I love this kind of post. (You know that, right? Because I’ve totally done it before. And also here. And also here, and probably elsewhere!) This time I stole it from my friend Maggie. You can read her version here. (And then read more of her blog because she is FABULOUS. Many of her posts are like prose poems.)
- Author you’ve read the most books from (the grammatical construction of that question is NOT MY FAULT): Isn’t that an interesting question! If we could count Carolyn Keene as an actual person, and only one person, then she might win, since I once had about 50 Nancy Drew books. I’ve read all 23 of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone mysteries (three letters left in the alphabet!). No, wait! I know, it’s Agatha Christie! She wrote around 80 books, and I have almost all of them.
- Best Sequel Ever: don’t ever read a “sequel” to a classic novel that you loved written by some new person after the copyright on the original expired. Just. Don’t. Do. It. ACTUAL good sequels I have read: Little Men and Rose in Bloom (both by Louisa May Alcott), Innocent by Scott Turow, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (both by Madeleine L’Engle) I’m sure there are more that are not rising immediately to mind.
- Currently Reading: I’m embarrassed to admit I am not in progress on anything at the moment. My problem is I get so absorbed in my books that I neglect everything else in order to read. So sometimes I have to neglect reading in order to get things done. I am SUPPOSED to be reading Something Wicked This Way Comes for my book club. I had better get on that!
- Drink of Choice While Reading: Coffee.
- E-reader or Physical Book? Physical book. Bet you could have guessed that!
- Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School: Jamie Fraser comes to mind. 😉 Seriously, just about anyone would have done, I was so desperate at that time.
- Glad You Gave This Book A Chance: Pillars of the Earth, which my sister kept badgering me to read. It was WONDERFUL. Now she is badgering me to read the sequel.
- Hidden Gem Book: While I wouldn’t exactly say they are hidden, when I hear people talking about the Anne of Green Gables books I always put in a plug for the Emily of New Moon series by the same author, which in many ways I like even better, with their hint of the supernatural and a heroine who is in my opinion more flawed than Anne.
- Important Moment in your Reading Life: Either when my mother first pulled out the giant card with the word MOMMY on it in red, when I was about two years old, thereby initiating me into the wonderful world of reading, or when after all my books burned up, and I couldn’t even bring myself to read for an entire month, I started reading and collecting books again.
- Just Finished: I recently finished W is for Wasted, Sue Grafton’s latest. Before that I read How Shakespeare Changed Everything, and before that it was Damned by Chuck Palahniuk . Oh, and I also re-read The Runaway Jury somewhere in there, just for fun. I know, John Grisham, but the plots are engaging.
- Kinds of Books You Won’t Read: Anything that is going to scare me.
- Longest Book You’ve Read: I read some Civil War novel in high school that was around 1,500 pages long. If you consider (as did its author!) The Lord of the Rings to be one book, that’s 1,200 pages and I’ve read it out loud! Also Gone with the Wind is 1,034 pages and I’ve read it uncountable times, the first when I was only 8.
- Major book hangover because of: Even though everyone else is saying it too, I’d have to go with Harry Potter. I read the last book from midnight to 6 a.m., then immediately read it again.
- Number of Bookcases You Own: Pre-fire, we owned at least fifteen, from floor-to-ceiling built-ins to nightstand sized. I always dreamed of a library in which to put the boxes of books stored in the garage, but I don’t need that any more. 🙁 We have purchased only two pieces of furniture for this house (all the rest was given to us), and one was a bookcase (pictured above). Scattered throughout the house are four others, and then the sooty books are on a couple of utility shelves in the garage.
- One Book You Have Read Multiple Times: SO MANY. I love re-reading old books more than reading new ones, honestly. It’s so comforting. In fact, any book I keep will be re-read!
- Preferred Place To Read: In my wonderful spa tub.
- Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read: “It’s a known fact . . . yuh got to go there to know there. Yo’ papa and yo’ mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got to do fuh theyselves. They got to go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.” (From Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston)
- Reading Regret: That working, exhaustion, and the internet keep me from reading as much as I used to; and the loss of my favorite, most comforting books in the fire.
- Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series): If I like a series and all of it’s out, I’ve already read it! I would like to re-read the Sookie Stackhouse series from the beginning, though.
- Three of your All-Time Favorite Books: The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. (And y’all know that’s really an impossible question, don’t you?)
- Unapologetic Fangirl For: The Lord of the Rings
- Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others: I guess the next thing to get excited about is Patricia Cornwell’s next book. There aren’t many books I buy new, but I always buy hers.
- Worst Bookish Habit: I just can’t seem to get into bookmarks. I’ve stopped dog-earing the pages but now I leave the book lying open.
- X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (not really necessary in this Internet age, but nice to have on the shelf)
- Your latest book purchase: W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. Usually I get her latest as a Christmas gift but I saw it in Kroger on sale and couldn’t resist. I don’t buy books, in general–I get them from McKay’s, or the church book swap, or as gifts.
- ZZZ-snatcher book: (last book that kept you up WAY late): See above. However, I will stay up way too late virtually any time I read something at all absorbing, which is one reason I have been avoiding absorbing reads lately!
And there you have it! Feel free to play along in the comments or on your own blog if you have one! I’d love to read your survey.
Thank you for plugging Emily of New Moon. She is too little known. I wish my book was out (less than two weeks away!) so you could read it. Maybe it will make your next list! 🙂
Are you serious!!! That is SO awesome! Congratulations!! As for Emily, I discovered her as a teenager and loved her!
I liked the Emily series as well, although I think I would have hated her as a person. 🙂 Thanks for linking to Quote Me Thursday again!
I’m enjoying participating!