Swiped from Hilda by way of Dixie. It's a bit long but it's my second favorite topic.
Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? I almost always prefer hardback but usually can afford the trade paperback better. I also like it better than mass market because the printing is bigger.
Amazon or brick and mortar? All of them.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? We don't have any Borders stores here, so it would have to be B & N.
Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark -- I'd cringe at a dogeared book.
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? I want to alphabetize by author and then alphabetize by title within the author when I have more than one by the same author, but my son helped us move in and just chunked all the books in the bookshelves randomly and we haven't changed them, so they are random.
Keep, throw away, or sell? I never throw away a book. I will give away books or I'll keep them. I use Bookcrossing to help give away some books.
Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep it. Dust jacket art is like album art to me -- I love it -- especially the good ones.
Read with dust jacket or remove it? Usually I read with the dust jacket on but sometimes it won't stay in place, so I remove it.
Short story or novel? Mostly novels but there is a real art to a good short story.
Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Collections usually.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter. I immediately got sucked into the Harry Potter mythos where I have tried to read The Bad Beginning several times and never finished it.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Chapter breaks.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Either
Buy or Borrow? Buy and borrow, although sometimes I can't seem to finish a book I checkout from the library. In Cold Blood was that way for me; I was never able to finish it until I bought it.
New or used? Preferably new but I'll buy used too.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All of them. Lately, I've been buying books based on recommendations.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I don't have a preference as long as it fits in with the story. Some endings make no sense in terms of the character or the storyline; those are the ones I hate.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Usually nighttime, but I read all hours of the day.
Stand-alone or series? I love both.
Favorite series? Harry Potter, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, Stephanie Plum
Favorite children's book? From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Daybreak 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton.
Favorite books read last year? Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christoper Moore, and A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell.
Favorite books of all time? To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott -- the list goes on and on.
Least favorite book you finished last year? The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
What are you reading right now? The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn.
What are you reading next? The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer and Susan Dworkin and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
6 comments:
You took the words right out of my mouth with your answers; especially in the first half (and the last two!).
And I am never reading another Jodi Picoult book ever again. I finished one of her recent ones (I don't even remember it's title) for bookclub - if not for that I would never have finished it (or bought it in the first place!)
I was just reading through your post and had a couple comments on a couple items :-). First, you said you've tried reading through Lemony Snicket's first book several times without being able to enjoy it. I just wanted to suggest that you give it another go. I drudged trough The Bad Beginning and began to really love the books with The Miserable Mill (I think that's number 4). They really are worth getting through the first one!!! My second comment is really more of a question...why didn't you like My Sister's Keeper? Picoult is my favorite author and I (of course) understand that some people don't like her or any of her books, but I'm always intrigued as to why. My Sister's Keeper is actually my favorite of all of her's, so it would be interesting to know what you didn't like about it. Thanks!!
Amanda http://www.apatchworkofbooks.blogspot.com
Amanda: I often have to try books several times, so I will try the Lemony Snicket books again. It could be I just wasn't in the mood those days.
My Sister's Keeper -- part of it had to do with the writing style, part of it with the characters (I thought the mother was awfully whiny and unsympathetic), and I was just so mad at the ending, which I thought was a copout -- no hard decision had to be made because of the "hand of God" -- that I ended up hating the book which until that ending I'd enjoyed okay -- I wasn't going to be reading it again but that ending really pissed me off.
Haha, you aren't the only one who felt the ending was a copout! Just about everyone I had read it felt the same way...except me of course!! That's why I love this blogging world, I can definitely learn more about my own reading tastes by reading about others! Thanks!
I can finally feel like I have done some good in the world : )
If only that I have pushed The Sparrow on every single soul I know. I will be anxious to hear how you like it, or don't.
I am having a tough time with Nazi Officer's Wife - the writing style is incredibly distracting to me.
I like the title "The Same Sweet Girls" but then I saw that it's one of the ones you didn't finish. And then there are some books with horrible titles that are great books...
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