Morbidly Thinking About Books

Today I was in Barnes & Noble, just innocently browsing, when I was struck by a thought that occurs to me occasionally. I will never ever finish everything I want to read before I die. Never. I won't even finish everything in my house before that happens. When I'm struck by this thought-bolt, I, ironically, find it hard to read at all. Nothing interests me because I think, "What if by choosing to read Bleak House, I'm making it so that I will never read The Left Hand of Darkness, which I might like better?" Each decision I make to read or not to read a book seems vitally important then. Maybe reading Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day isn't the best reading choice after all. Or maybe it is because it makes me laugh.

Types of Readers

Superfast Reader had this on her site and I liked it. This is the type of reader I am. How about you?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

A Reader's Meme

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.

Finished Reading

As well as Michael Connelly's Echo Park, I'm also reading The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn, as my non-fiction book, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, as my at-home book. Here's what I've finished:

Number the Stars: Lois Lowry. My daughter was reading this book to me and quit, which was a shame since I was enjoying it. I bought it the other day and finished it today, and for such a simple and short story, it's an amazing book. Lowry makes the characters real. The dilemna they face, smuggling Jews out of WWII Denmark, is as scary as any adult book on the subject. Spend some time getting to know 10-year-old Annemarie; she's worth it.

Heart-Shaped Box: Joe Hill. I'm a fence-sitter with this one. The action grabs you from the get-go, and the main character, Jude Coyne, who is unlikeable (at least to me) grows and learns something by the end of this ghost story (not the least of which is "Never buy a ghost over the Internet") -- not always something that happens in a horror novel. Some of the elements of the plot were predictable; I knew the story of Anna's childhood long before Jude figured it out. Hill also has a tendency to go for the gross out if he can't genuinely scare you. Overall, though, I liked Heart-Shaped Box, and I'll read the next Joe Hill novel when it comes out.

Maisie Dobbs: by Jacqueline Winspear. I like Maisie -- both the character and the different take on mysteries that this series presents. I was a little put off by Maisie's perfection at first; she's incredibly intelligent and she always seems to know exactly what to say and exactly what to do. Lazy Cow assures me, though, that Maisie becomes more human as the series progresses. This first book is set in 1920s England, but because the mystery involves a place called The Retreat, which was set up for WWI veterans, the reader is taken back in time to WWI and Maisie's experiences as a nurse in that war. I look forward to my next Maisie Dobbs novel.

Learning to Read and an Early Shuffle

Stolen from Lazy Cow:

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you? I was 4; my mom taught me. I don't remember NOT knowing how to read.
2. Did you own any books as a child? I owned many books -- Dr. Seuss, Harriet the Spy, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Borrowers books -- many books. Oddly, I don't have them anymore but I don't know what happened to them.
3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money? I'm not sure. I think it was Jane Eyre. My parents always gave me money for books and my mother took me to the library every week.
4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often? Oh, yes, I was a re-reader. I think it's a tie between Meet the Mob and Daybreak 2250 A.D. (also called Star Man's Son) by Andre Norton. I read each of these at least 20 times. My parents hated seeing me reading Meet the Mob all the time; they thought my interest in the Mafia was a bit strange. I also re-read Little Women at least 15 times and Jane Eyre.
5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it? It was Jane Eyre and I was probably 11 or 12. I was always fascinated by my dad's history book (he was in college when I was a kid) and I read it all the way through -- I thought it was just a bunch of stories. I think I was 7 or 8.
6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones? I never read either The Wind in the Willows or A Wrinkle in Time as a kid. I've read A Wrinkle in Time since and loved it but have yet to read The Wind in the Willows. I've also never read the Narnia books -- I've started The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe several times but can't seem to get past chapter one.

Early Friday Shuffle

Because I won't be in town or near a computer this weekend -- an early shuffle.

1. Run Devil Run: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins from Rabbit Fur Coat
2. Navigator: The Pogues from Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
3. By Myself: Carly Simon from Clouds in My Coffee
4. The Heart of the Matter: India.Arie from Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship
5. I Am Not My Hair: India.Arie featuring Akon from Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship
6. Ravens: Patti Smith from Gone Again
7. One Love: Bob Marley from Legend
8. Crazy People: The Wreckers from Stand Still, Look Pretty
9. Fax Machine Anthem: Beck from Guero
10. Around the Sun: R.E.M. from Around the Sun