...)


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree (okay, so this one's no good)


WHAT IS THE THEME SONG TO YOUR LIFE?
One Thing


WHAT DESCRIBES YOU?
River (That works, I guess. I wish I had a river I could skate away on...)


WHAT WILL YOU NAME THIS POST?
Almost (as in I almost didn't post this meme! LOL!)


How'd this blog go from being all bookish to being musical? Oh, whatever. I'm enjoying myself.