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Sunday, July 20, 2014

Starting Anew

I started this blog awhile back when I joined the classics club. Well I kind of dropped out of the classics club as well as this blog. And I want to get back into it. reading and writing about what I read.

I thought I'd start off with this questionnaire I found on Notebook Sisters.

1. Favourite childhood book: When I was very very little it was "The wolf's Chicken Stew" and then"The Seven Silly Eaters". When I grew old enough to read I favored "Felicity's Surprise" above all other books but I think the book that I loved most in that vague time one calls childhood was Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. Even before I read the book myself I had heard Amy and Mom read it together and I loved it. The culture of 1770's Boston, the beautiful horse, Rab, the stirring words of James Otis. I often pretended that I was a part of the story myself, either that I was Cilla Laphem or some female equivalent of Johnny riding about delivering newspapers and helping spy on the british.   
2. What are you reading right now? Mainly Beta reading for different writer friends. I just finished a book whose title I cannot remember about a little girl who lies to cook. It was a light fluffy delightful read. 
3. What books do you have on request at the library?  I wish I had the next Sara Sundin book requested.  But she hasn't written it yet. 
4. Bad book habit: Not reading when I should and then forgetting about all obligations to gulp down a book in one day. 
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? Nothing. I am trying not to incur fines but I hope to go tomorrow and get The Help, an Agatha Christie and possibly a Sara Sundin book.   
6. Do you have an e-reader? No. But I do read on the kindle cloud. 
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? I generally have at least two going but I have been known to read as many as ten one chapter each, turn about. 
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? Yes. I read less unfortunately but I blame it on the writing not the blogging about writing. 
9. Least favourite book you read this year: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Ick Ick Ick Ick. 
10. Favourite book I’ve read this year:  The Help by Kathryn Stockett or Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? Not very often I'm afraid. 
12. What is your reading comfort zone? Classics. Books my sister has read first. Authors I already know. 
13. Can you read in the car? Not if I am hungry. I get carsick when I'm hungry. 
14. Favourite place to read: Flopped on my bed. 
15. What’s your policy on book lending? If I love you and you will give it back int he same condition I gave it to you yes but if I don't know you very well or you have previously not returned a book of mine I will manage to wiggle out of lending you something even if you ask flat out. 
16. Do you dogear your books? No.
17. Do you write notes in the margins of your books?  I underline in devotionals and classics that belong solely to me. 
18. Do you break/crack the spine of your books? I avoid it at all costs.
19. What is your favourite language to read? English. I can't read in anything else but elementary spanish.
20. What makes you love a book? Good, well developed sympathetic character, immersive world, and heart wrenching or heart warming plot.  Yes I have high standards. 
21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? Good structure. If the book limps I won't recommend it even if I like the characters. 
22. Favourite genre: Epic heartbreaking awesomeness. Adventure and high stakes. No magic. None come to mind but I'm always in search of that perfect book. {And yes that's what I try to write} realistically though I love well written "life" stories like The Help, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Yearling etc. A sting character arc will always get me. 
23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did): Epic tales of adventure with no magic. 
24. Favourite Biography: I don't like biographies. I like nonfiction about groups of people or ideals or era placement or anthropology or world history or forgotten history or mathematics. 
25. Have you ever read a self-help book? (And, was it actually helpful?) I don't believe in self help. 

26. Favourite Cookbook: My mom's blue binder full of recipes she's cut out over the years. I love cooking. I'm not too big on baking though. 
27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction): Inspirational? One Thousand Gifts  by Ann Voskamp {who incidentally looks a lot like one of my neighbors}. 
28. Favourite reading snack: Chocolate chips. Not that I get them that often. 
29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience: I don't usually read hyped books so this has never happened to me. 
30. How often do you agree with the critics about about a book? I read a lot of book reviews but not generally of books that I read. Make any sense?
31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? Nicely bash the writing, the structure, the characters, anything about the book that you don't like but if you start getting nasty about the writer or making personal remarks like "this book obviously had little actual work devoted to it" then you have crossed the line. 
32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose? French because then i could read les Mis int he original.
33. Most intimidating book I’ve read: I’m currently reading Middlemarch by George Eliot! And i have downed both Little Dorrit and Gone with the Wind not to mention the brick. Books don't generally intimidate me. 

34. Most intimidating book I’m too nervous to begin: the Giver by Louis Lowry I want to love it but I'm afraid I'll find something problematic in it {I've never read dystopian before} and then not get to read all of it.  
35. Favourite Poet: A. A. Milne hands down. 
36. How many books do you usually have checked out from the library at any given time? Anywhere from none to twenty, usually around eight. 
37. How often do you return books to the library unread? About sixty percent of the time unfortunately I have a habit of not getting anything out for a long time and then getting like thirty and not finishing them all before I have to take them back. 
38. Favourite fictional character: Possibly Atticus Finch also possibly Javert.
39. Favourite fictional villain: Jim Moriarty from Sherlock, yes that a TV Show but it's fictional so it counts.   
40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation: Elizabeth Enright, Noel Streetfield, or Agatha Christie.
41. The longest I’ve gone without reading: No idea whatsoever. 
42. Name a book you could/would not finish: To the Lighthouse. I politely refused to go any further with it and mom laughed and let me read Lord Jim for the end of the school year instead.
43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? Writing
44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel: Little Dorrit or Anne of Green Gables. 
45. Most disappointing film adaptation:  Ever? Johnny Tremain. 
46. Most money I’ve ever spent in a bookstore at one time: maybe 14 dollars. MAYBE. 
47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? 100% of the time!
48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through? Getting bored. Or hating the author for the disgusting or vague way in which he or she writes. Or discovering that the book has something inappropriate in it.  
49. Do you like to keep your books organized? Random piles, bookshelves, more random piles. 
50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once they’ve been read? Keep them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
51. Are there any books that you’ve been avoiding? The Count of Monte Christo. I've started it and I really like it i just keep putting off finishing it for some reason. 
52. Name a book that made you angry: OTHER than To the Lighthouse! I read this book when I was about fourteen that I can't remember the name of now but it was one of those "Finding yourself" Juvenile Fiction books and it was just about this girl who was horrible and whiny and never did anything but complain about how much she hated parents and then finally she ran away to theater school and when they found her they decided to let her go anyway because she had "grown so much through her journey". She hadn't. It was called "Jenny's Summer" or "Rose's Summer" or something like that.    
53. A book I didn’t expect to like but did: Paradise Lost by John Milton
54. A book I expected to like but didn’t: Who could that be at this time of night? by lemony Snicket. I loved Series of Unfortunate Events this was immensely disappointing in comparison. 
55. Favourite guilt-free guilty pleasure reading: I still read picture books and Whinny the Pooh and the Freddy books and no I'm not sorry.

2 comments:

Marie said...

It's funny how we're different; I like my shelves organized and hardly ever use a library (but because we don't really have one, not because I don't want to.) Whinny the Pooh, yes! I love those stories. The only large Dickens I've swallowed is Our Mutual Friend. I keep meaning to read the others but I never get around to it. Elementary Spanish, I didn't know you knew that. Reading on one's bed with chocolate is the best thing EVER. Anyway, this was great, I love the idea of a tag like this.

Naomi Pitts said...

May I steal this tag?