Bookmeme
From kdsorceress:
The best reading experience you have ever had?
Hm. Tough, since I don't tend to remember circumstances nearly as well as the books themselves. I might say the first 24-hour Tolkien reading I went to: we read The Fellowship of the Ring out loud, taking turns with chapters. It actually only took 18 or 19 hours, as I recall, though we may have followed it with a few shorter works (we did The Two Towers and The Return of the King in later years).
The worst reading experience that you have ever had?
Same problem as above, only with no group events to stand out. I originally put down Death Is a Lonely Business (see below) because I was feeling rather lonely at the time and it was making it worse, but that wasn't so much a bad experience as just painful. Oh, wait! I have it. Reading Barriers, by Noam Chomsky, in college. The man cannot write, and gives few and incomprehensible examples. I'm pretty sure that there were single pages that took me an hour to get through.
Which book has affected or influenced you the most so far?
I actually started working on a post on this a couple of weeks ago, based on a conversation that Kat and I had about books that had influenced our personal worldviews. There are probably more than these that I haven't even realized, though; perhaps if I come up with them at some point I'll actually make that other post.
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams
Dune, by Frank Herbert
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
Songs of Earth and Power, by Greg Bear
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
Have you ever read a book that you got really scared of?
I think there were a couple of horror story collections that got me pretty scared in grade school. Plus certain things that trip my personal squicks: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe comes to mind.
What do you use as a bookmark?
I usually don't, since I find remembering page numbers pretty easy, and if I forget, it's usually not too hard to find my place. If I'm in a situation where I have to keep putting down the book and picking it up again, then I will, and it will usually be some random scrap of paper, possibly a receipt or an actual bookmark if it came with the book.
When do you usually read? At home, work, while cooking, in the morning, noon, afternoon, before you go to bed...?
Not often enough, but when I do, it's often instead of going to bed...
Do you remember the first book that you read?
I recall learning to read on something called something like The Deep Dark Woods in first grade. Google and Amazon are not being helpful, though.
Which do you prefer - paperback or hardcover?
Hardcover. They just feel nicer (often including the paper, too), and hold up better (though they would hold up even better if the publishers would be nice and not make the covers bigger than the pages-so, really, paperbacks hold up better on the shelf, but hardcovers hold up better to being read).
What are you currently reading? What page are you on?
I've been in the middle of Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury for a while; picking it up again, I seem to be on page 153. I'm also on page 128 of Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years.
Do you ever leave "a mark" (deliberate and/or not deliberate) in your books? For example, write in them, underline quotes, coffeemarks or food crumbs and etc.
I generally try to avoid it, though some creases on the spines of paperbacks are inevitable. If I acquire a book that's marked up in pencil, I will actually erase it.
Does the title, amount of pages and the cover affect you when you are considering a specific book?
Sure. If I don't know anything about a book, the title and cover are the first thing I see. This is generally assuming I don't even know anything about the author. At that point, a good title, followed by a good cover, is more likely to make me pick it up for a closer look. Similarly, if I find the title and/or cover offputting, I'm not likely to look closer than that unless there's nothing else and I really need something to read.
Page count has less of an effect, though I'm unlikely to pick up something more than 600 or 700 pages if I haven't gotten some kind of recommendation for it.
Do you ever browse through to the last pages in order find out the ending?
Only if I pretty strongly dislike something, but I've gotten far enough in to want to know how it ends. This is pretty rare.
Has knowing the ending of a book (example, through spoilers or a movie) ever made you decide whether you will read the book or not?
I think the only example of this I can think of is King Lear, which I know most of the plot of, and which is just so depressing that I've never managed to read or see more than short excerpts from it.
Is there a book that you have read more than five times?
I don't have accurate counts of anything, but likely candidates include Dune, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Martian Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings, several Sherlock Holmes books (possibly even The Complete Sherlock Holmes), Q in Law, The Dark is Rising series, Winnie the Pooh, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and any number of individual short stories. And like kdsorceress, a good number of comic strip collections, mostly Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, and Heathcliff.
Have you ever been in an accident where the book was the cause? (for example, almost getting hit by a car when reading while walking, or having stacks of books falling on you from a bookshelf...)
Nothing serious, but I've certainly bumped into things while reading, and had books fall on me. Fortunately, I have yet to drop an OED on my foot, which I'm pretty sure would hurt a lot.
Do you sell/give away your books or do you keep them, even though you don't like one of them?
I don't think that sentence was quite grammatical, but I generally get rid of books that I don't like, unless I really need them for a reference or something. My preferred method is to sell them to second-hand shops, since this usually results in the ability to obtain more books.
Do you have some kind of book system, where you write down what you are reading, have bought, will read, will buy and etc?
Hah. No. My shelves are somewhat sorted and alphabetized (though size constraints limit that sometimes), so I can usually find stuff, but that's about it.
The best reading experience you have ever had?
Hm. Tough, since I don't tend to remember circumstances nearly as well as the books themselves. I might say the first 24-hour Tolkien reading I went to: we read The Fellowship of the Ring out loud, taking turns with chapters. It actually only took 18 or 19 hours, as I recall, though we may have followed it with a few shorter works (we did The Two Towers and The Return of the King in later years).
The worst reading experience that you have ever had?
Same problem as above, only with no group events to stand out. I originally put down Death Is a Lonely Business (see below) because I was feeling rather lonely at the time and it was making it worse, but that wasn't so much a bad experience as just painful. Oh, wait! I have it. Reading Barriers, by Noam Chomsky, in college. The man cannot write, and gives few and incomprehensible examples. I'm pretty sure that there were single pages that took me an hour to get through.
Which book has affected or influenced you the most so far?
I actually started working on a post on this a couple of weeks ago, based on a conversation that Kat and I had about books that had influenced our personal worldviews. There are probably more than these that I haven't even realized, though; perhaps if I come up with them at some point I'll actually make that other post.
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams
Dune, by Frank Herbert
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
Songs of Earth and Power, by Greg Bear
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
Have you ever read a book that you got really scared of?
I think there were a couple of horror story collections that got me pretty scared in grade school. Plus certain things that trip my personal squicks: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe comes to mind.
What do you use as a bookmark?
I usually don't, since I find remembering page numbers pretty easy, and if I forget, it's usually not too hard to find my place. If I'm in a situation where I have to keep putting down the book and picking it up again, then I will, and it will usually be some random scrap of paper, possibly a receipt or an actual bookmark if it came with the book.
When do you usually read? At home, work, while cooking, in the morning, noon, afternoon, before you go to bed...?
Not often enough, but when I do, it's often instead of going to bed...
Do you remember the first book that you read?
I recall learning to read on something called something like The Deep Dark Woods in first grade. Google and Amazon are not being helpful, though.
Which do you prefer - paperback or hardcover?
Hardcover. They just feel nicer (often including the paper, too), and hold up better (though they would hold up even better if the publishers would be nice and not make the covers bigger than the pages-so, really, paperbacks hold up better on the shelf, but hardcovers hold up better to being read).
What are you currently reading? What page are you on?
I've been in the middle of Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury for a while; picking it up again, I seem to be on page 153. I'm also on page 128 of Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years.
Do you ever leave "a mark" (deliberate and/or not deliberate) in your books? For example, write in them, underline quotes, coffeemarks or food crumbs and etc.
I generally try to avoid it, though some creases on the spines of paperbacks are inevitable. If I acquire a book that's marked up in pencil, I will actually erase it.
Does the title, amount of pages and the cover affect you when you are considering a specific book?
Sure. If I don't know anything about a book, the title and cover are the first thing I see. This is generally assuming I don't even know anything about the author. At that point, a good title, followed by a good cover, is more likely to make me pick it up for a closer look. Similarly, if I find the title and/or cover offputting, I'm not likely to look closer than that unless there's nothing else and I really need something to read.
Page count has less of an effect, though I'm unlikely to pick up something more than 600 or 700 pages if I haven't gotten some kind of recommendation for it.
Do you ever browse through to the last pages in order find out the ending?
Only if I pretty strongly dislike something, but I've gotten far enough in to want to know how it ends. This is pretty rare.
Has knowing the ending of a book (example, through spoilers or a movie) ever made you decide whether you will read the book or not?
I think the only example of this I can think of is King Lear, which I know most of the plot of, and which is just so depressing that I've never managed to read or see more than short excerpts from it.
Is there a book that you have read more than five times?
I don't have accurate counts of anything, but likely candidates include Dune, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Martian Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings, several Sherlock Holmes books (possibly even The Complete Sherlock Holmes), Q in Law, The Dark is Rising series, Winnie the Pooh, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and any number of individual short stories. And like kdsorceress, a good number of comic strip collections, mostly Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, and Heathcliff.
Have you ever been in an accident where the book was the cause? (for example, almost getting hit by a car when reading while walking, or having stacks of books falling on you from a bookshelf...)
Nothing serious, but I've certainly bumped into things while reading, and had books fall on me. Fortunately, I have yet to drop an OED on my foot, which I'm pretty sure would hurt a lot.
Do you sell/give away your books or do you keep them, even though you don't like one of them?
I don't think that sentence was quite grammatical, but I generally get rid of books that I don't like, unless I really need them for a reference or something. My preferred method is to sell them to second-hand shops, since this usually results in the ability to obtain more books.
Do you have some kind of book system, where you write down what you are reading, have bought, will read, will buy and etc?
Hah. No. My shelves are somewhat sorted and alphabetized (though size constraints limit that sometimes), so I can usually find stuff, but that's about it.