Meme: Reader's Questionnaire

[nebroadwe]

Another meme snagged from canarynoir, who has excellent taste in them. Includes recommendations and favorites behind the cut:

Paperback, hardback or trade paperback?

Hardbacks when I can afford them; otherwise, whatever's available in decent shape.

Amazon or brick and mortar?

Amazon (or online in general) for convenience and hard-to-finds, but brick-and-mortar for browsing and impulse purchases (particularly of used books).

Barnes & Noble or Borders?

Locally, Borders -- it's closer and seems better stocked.

Bookmark or dog-ear?

I lose bookmarks constantly. I'll dog-ear if the paper seems strong enough to stand it; otherwise I just remember the page number or chapter where I left off or (when desperate) stuff a random piece of paper in.

Favourite place to read?

Anywhere. I've even read while having a cavity filled. The world is my oyster, reading-wise.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?

Alpha by author. I'd never keep things straight if I didn't.

Keep, throw away, or sell?

I'm with canarynoir here: Throw away?! Donate! But it takes quite a while for me to decide that something isn't worth keeping. If I've read it once and enjoyed it even mildly, it occupies shelf space for a long, long time thereafter ...

Keep dust jacket or toss it?

Keep it -- it's pretty and useful (instant bookmark!).

Read with dust jacket or remove it?

Depends on my mood. I'll usually read with the jacket unless it gets in my way.

Short story or novel?

Novels all the way. I like short stories, but since I don't subscribe to many magazines, they don't tend to cross my radar much.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?

HP, definitely. A Series of Unfortunate Events, despite its ironizing, is pitched a bit too low plot-wise for me to really enjoy.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?

Stop reading? Um ...

"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?

Hey, if Madeleine L'engle could get a Newbery out of the former, who am I to quibble? It's what follows the opening line that makes the book, after all.

Buy or borrow?

Borrow to test; buy to keep. Usually. Unless I've had a lot of recommendations I can trust first.

New or used?

Either. But the binding has to be solid in both cases, unless the book is really rare.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?

All of the above.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?

Eh. Overall, a tidy ending -- I dislike things that go on and on to no purpose. But within a story, a well-handled cliffhanger can be a thing of beauty and a joy forever. See, for instance, the end of Philip Reeve's Infernal Devices.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?

Yes.

Stand-alone or series?

Doesn't matter, as long as whatever it is is well written.

Favorite series?

Oh, boy. Well, let's see: for milieu, Bujold's Vorkosiverse is right up there, but so is Pratchett's Discworld. For complete-in-x-volumes, Catherine Jinks's Pagan Chronicles (x = 4), Garth Nix's Sabriel and sequels (x = 3, plus one novella), Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster books (x = 3), and Ursula LeGuin's original Earthsea series (x = 3; I would have liked the later books better if she hadn't decided to use them to retcon the originals or had set them in their own universe, though I do like the portrait of Ged in retirement). Of not-yet-completed series, Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman novels (oh when, oh when will the next one be released?) and Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and sequels (which just move from strength to strength. If I could write as delicately and as cleverly and as vividly as she does, I'd go off and conquer the world with my pen.).

Favorite children's book?

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, closely followed by Andrew and the Alchemist by Betsy Ninde Byfield and South Star by Betsy Gould Hearne.

Favorite YA book?

Oh, dear. At the moment, probably Megan Whalen Turner's King of Attolia, but that's a shifting honor. So much good work is being done in this area right now.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?

Giftwish, and its sequel Catchfire, by Graham Dunstan Martin.

Favorite books read last year?

Eep. That would require me to remember when, specifically, I read things. Probably Rosemary Kirstein's Language of Power -- she drops just enough clues for me to make a guess at what's up in the backstory without being able to solve the mystery -- and Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist manga -- she, too, is a fantastic clue-dropper; every answer provokes two more questions.

Favorite books of all time?

The Lord of the Rings, which is so far out in front of everything else to make further entries on the list superfluous.

Least favorite book you finished last year?

Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Way too long and rambling for my tastes.

What are you reading right now?

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and Crest of the Stars by Hiroyuki Morioka.

What are you reading next?

Oh, I don't know. Whatever leaps off the shelf first ...

Favorite book to recommend to an eleven-year-old?

Depends on the eleven-year-old. That was the year I discovered LOTR, but it's not for everyone at that age. Um. Almost anything by Diana Wynne Jones. Diane Duane's first two Wizard books. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series. The Chronicles of Narnia.

Favorite book to reread?

All of them.

Do you ever smell books?

Not in my line of work. They shed too much.

Do you ever read primary source documents?

Define that term. For my dissertation, I translated primary source documents out of dead languages, but I'm not sure that's what meant here. Memoirs and letters, sure. Editions of draft material, you bet. Actual manuscripts in archives, not so much.

Thus me. Anyone else?