1. What book are you reading now?
I just finished Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and I'm just starting two by Tom Perrotta, Little Children (which was such a fantastic movie and I can't wait to read the book) and The Abstinence Teacher. I'm also reading The Monster of Florence for my bookclub but I'm really not liking it :(
2. What are your favorite books? (You can put specific books or genres or both.)
I'm not picky....ok I am, but I like just about all genres, except romance and sci-fi. My bookshelves are pretty random. Not a lot of rhyme or reason to them.
3. How did you learn to read?
My mom read to me every single night as early as I can remember. By the time I hit kindergarten I read fairly well. Thanks mom!!
4. What foreign languages do you read?
Unfortunately I can only read bits and pieces from some languages, but I hope to change that one day.
5. What 's the funniest book you ever read?
Wow, there are so many. The ones that laughed out loud the hardest at were Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I was on a break at my old job and I was reading the scene where they're rushing to the airport and crash through the fence and I was laughing out loud like a lunatic! Everybody was staring at me!) Definitely anything by David Sedaris and parts of A Prayer for Owen Meany
6. What books have changed the way you look at the world?
Not to be cliche, but Catcher in the Rye was such an eye-opener for me. If we ever have a boy we'll probably name him Holden. Also, Female Chauvinist Pigs is a real wake-up call to the plague of our "girls-gone-wild-paris-hilton-society."
7. What books have you changed your mind about?
It took me until recently to warm up to Cormac McCarthy, but now I can't get enough of him.
8. What are some of the scariest books you've ever read?
I have a bunch of scary story collections (I absolutely love scaring myself through reading) and surprisingly enough the scariest stories are the ones written in the early 1900s. The descriptions are just so creepy. Also, the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a terrifying look at post-partum depression.
9. About how many books do you think you have you read in your life?Way too many to count.
10. About how many books do you own?
Same answer as above. The benefit/curse of working at a bookstore.
11. How many books per month do you usually borrow from the library? It used to be a lot, but now I just buy them. Bad habit.
12. Do you read in bed?
Yep. Can't go to sleep unless I do.
13. Do you ever read while walking or driving?
Driving?? No. I can read if someone else is driving. And if I read while I walk I WILL trip.
14. Where is the strangest place you've read a book?
I'm not sure. I'm sure when I was a kid I found some interesting places to get away and read. I always thought the kid in Neverending Story was so cool for sneaking away in school to read. Too bad that movie gives me serious heebie jeebies now. How did I ever enjoy it as a kid??
15. Do you listen to audio books?
When I can. I listened to A Clockwork Orange on audio when I drove to Utah and that was cool because the language in it is so unique and hearing it outloud was interesting.
16. Has anyone ever read aloud to you or you to them? Tell us more.
My wonderful mom. I can't remember a single time in my childhood that she didn't read to me. She was the best at it. She had the perfect tempo and didn't mind if I asked questions.
17. What book was the most difficult to read?
If it's too difficult, I'll usually just give up. I've started and stopped a thousand books in this lifetime.
18. Do you read every word of a book, or skip parts that don't hold your interest?
Both. If I'm really into it I'll read every single word, but if I just want to get the basic idea I can skim quickly through it.
19. What books do you keep intending to read but put off?
*sigh* The classics of course. Tolstoy, Bronte (both of them), Dostoevsky, etc. It's not that I don't want to read them, I just end up reading modern American fiction first.
20. Do you buy new or used books, paperbacks or hardbacks, leather or collector's items?
If I had the money I'd buy leather and collector's books, but I usually buy paperbacks and occasionally hardcovers. Someone I knew bought me a used copy of Still Life with Woodpecker and I thought that was so cool. Too bad the guy ended up being a tool.
21. How do you feel about writing in books, dog earing, etc.
I dog ear paperbacks, but if it's a hardcover I use the book jacket to mark my place. Writing in books can be scary because later I'll look at it and think, "Oh, I must have thought I was really smart to underline that sentence and write a quote from Kant in the margin." So embarrassing.
22. What is the worst book you remember reading?
The Host by Stephenie Meyer is atrocious. I honestly tried my hardest and got 30 pages in. Horrible book.
23. Do you lend your books?
Usually only to family members. They always treat the books with respect. I have a hard time loaning them out to anybody else. Probably because I've spent a small fortune on all of them.
24. What were your favorite books when you were a child?
Wow, too many to name! I loved The Boxcar Children and The Great Brain series. Beverly Cleary books were also my favorite. They still are as a matter of fact.
25. What books would you especially recommend to young people?
It depends on their interests. Harry Potter books are honestly amazing and any child that hasn't read them should start. So magical and fun. I didn't want to like them, but I finally gave in after the second book had come out and I've been hooked ever since.
26. Do you ever read the ending first?
Only if it's a book that I don't really want to read and I just want to see how it ends. Otherwise it takes a large amount of restraint not to peek.
27. Have you ever read a book more than once? If so, mention them and
why you read them more than once.
Too many to name. I re-read short story collections like The Best American Short Stories series because it's easy to forget short stories so re-reading them is like reading them for the first time.
28. What frequently recommended books have you been unable to finish?
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I don't know what it is, but I can't finish that thing.
29. List some of your favorite authors.
Wow, here's just a few: Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, David Sedaris, Truman Capote, John Steinbeck, JD Salinger, Joyce Carol Oates, James Ellroy, Poe, Dennis Lehane, Cormac Mccarthy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Denis Johnson, Tim O'Brien, Ian McEwan. Just a few LOL!
30. You're stranded on a desert island and you can only have one book. What is it?
Probably a heavy classic so I can FINALLY get through it and pat myself on the back.
1 comment:
1.Right now I am reading the New Testament again, and I just got The Diving Bell and The Butterfly from the library today.
2. My favorite books seem to all be fiction written in the first half of the twentieth century. Everything from J.D. Salinger to Wallace Stegner.
3. I don't remember learning to read.
4. No foreign languages, unfortunately.
5. Confederacy of Dunces made me laugh out loud--a lot--but anything written by Jean Shepherd (The Christmas Story movie came from one of his short stories)gets me howling. I have woken Zane from a dead sleep by laughing so hard at these.
6.Malcolm Gladwell's two books, "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" have totally changed the way I look at people and events. He really gets into the human mind and why we do things the way we do. Also, "The WalMart Effect" is pretty eye-opening.
7.Most recently, I read "The Shack" and felt sympathy for the story and the main character...until I found out it's fiction. Then I threw it down and thought they could all go to h%*#.
8.I can't think of a scary book--I would purposely avoid horror kinds of books, but Crime and Punishment is a terrifying look at the consequences of guilt. Oh, and the Ox Bow Incident is a horrible look at the dark side of people who are ignorant and scared.
9. No idea how many books I've read. It would be interesting to know, though.
10. I don't know, but now I am sure to start counting. I bet I have a couple of hundred just for my preschool alone. Probably twice that many for Zane and me.
11. Usually 2-3 library books a month for me and ten times that many for preschool and Wilson and Eliza.
12.Yes, I read in bed.
13. How on earth could you read while walking and driving...I think that would be a sure sign of neurosis.
14. I don't think I ever find myself anywhere that could be considered strange, much less reading a book there.
15. I have only listened to The Tale of Despereaux in the car with th kids. I liked it.
16. I agree that Mom reads out loud well--my kids look forward to her reading to them when we visit. Zane and I used to read out loud to each other on long trips. I love reading stories to my preschoolers.
17. The most difficult book I have ever read (besides Portrait of and Artist, which I promptly closed after two minutes) was Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose". I think that is one that everyone is supposed to have read and I plowed through it and had to admit at the end..."I don't get it". That was a hard pill to swallow.
18. both
19. I have always looked forward to reading everything Hugh Nibley has written. They are such bears, though, and I always seem to have something else that catches my attention.
20. I buy new paperbacks. I used to buy used books because I thought it was hip, but now I don't like the way they smell. Hardbacks make me feel like I'm ruining something just by opening it.
21. I always underline in my own books, passages or lines I like.
22.When I was at the U of U I bought a big copy of Richard Brautigan's poetry, again, thinking it was hip, and tried to enjoy it. I HATED every single word and I hate Richard Brautigan. (I think the same feelings surfaced when I read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac in High School.)
23. I do lend my books, but usually regret it.
24. I too loved the Great Brain books. Island of the Blue Dolphins made a big impression on me. And, of course, the Little House on the Prairie series.
Wow, this is getting long!
25. The Chronicles of Narnia
26. I often read the ending first so I can enjoy the rest of the book. I don't enjoy suspense or surprises.
27. I have read the Book of Mormon and the Bible many times each, and will always be reading one or the other at any given time. I have read Catcher in the Rye many, many times. I absolutely love the characters in that book.
28. Harry Potter. I read the first and lost interest.
29. Favorite authors: J.D. Salinger, Dostoevsky, Kurt Vonnegut, Wallace Stegner, Jane Austen, Rick Bass...on and on
30. The Book of Mormon for sure. It's like magic--you can read it over and over and find deeper and deeper insights, but also, I love reading it and knowing that it has no faults, is purely from God and makes me want to be a better person.
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