Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Book meme

1. Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback? I like trade paperbacks the best- light, portable and classy. 2. Barnes & Noble or Borders? Tough. Around here the suburban B&N is better than the suburban Borders, but the Borders in Boston beats any B&N except the Harvard Coop, which is the best chain bookstore anywhere. 3. Bookmark or dog-ear? Dog-ear. I have also been known to use books as coasters. 4. Amazon or brick and mortar? Brick and mortar any day. 5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Sorted by type (fiction, nonfiction, French, reference, etc.) then arranged in descending order of height. 6. Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep, mooch, donate. 7. Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep. 8. Read with dust jacket or remove it? Read with the dust jacket. I like it. And you can use the flaps for bookmarks. 9. Short story or novel? Novels. I like short stories too but I read many, many more novels. 10. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Neither. 11. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? At chapter breaks as much as possible, unless the chapters are really long. 12. "It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"? Once upon a time. Gotta love those fairy tales. 13. Buy or borrow? Buy. I hardly ever borrow. I end up paying so much in overdue fines, I might as well at least be able to keep the book! 14. New or used? Either way. A good-condition used copy is ideal- cheap and green. 15. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse? Browsing, then book reviews, then recommendations. I have good luck finding things I like, but my taste is idiosyncratic enough that oftentimes I think other people have a hard time gauging it. 16. Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I don't really read series, so I guess tidy endings. 17. Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading? Any time to read is a good time to read. 18. Stand-alone or series? Stand-alone. Apart from manga, I hardly ever read series. 19. Favorite series? In my case, favorite manga- Nana by Ai Yazawa. 20. Favorite children's book? The Teddy Bear by David McPhail 21. Favorite YA book? A Wrinkle in Time 22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Bigfoot vs. Chupacabras. 23. Favorite books read last year? Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey The Last Chicken in America, Ellen Litman My Father's Paradise, Ariel Sabar City of Thieves, David Benioff The White Mary, Kira Salak 24. Favorite books of all time? Possession, A.S. Byatt A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy Howards End, E.M. Forster The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James 25. What are you reading right now? Isaac's Torah and All Other Nights 26. What are you reading next? Sonata for Miriam 27. Favorite book to recommend to an eleven-year-old? I don't know. 28. Favorite book to reread? Jane Eyre 29. Do you ever smell books? Sometimes. 30. Do you ever read Primary source documents? Like, diaries or letters? Sometimes. I'm not tagging anyone but I'd love to know if you decide to answer these on your blog!

14 comments:

The Bookworm said...

fun meme!
I dog ear too *gasp* lol

http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Karen Harrington said...

Great post! I dog ear AND love Wrinkle in Time. :)

Candy Schultz said...

Well I will as I am in the midst of a huge project - reading The Master and Margarita and The Satanic Verses simultaneously. Rushdie was reading the Bulgakov when he wrote Verses so I thought I would reread Rushdie while reading Bulgakov. It is a bit confusing and I am also finally reading The White Tiger. So I need a break.

www.candyschultz.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

What a fun meme! I have to do this one.

Vasilly

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks said...

This is a fun meme!

My favorite of your answers is about how you arrange books on your shelves ... The people on those home decorating shows would love you, it's all visual :)

I read with the dust jackets on, too, and never understood why some people take them off.

Dawn
She is Too Fond of Books

Helen said...

I loved your post so much that I decided to post and answer on my own site. Thanks for the inspiration.

http://bookbound.org/2009/04/book-meme/

Schmendro said...

awesome :)

http://girlreads.blogspot.com/

Sandra said...

What a great questionnaire. I loved My Father's Paradise,
City of Thieves, and The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories too. I really must read Possession, it gets mentioned so often as a favourite. Dog-ear and use as coasters? I was sure you were too much of a lady for that. Just kidding. Clearly you love books but don't worship them. I'd love to do this. Problem with these is it takes me a week to get them done and by then everyone's interested in something else. I'm keeping a copy though and will do it when I'm up to it. A fun post, thanks.

Serena said...

I borrowed this meme for my saturday post. thanks for sharing your responses.

Anonymous said...

We share a few favorites. No book has ever made me laugh harder than A Walk in the Woods, and I'm pretty sure that Love in the Time of Cholera is just about the sexiest thing out there. This is a fun meme...I think I'll steal it.

Anonymous said...

I had to play along!

Sandra said...

Saw that Rebecca had done it on Friday so decided it's not too late for me. Here's my link:

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/book-meme.html

Ashley said...

These questions were so fun! Of course I had to give them a go. :)

http://ashleyslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/04/book-meme.html

Anna said...

I really enjoyed reading your answers. I think I might post this one myself at some point.

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric