Booking Through Thursday

’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

I am a preservationist. I don't write in books, I don't dog-ear books if I can help it, etc but I do keep a small notebook in case I want to make notes for myself.

Yesterday was so crazy that I completely forgot about Booking Through Thursday. Well, better late than never...

Do you have "issues" with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) "romantic" scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them?

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

All of the above, actually, but more often than not I'll continue reading with every intention of looking up the word later only to forget.

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
3. And, do "best of" lists influence your reading?

This post is a day late because when I started to answer this week's questions yesterday I realized that I haven't really read enough 2007 titles to answer the first two questions properly. I've decided to stick with number three.

"Best of" lists don't influence my reading too much. I do like to look at them to see what books made the cut and sometimes I do get ideas from them, but lists ("best of" or not) definitely don't dictate my reading schedule. That seems like such a short answer, but there it is.

I've been traveling since Thursday and only just got back (a day later than planned) so this'll be a quickie.

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is actually inspired by Buy a Friend a Book Week. If you don't know anything about Buy a Friend a Book Week definitely check out the program's website (or read about it in this post).

Anyway, here's the question:
What book would you choose to give to a friend and why?

Today’s question comes from Conspiracy-Girl:
I’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

You know what? I really don't know. Many books put out these days are very poorly edited. I usually try to put those typographical errors out of my mind. Recently, though, I picked up a book where the protagonist's name was mentioned a number of times in the back-cover synopsis and misspelled one of those times.

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you're sure you won't like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

In general I'd say that reviews have some affect on my choice of reading, but not terribly much because what you like and what you don't like is really a matter of taste. A reviewer could say absolutely wonderful things about a book, but I might not enjoy reading it. Similarly, I might love a book that a reviewer thought was horrible.

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?
Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

My reading habits are pretty much the same all year round. I'm sure there may be subtle differences in my choices, but there's nothing specific that I can pin-point to answer this question. In the Spring, however, I have a strong urge to break out my folding chair and go read outside.

I need to catch up a bit with Booking Through Thursday since I've managed to blow off it off the past two weeks.

Format: All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

I answered a version of this question as part of Eva's Reading Meme (see this post). If the question is really and truly about format, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings. Some books I'd rather have in hardcover, but generally I like trade paperbacks for everyday reading (I really can't abide mass-markets and those tall mass-markets even more. I hate how easy it is to break their spines).

Heroine: Who is your favorite female lead character? And why?

Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?

Like most people, I go through phases, but let me try to think of some generalities.

When I was younger, living with my parents, I read a lot more fantasy than I do now. That's because my dad is a huge fantasy reader so I had easy access to both his books and his recommendations.

I read more nonfiction now than I have in the past (not including assigned readings in college and grad school). Part of that is because I live with a nonfiction reader and get must-read recommendations from him and part of that is because I make more of an effort to read nonfiction for pleasure (like making sure that every other "book of the month" is nonfiction).

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home... do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?
Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?
Anything at all?

Do I read the documentation that comes with the products I buy? Sometimes, but I rarely read every single word. I check to make sure I know how the thing works and I'll look up specific details, but I've never found documentation that was so compelling that I needed to read it completely.

Do I ever read manuals? Sometimes. As necessary.

How-to books? I have read them, but I don't do so very often.

Self-help guides? Rarely.

The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So... what books have you abandoned and why?

Most recently I abandoned No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. I'm sure that it's not a bad book (in fact I've heard many good things about it), but I just couldn't get into it. I just wasn't in the right mindset for it so I decided to send it on to it's next reader instead of letting it collect dust around the house.

I've been skipping the Booking Through Thursday questions quite a bit lately because I haven't been particularly inspired by the questions (and some of them have seemed redundant). In any case, I'm going to make an effort to get back into the meme especially since I haven't been posting as regularly as usual.

- When somebody mentions "literature," what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
- Do you read "literature" (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

Well, the answer to question #2 is "yes, I do read literature for pleasure". I was a comparative literature major after all.

As for question #1 - I honestly don't know. There are so many different kinds of literature that there isn't one thing that pops into my mind when I hear the word. Oh, I know... maybe book... :)

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again?

At first I was racking my mind trying to come up with something to write in response to this week's question - then a lightbulb went off. There is indeed one out-of-print book that I've been trying to get my hands on for quite some time - Arlo and Janis: Bop 'Til You Drop (currently available used for $195). I wouldn't consider it a favorite, but it is definitely a title I wish was still in print.

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos... do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–-if any-–do you have in your library?

I can't say exactly how many since I don't have all my books cataloged in LibraryThing yet.

Let's see... I have style guides, Struck & White and Chicago (yes, I bought the new edition as soon as it came out) as well as APA (required for grad school) and MLA.

What with yesterday being Halloween, and all... do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?

I don't tend to read horror (though I did go through a phase in middle/high school where I did). Of course I do come across books that keep me up at night, but they don't necessarily belong to the horror genre. Sometimes things that happen in literary fiction (for example) can be just as if not more disturbing than things that happen in horror.

* Have you ever met one of your favorite authors? Gotten their autograph?
* How about an author you felt only so-so about, but got their autograph anyway? Like, say, at a book-signing a friend dragged you to?
* How about stumbling across a book signing or reading and being so captivated, you bought the book?

The quick answers: Sort of. Yes. No.

Yes, I haven't been posting. Things have been crazy here with catching up after jury duty and the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm sorry for neglecting the blog. I really am going to try to get back on track. Tomorrow I'll have the monthly book club report (we met yesterday) and with any luck I'll be able to eek out another post over the weekend. Thanks for being patient with me.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

Imagine that everything is going just swimmingly. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. You’re practically bouncing from health and have money in your pocket. The kids are playing and laughing, the puppy is chewing in the cutest possible manner on an officially-sanctioned chew toy, and in between moments of laughter for pure joy, you pick up a book to read...
What is it?

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you're planning to read in 2008 that you're looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you're waiting to appear in paperback?

Hmm... this is a hard one. I haven't really thought too much about what I'll be reading in 2008. I'm sure I'll read quite a few (my goal is to read 175), but I usually play it by ear (excepting review assignments, of course, which I try to read sooner rather than later; things went to pot in the second half of this year, but I'm getting back on track now).

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like LibraryThing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or... do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))
If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

Yes, I use LibraryThing.

What's your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody "knows" those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, "Huh? Never heard of it?"

What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

I do knit (I started last year), though I try to combine the two hobbies by knitting while listening to audio books and reading knitting books. I adore Ravelry and think it is a fantastic resource.

I'm also into BookCrossing, a book tracking site (here's my bookshelf). I do lots of BookCrossing-related stuff and attend meet-ups in Oakville, ON (monthly) and Rochester, NY (occasionally).

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

As with most reading bloggers, I think, we all feel so elated after finishing it. Then a bit sad, if it was a really good book. I close the book and savour the book in my mind. Nowadays, I get into writing a review right away as instant recall works best for me. Next is, looking for another book to read. I read two-three books per week. So I do not keep much gaps between the books I read. I try to keep the genres different between reading. However, as most readers do, I too am reading at least three different books at any given point of time. So the end of a book does not affect me that much. And we must not forget all those reading challenges! So where is the time to give a gap?

And being single with no kids and neither pets helps me read as much as I want at any time!!

Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?
Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?
Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do?

That's easy, I'd head over to the bookshop in the terminal and pick out something that looks interesting. Occasionally when traveling I'll misjudge the amount I'll read in the course of a trip and have to pick up another book to make it through the trip home. I've picked up some interesting reads that way. Two that I remember offhand are The Friday Night Knitting Club (see this post) and Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi, which I picked up over a long connection in Philly, I believe.