Booking Through Thursday - I liked last week's

1. Favorite childhood book?
The Secret Garden
2. What are you reading right now?
Brady Udall, The Lonely Polygamist
3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Nothing right now, because I've been buying too many (see below)
4. Bad book habit?
Buying books in hard cover when I know that they are going to come out in paperback before I get around to reading them
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
I just returned Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls
6. Do you have an e-reader?
No, but I am saving up for an I-pad
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
One at a time, usually
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
No.  Since I finished graduate school I read more diversely, but less.
9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Brizendrine, The Male Brain
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Eggers, Zeitoun, or Chris Cleave, Little Bee.  It's a tie.
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not that often lately
12. What is your reading comfort zone?
Literary fiction, non-fiction (popular psychology, sociology, science), chick lit, memoir, YA
13. Can you read on the bus?
Yes
14. Favorite place to read?
At the Wild Iris Coffee Shop
15. What is your policy on book lending?
If someone asks, I'm happy to lend
16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Sometimes.
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Often.
18.  Not even with text books?
Especially with text books.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
English, which is the only language I can read in proficiently.  I suppose I could read some children's books in Spanish or German.
20. What makes you love a book?
Great, accurate use of language.  Vivid characters.
21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
If I read it in less than a week.
22. Favorite genre?
Literary fiction.
23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
History.

Favorite biography?
Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes.
25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes.

26. Favorite cookbook?
I have a bunch of Weight Watchers cook books that I make stuff from regularly.
27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Zeitoun
28. Favorite reading snack?
I try not to eat while I read, although I ate trail mix to stay awake a lot while I was reading in grad school.
29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I would say Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I don't think I would have read it without the hype.
30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I usually like most books, or at least find value in them, so, probably about half the time.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
See above.
32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
French.
33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Middlemarch, or Bleak House.
34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
War and Peace
35. Favorite Poet?
T.S. Eliot, or Elizabeth Bishop
36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
I buy more books than I should , so I don't go to the library that often, but when I do, I always check out too many and have to return them unread.
37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
See above.
38. Favorite fictional character?
Babette, the wife in Don DeLillo's White Noise.
39. Favorite fictional villain?
I'm really not sure, but I keep coming back to Dickens...
40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Light reads, chick lit.
41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
I can't remember the last time I went a day without reading something, and it's been that way my whole life.
42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
I haven't finished Bolano 2666, but I'm going to try again soon.
43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
TV
44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Atonement
45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
There are many
46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
$200
47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Quite often.  I love to look at covers.
48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Not feeling connected to the story, but I hate not finishing.
49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes, but I need new bookshelves if I'm going to continue keeping them organized.
50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep them.
51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
52. Name a book that made you angry.
The end of One Day by David Nicholls made me a little angry, but I really enjoyed the rest of it.
53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
People of Paper, but I still plan to finish it.
55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Jodi Picoult