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.

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?

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

How can one even think of comparing books and movies? Both are entirely different mediums. I am not much of a movie person. I seldom even watch a movie. I prefer reading anyday. When a book is made into movie, no doubt it gets better publicity, lot more people watch it then reading the book. However, I find most of the movies that have been adapted from a book, leave me wanting more. In a book, everything is happening inside your mind. You form certain opinions about certain characters. I would rather escape the world reading a book than watching a movie. Most of the times, I get distracted from a movie but not while reading a book.

What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance.

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?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)

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!

Hmm...Well, I stretch and yawn first. I guess it depends on the book. If it's a good one, I usually wander around in a reading stupor. I feel all fuzzy headed and I'm still thinking of all that happened in the book. I think about what the characters did after the end, what I want for them, how I would have ended the book. All that jazz.

If it wasn't so good, or *shutter* terrible, I may want to pick up something totally different to scrub my brain.

Lately, the first thing I do after finishing a book is blog about it!

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

I can name many authors. I used to read a lot of Ludlums. But I have not done it for a long time now. His latter books seems boring and repetitive. Same is the case with Alistair Maclean. Grisham too I cannot read now. In classics, I cannot read Jane Austen now. I fall asleep although I have committed to read at least two Austens for a challenge!

Instead of authors, I would say I can't read certain genres like run of the mills mysteries bore me. Romances without stories too cannot hold my interest. I cannot read too much of sex scenes with vampires, werewolves, monsters. That puts me off completely.

I thing it depends a lot on mood and time too. What we loved in our younger days might bore us to death now. And vice versa. In a way , one can suppose that our reading changes with age.

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?

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?”

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?

Anything I get, I do read the accompanying manuals. Very thoroughly. That really makes me understand the workings of it better. I even look at the circuits too. (*I have to as I do not have a husband to help me through!)

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment?Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc?

For me the cover is not much of a concern. I do not like loud, garish covers though. Those that hit you in betwween the eyes. Fonts too affect me. Very big or very small fonts put me off. Then there are some fonts which are quite unreadable. I do not pick those up.

I prefer trade paperbacks as those are easy to read and lighter in weight with readable fonts. The illustrations are geared to attract too. I truly do not like revealing covers or those that have a movie star.

Having said that - if a book is written by one of my favourite authors, none of the above matter to me. I just pick it up with the virtue of the author's name.

I haven't participated in BTT lately, not because of my lack of internet access but because I didn't have anything to say for the topics. But this week I'm back.

"What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book
published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007
don’t count.)

What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new
book published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007
don’t count.)

And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?"

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

Of course, I give myself a break from books once in a while. I am yet to finish a book till now, since February started. Somehow I do not feel upto it.

That gives me time to listen to music..I am exploring new music. I have bought myself a Yamaha keyboard player and learning to play it. I am nowhere near perfection as yet!

I have been looking up into art. I am visiting museums, monuments and trying to learn the history sans books.

Booking Through Thursday

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?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that… Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors…

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!

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?

My reading has changed over the years. In school, I preferred fairy tales and or Enid Blytons. In my college days, I used to read mysteries, thrillers and lots of romances. I used to read classics too but those were not so very often. I rarely read non-fiction. Unless it was to do with travelogues. Now I read more serious books. I can read non-fiction although not too much of it. I also have taken to fantasies. Although paranormal erotic fiction is beyond me even now. I do read lighter stuff but with underlying seriousness. I stay away from frivolous, meaningless reads.

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.

Booking Through Thursday

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
   (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
   (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
3. And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

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.

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?

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?

Today’s suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader

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I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. 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?

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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?

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?

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.

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading?

It honestly depends on who is doing the reviewing. If it is a person that I know shares similar tastes with me then I tend to pay more attention to their reviews.

If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it?