I found this meme at Flitting Through Canadian Fiction and just had to answer it myself.

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
I use a bookmark to mark my page. If I can’t find one I might stick something else in the book to mark it briefly, like a pen, or a piece of paper. I am guilty of leaving a book open face down, mostly with textbooks though.

2. Do you lend your books?
Once upon a time I used to be very generous and trusting and would lend my books out. After not receiving them back, even after years on end, or getting them back in poor condition I learned my lesson. I will still, occasionally lend a book out to someone who has proven trustworthy time and again. But I’m very hesitant to. And no matter the person, if it’s an autographed copy I never lend them out now. For me, my autographed copies are as precious as New York Yankees tickets in the world series are to die-hard fans. No one touches ‘em. I don’t even really lend my books to my own mother anymore! Mostly because it takes her a very long time to get to them, on account of her schedule. When she’s absolutely ready to read a book though, as in walks up and asks for a certain book that she plans to start reading that day, then I’m happy to lend a book to her.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Ugh. Major pet peeve of mine – no writing in books. When I was taking Japanese I used to write little notes or phrases that I felt were needed for reference, but really, even that irked me. I much prefer using stickies if I absolutely must write something down about a passage.

4. Dust jackets – leave it on or take it off?
I take the dust jacket off while I’m reading so that it doesn’t get messed up and put it back on when finished.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
I prefer paperbacks myself. They take up a lot less room, more comfortable to hold and easier to cuddle up with. I really dislike it when an author who has been releasing heir books in paperback first switches to hardback first. It means that, unless I check the book out from the library or get it from a swap, I’m not likely to read it for another year. Of course, with some books and series, I’ll get the hardback regardless. The HP series is a perfect example there.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
My shelving method is a bit odd. I have a low bookcase that sits next to my bed and under my window. The top shelf is crammed with favorite books so that they’re within easy reach when I’m curled up on my throw pillows or in bed. Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and some of Mercedes Lackey’s books can be found there. The bottom shelf holds some comics and larger books that don’t quite fit on the other bookcases due to book height. The other book cases however are grouped by book size and genre. I have all of my hardback books taking up the bottom shelves of the presswood book cases and paperbacks on the top shelves.

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I prefer to buy books, as I tend to keep them; however I do make good use of bookswaps and book stores. If I’m collecting a series in paperback (for example Kim Harrison’s Hollows series) then I’ll check out the hardback copy and wait until the paperback is released to buy.

8. Do you put your name on your books – scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
Absolutely not. I had to suffer through that in elementary and middle school where marking our belongings in bold black permanent marker was mandatory. I’m not in those institutions anymore so I refuse to mark up and vandalize my books.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
A little bit of both actually. I have several out of print editions and a few autographed books as well. However, I also have plenty of recent publications as well. Editions and rarity doesn’t matter, it’s the content.

10. Page edges – deckled or straight?
I prefer straight, as they don’t collect dust as much, but really, it’s the content that matters.

11. How many books do you read at one time?
Now that I am no longer in school and reading all of my required reading plus leisure reading at the same time I prefer to handle one or two books at a time. However, if a book is particularly gripping or it’s one I’ve been anticipating for a while then I’m likely to devote my sole attention to it.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
Maybe, probably, when I was a little kid. But after I had grown to read and love books? No! Magazines and newspapers? Sure. But never books.

It would seem that I missed last week’s Booking Through Thursday question and I am, technically, late for this one as well. What makes it sad is that I had last week’s answer saved as a draft. It would seem I never published it for some odd reason. So instead of having two separate BTT posts back to back, I decided to just combine them into one post.

This week’s question asks:

What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?

Or, What book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?

I’d love to see a movie, or even a movie series, based upon the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. Kitty Norville is a werewolf and a radio talk show host who has an amazing sense of humor and a knack for landing herself in trouble. She’s made into a werewolf by accident one night and finds herself thrown into a world she doesn’t want to be a part of; which her gig as a radio DJ gives her a break from. One night she decides to open the phone lines and have a talk session with her listeners rather than play nothing but music. She soon finds she’s got a knack for it and the Midnight Hour, Kitty’s radio talk show, is born.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the very first novel in the series. She’s done just about everything, such as talk to her would-be assassin over the air, changed into her wolf form on live television, assisted in the changing of the guard so to speak) of the vampire leaders in her town, even taken over a werewolf pack. Then there’s the fact that she’s a werewolf named Kitty. This series is just waiting to be made into a movie!

My only suggestion to the producers would be this: don’t take “creative liberties” and just stay as true as possible to the original story. The world that Vaughn created is entertaining and fun enough, you’ll draw in both the movie goers and the fans of the series without having to fudge it all up.

Last week’s question was:

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.

What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

I’ve got several books sitting on my To Be Read list that definately are “best books I’ve never read”. Of course, given my work situation right now, it looks like I’ll be catching up on some reading soon enough. There are, however, a few books by a favorite author that are, apparently, well-received and best sellers to boot that I just won’t be picking up anytime soon. I’m talking about Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord series.

I’m just not a fan of religious-based works with regards to fictional stories. If I’m in the mood for some non-fiction reading I might pick up a history book or at least an investigative one that studies the beliefs behind a movement and its people, but that’s about the extent of my interest in such topics. I have tried to read religious-based fiction and it didn’t end well. Maybe it’s a result of having people try to shove Christian books down my throat when they found out I love to read during my childhood, but whatever the case, I avoid religious fiction, especially Christian, like the plague. That’s not to say that if a book has a hint of religion in it, I’ll drop it. Just that I prefer not to read books where religion or faith is the driving focus behind the tale.

Needless to say, despite Rice being a favorite author and my love of memoirs, I’m also not likely to read Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession either. Her whole “I found god and will never right anymore about my Vampire Chronicles” has left a bad taste in my mouth. So despite the rave reviews, I won’t be reading any of those books any time soon and will happily forget they exist.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question comes from Kat:

I recently got new bookshelves for my room, and I’m just loving them. Spent the afternoon putting up my books and sharing it on my blog . One of my friends asked a question and I thought it would be a great BTT question. So from Tina & myself, we’d like to know How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?

Once upon a time I used to arrange my books by genre and author. For example, all of the horror books were grouped together and placed in alphabetical order by author and so forth. After I started running out of space on my shelves though, it became a challenge to just fit as many books on the shelves as humanly possible. As a result, I have books lined up on the shelves in the normal manner you would see books, with spines facing outward and the book standing up. But on top of that, I have books stacked on top of the rows as well. Which is kind of weird, I’m told. Apparently in this day and age, where everyone is continuously getting memory upgrades or expanding their hard drive, it’s most abnormal to be needing to purchase new bookcases to store my ever growing library.

So now, my books are “grouped” by importance to me. The low bookcase in front of my window, and conveniently within reach of my bed, houses only my most favorite books. These are all books that I have read multiple times, easily at least five times. And on the top two shelves, meaning they are at eyesight level, of the other two bookcases, I have other books which are well liked, but not “all time favorites”. It’s actually harder to group like this then it sounds, because I like series to stay together. So if there is only one or two books in a series that are die hard favorites, it won’t be on the “favorites bookcase” but it will be within easy reach on the other bookcases.

I’m late again, but I answered this week’s Booking Through Thursday question anyway!

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”

You know, in all honesty, I get so many books for gifts that I can’t think of a single book that was a gift that is special. My favorite books are typically ones I found accidentally or are from favorite authors, and no one dared to try and get me a book from one of those authors since they pretty much figured I’d get the book myself as soon as it came out. It’s actually become rather common place for family members to give me gift cards for Hastings and Barnes & Noble now so that I can buy books or anime of my choosing.

Sometimes I feel bad though because family and some friends tend to think if it’s anime or a book I’ll like it. So I’ve gotten some very…not my thing…stuff before. I guess the most memorable “book gift” I got was box of Christian literature from my mom’s godmother. Very hard to sound very grateful for them when a voice in my head is screaming “She just refuses to acknowledge that I am agnostic!”. Somehow I managed to remain polite though.

My friend Julie always sends me the best books though. She’s got great taste.

I know, I know, I’m terribly late on answering this meme, but I have been sick and busy this past week, so you’ll have to forgive me. I saw this question up on the Booking Through Thursday blog this week and I just had to answer it. This week’s question is:

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

As some might already know, my greatest pet-peeve is to see books manhandled. I take care of all of my books and I absolutely abhor the practice of folding pages to bookmark one’s place, wrapping the cover around a book, or even ‘breaking in’ the spine of a book. I take good care of all my books and take great care to keep them in prime condition. I also happen to prefer paperbacks to hardbacks, as they’re more sensible when it comes to storage and travel, so one would think that I don’t touch my books for anything so that they stay nice. That’s not true, I’ve read some books well into the double digits and I still keep them looking new or in “like new” and “very good” condition. I know that they’ll eventually get worn with use, but that doesn’t mean I have to contribute to it unnecessarily.

This is one of the reasons my mother has always been leary of borrowing my books. She swears I must have multiple copies of all my books, especially my favorites, because there is no way they remain “that nice” after I’ve read them so many times. Sure, some have some scratches on the covers, or have minor wear on the tops and bottoms from shelf storage, but that’s a given that it will eventually happen.

I positively cringe when I see people treat books poorly and I swear I see red when folks do that to my books. Everyone knows that you return my books to me in the condition they were loaned out or suffer my wrath.

Courtesy of Paperback Swap, there are a few books in my collection that aren’t as pristine as others but hey, they were free and beggars can’t be choosers. Right?

Connie tagged me with a meme today, one which I felt more than a little compelled to share with everyone. As some may know, one of my biggest pet peeves is to hear people ranting and raving about the state of the economy, the people in office, and how their tax dollars are being spent when they couldn’t even be bothered to cast their vote. If you don’t vote, then I just don’t want to hear you bitching and moaning. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re eligible to vote and you’re doing it, then you have absolutely no right to complain. After all, you’ve already passed up your chance to make a difference.

I love to hear when those who aren’t old enough to vote yet are reading up on the issues at hand and having informed discussions, it gives me hope that when it comes time for them to vote there will be some educated voters at the polls. To me, that’s great. I’ve honestly lost track of how many former co-workers I knew who would stand there and swear up and down about what was wrong on the local, state, and national fronts. Then, when I ask how they voted they have the nerve to say “I’m not registered” or “I didn’t”. Honestly, what the hell?

So now I shall step off my soapbox and pick five people to pass this on to. If you guys aren’t registered to vote, get registered! Help spread the word on the importance of voting and making informed decisions at the polls!

1. Julie
2. Charity
3. Maria
4. Karyn
5. Amber

If you weren’t tagged, no worries. Just jump on in and help spread the importance on voting.

I’ve been tagged by Sanjo-chan (Cen.Taku.Me) with this meme to see what my favorite, or “must see”, television shows are. As ya’all know, I don’t watch television very much, and certainly not regularly anymore. However there are a few shows this season that have caught my eye, and thus far, have ensured that I tune in regularly.

Title: The Biggest Looser: Families
Network: NBC

We’ll start off with the show that surprised me. I tuned in for a football game and I kept seeing the commercials for this show and it caught my interest, but not for the reason you’ll think. Back in middle school I started watching soap operas, the only soap that actually got me hooked for a while was Days of Our Lives and my favorite character was none other than Sami Brady. I thought the actress was awesome and the character just amused the hell out of me. There was definately never a dull moment with Sami around. So when I saw a quick glimpse of the host of this series my mind automatically screamed “That’s Sami!”. I tuned in, and sure enough, it was Alison Sweeny hosting the series. After the first episode I got drawn in.

Title: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Network: NBC

Anyone who knows me probably isn’t surprised to see this on my list. I was a big fan of the original Law and Order, but when SVU first premiered my love for this splinter series quickly overlapped the original. I’ve got most of the series on dvd to boot. Thus far I am really loving this season, I do miss Novak though. I was so disheartened when she was disbarred because she is definately my favorite District Attorney from all of the L&O series. I’m not really sure what to make of “The Crusader” Kim Grayleck though, the new district attorney. She’s just a little too damn gung-ho and meddlesome for me to take too much of a liking to her right now.

Title: My Own Worst Enemy
Network: NBC

This series hasn’t aired yet sadly, but after watching the commercials for it for weeks now I am very eager to see the premier. Christian Slater stars as a man leading one hell of a double-life. He’s Henry Spivey, you’re average middle-class husband with a wife, a dog, two kids, and a minivan. However, he’s also a government operative by the name of Edward Albright. At the end of a mission, a trigger in his mind is flipped and he forgets he’s an operative and reverts to his other persona. Ultimate secret agent, yes?

And of course, since it’s football season, you can bet I’m tuning in regularly for all the games, particularly my team – the Dallas Cowboys!

Ooh boy, I saw this week’s question and let me tell ya, it was easy to answer.

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

When I read this week’s question there was only one book that came to mind, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I’ve always enjoyed reading biographies and memoirs, so the genre itself wasn’t so much a “branching out” experiance in and of itself. However, the book itself did in fact push my comfort boundaries to the extreme and reached beyond them. The book was like a horrible accident, I couldn’t stop looking even though my mind screamed to look away. The writing was wonderful, the story told within those pages was captivating. Yet the twistedness of it and the knowledge that it was all real, that was where the shock came in.

When I had finished the book I had very mixed feelings on it. One of the thoughts running through my head at the end of it all was indeed a “That was different!”. But first and foremost was the thought that I couldn’t believe there really were people like that out there and how grateful I was to my mother.

Surprisingly enough, the completion of this book saw a renewed interest in biographies, especially true crime novels. Fiction paled in comparison to the shocking contents that are reality.

I was reading Connie’s blog earlier, when I spied a meme that she had done. It seemed pretty fun, and since I’ve never tried it before, I decided to give it a shot. It’s called Unconscious Mutterings and it goes like this: for each, put the first thing that comes to mind. So here we go!

1. Heist :: crime
2. Hack :: fraud
3. Dane :: dog
4. Stings :: heartache
5. Monkey :: Coal Chamber
6. Junkie :: addicted to a “drug” of choice
7. Pumped :: race horse (pumped) full of horse supplements
8. Brass :: 76 trombones in the big parade
9. Fight! :: Hajime!
10. Vouch :: covering for a friend

Yeah, my mind is all over the place. Not to mention, I can’t do one word responses to well. My mind comes up with little phrases and scenarios instead. I’m sure I would be a field day for any psychiatrist.

As I write this, the clock has struck and passed midnight here so it’s no longer Thursday technically. Which means I am, once again, answering the BTT question late. But better late then never, right? This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is:

Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

Oh yeah, when the autumn rolls around my reading habits definately change. When I was still in college, I generally got to keep on reading. My late night job at Athletics allowed me time to study, but usually by that time of the day I was exhausted so I preferred to read for pleasure rather than academic reading. If I had an hour or so between classes I would genreally squeeze in some leisure reading time. It was too small a time frame to really get any productive studying done, especially if I had to walk across campus to get to my next class (no need for diet pills!). So for the most part, autumn means less reading time.

This year is shaping out to be different in that regard, not that it’s necessarily a good thing since I would like to be working right now.

With regards to what I read, during the autumn I tend to want to go for more horror and gothic novels. Whether they actually give me shivers or not is irrelevant. As far as I’m concerned, autumn is time for all things that go bump in the night! In the summer, it’s just time to read anything and everything I can get my hands on.

I never did get around to answering this week’s Booking Through Thursday question yesterday. However, when I glanced at it today I knew that I just could not pass it up.

I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

Sadly enough, I’d have to say that yes, I have felt the pressure to read the currently “in” books. Ironically enough, I remember reading and following the Twilight series before it became popular. Very weird feeling. My most notable cave-in occurred with the Harry Potter series however. When the Harry Potter series first started I remember writing it off in favor of series that I was actively hooked on, specifically Laurell K Hamilton’s works. I read the summary for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and looked at the wonderfully illustrated cover and passed on it. I thought it was likely to be aimed more at the little kids and I was heavily leaning in the dark fantasy and horror genres at the time.

It wasn’t long before the series took off and there was a lot of hype around it. I was in high school at the time and I couldn’t help but to be a bit put off by the sudden fad that surrounded the reading of the HP books. Eventually there was a sale in one of those book clubs, one of those buy X-amount and get Y-amount free, kind of things. I remember getting the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter collection in three hardback volumes and being able to get all of the [at the time] current Harry Potter books free. If I didn’t like the books then it didn’t matter. I didn’t spend money on them and I could probably sell them on Amazon or Ebay easily.

But as you all know, I am a big Harry Potter fan, so it’s pretty obvious that I actually fell in love with the series, despite its flaws. There have been other instances where I caved and some where I avoided following the masses.

With regards to being a book reviewer, I try not to follow the trends so much as to review a variety of different books from different genres. I have my favorite genres, that’s readily obvious when you look at the numbers next to each category on my book blog, but I try to provide an assortment regardless. My aim is to find new authors and new books constantly, and by reviewing these titles, I hope to bring them to the attention of the masses.

That’s not to say that I won’t review popular books, I’ve done it several times. However, I try to limit it to books where I feel that I can contribute a different on contrasting view. Despite liking the HP series, I only reviewed one of the books, Deathly Hallows, despite having been doing book reviews on the blog and my personal site long enough to have reviewed at least three of them.

If the book is popular, in one of the genres I read, and I feel my review would differ from the majority that I might have already seen, then I’ll gladly post it. I want to provide a voice that will be heard and not just lumped in with the crowd. Not to mention the fact that no one wants to read the same thing over and over.

huh, I thought this week’s Booking Through Thursday question was a bit odd, but definately a good topic starter.

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

Yes, a good storyline is essential. If the story is completely lacking then it really doesn’t matter what else the book has going for it because no one is going to turn a single page. However, the story itself can be so-so, but the characters, the settings, the writing, itself can be stellar enough to make up for it all and keep you turning pages.

In my opinion, the story itself is the first thing that draws you in. It’s what grasps your attention and gets you to pick that book out of the millions out there. But the story itself is not the end all to the book. It’s the main course, the foundation, but other elements keep you anchored down. I don’t care how intriguing a story is, if the characters are flat and the interactions between them are fake I’m going to be writing off the book as “had potential, too bad the author doesn’t know how to tell a tale”.

Story, characters, development, setting, style – all of these are necessary components and to say that only the story matters is akin to saying only the frame of a car is necessary. It might be what holds everything together, what gives it its appearance and draws you to pop the hood and check it out, but it’s not the car. The engine, the wheels, the radiator, and so forth, are what make it move.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

My mother started taking me to the library as soon as I could read. She’d drop me off in the children’s section and then go find some books for herself. She did this knowing full well that the books in that section would keep me occupied until she had made her selections. The library also had a summer reading program, which I was always happily enrolled in. By that time I had my own library card, more like “passport to fun” and I enjoyed checking out as many books as possible. Sadly though, they didn’t have a very big kid and young adult section. At least not when I was young anyway. Because I remember that by 3rd grade I had read everything in the young adult section and had moved on to other parts of the library.

This fact annoyed some of my teachers as it meant that when they picked books to assign us for reading, I had already read them. Or, they were really easy to read for me, since I was reading at a higher reading level, and zipped through them faster than anyone else. Eventually I got teachers who thought to actually challenge me, but that’s a story for another time.

Here’s a funny thing about our library, the third floor is where they had the offices as well as a small art gallery and conference rooms. There would be political meetings and government shingdings going on up on that floor, but because of it having the gallery, it was open to the public. When they had their banquets I would just waltz in like I was someone’s daughter and help myself to the free food.

Now, because my mom worked and I could spend hours happily at the library without getting bored, my mother used to drop me off there sometimes while she did her errands. As such, I got the layout of the building really fast and the surround area as well. You see, I also liked to spy on the homeless people who would come in and spend hours in the library, reading, to escape the heat outside during the summer. I had a little notebook, binoculars, and a tape recorder in my backpack. I would watch them from behind the shelves and when they left the library I liked to follow them and jot down their activities. Weird, I know.

Now, as you know, I can hardly stand to go to the public library. Being charged fines for books checked out on a stolen library card that you reported, and they supposedly canceled in their system, years ago does that to a person.

For some odd reason, I thought I had blogged this already, but looking over my past posts it’s apparent that I never got around to answering this week’s Booking Through Thursday question. I’m late (whoops!) but here it is:

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live?

Or where you certainly would NOT want to live?

What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

Well, I would certainly love to live in the Harry Potter world, that would be lovely. Also, the Naruto, Bleach, LKH’s Meredith Gentry world, and Mercedes Lackey’s Joust Dragons world would be awesome places to live in as well. However, there is no way that I would trust JK Rowling, Laurell K Hamilton, or Kishimoto Masahi to write my life. Just seeing what those authors have done, or how how they wrapped things up, leave me feeling positively queasy. The God Known as Kishimoto has totally screwed up an awesome manga series and at present I don’t see how he could salvage it entirely.

I’m not so sure I’d want to live in the world that Charlaine Harris has constructed for Sookie Stackhouse either, vampires and were-creatures are awesome, but it seems as though there is just too much politics involved. Same for LKH’s Anita Blake series as well. Dangerous place. Mercedes Thompson’s (Patricia Briggs) world seems like the perfect mix though.

I believe though, that Lackey’s Joust series, and to an extent Paolini’s Alagaesia would be the best fit for me. Bonding with dragons, dragon riding, fighting, and magic – nothing better.

Happy Thursday folks! Ah yes, the week is almost over. This week’s Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday?
Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip?
What/Where are they?

I usually end up taking a book with me on vacation, usually to help pass the time while waiting in an airport, on a long flight, or just in case I need some relief from travel stress. As a result, the book is usually a paperback (travels better) and is normally a book I’ve read multiple times but never get tired of. This is in hopes that if I’m in need of something to occupy my mind, I can slip right into that mind set. At the same time, if I get jarred or am unable to return to the book, since I am on vacation and all, I won’t be upset for having lost my place or something.

While on vacation I don’t really buy books. I’d rather spend my money on something that I can’t buy at home or for events and happenings in that locale. I can buy any book from the comfort of my own home after all, but I can’t say the same for touring, for example, the Arc de Triomphe. The only exception to this might be a nicely crafted book filled with the history of and pictures of the site I’m visiting. But then that falls under the category of souvenir really.

Eh, heh. I actually missed last week’s Booking Through Thursday question, so I thought I would answer it now before I answer this week’s question gets posted. The question was:

What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable?

Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?

Well, if Hastings were to burn down I would definately cry, but not because I would have lost my source for books. See, even though Hastings is a book seller, I go there for the anime. If Barne’s & Noble burned down, well I would be a bit sad, but I would shrug it off.

Now if, for some unfathomable reason, PaperBackSwap, Amazon.com, and Half.com went belly-up over night I would break down and go into hysterics. PBS has saved me a lot of money by letting me swap books. I can check out books that I normally would never have chanced and I can get rid of ones I’ve read, but don’t really feel like keeping. You may be wondering why I don’t just make use of the library, but the truth is, it sucks. It’s got the most horrific hours of operation, selection is poor if the author isn’t well known, and they have gremlins.

Gremlins? Yeah. Mysterious books get checked out on accounts that never return, then years down the road they tell you that you checked out a certain book (which you know you never did) and that it was never returned. Now pay late fees or replace the book. What makes it worse is that it was apparently checked out using the card you reported as lost or stolen, but applied to your new account.

Yes, I have a grudge against my local library.

Woohoo! It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another Booking Through Thursday! Sweet yes? Here’s this week’s question:

What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?

I think a reader is someone who enjoys reading. It doesn’t necessarily matter what it is they read, only that they enjoy reading the material before them. Someone who visits blogs regularly, not necessarily the same ones mind you, is a reader. Someone who loves dark fantasy novels and picks up one whenever they have a chance is a reader. I still have a hard time grasping how someone can consider the material on labels and food as reading material, it’s been pointed out to me that it is, but I guess that on that same vein, if they read it regularly and enjoy that then they’re a “reader”.

Of course, this really boils down to what you do and do not consider to be reading material. A person could hardly be considered a reader if, for example, you think serious reading material is only of the educational and non-fictional variety and said person enjoys reading science fiction novels. Basically the answer to this question boils down to what you think reading is.

Hopefully this will be the last “definition” question for this meme for a while to come. I’m getting a bit tired of these “what is…” questions. *sigh*

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question asks what it is about certain authors that makes us love them:

Think about your favorite authors, your favorite books . . . what is it about them that makes you love them above all the other authors you’ve read? The stories? The characters? The way they appear to relish the taste of words on the tongue? The way they’re unafraid to show the nitty-gritty of life? How they sweep you off to a new, distant place? What is it about those books and authors that makes them resonate with you in ways that other, perfectly good books and authors do not?

There are several authors whose works I enjoy immensely, but it’s not all for the same reason. Frankly, the only thing that they really have in common, in my opinion, is the fact that they are talented and just plain awesome. Their styles differ greatly, but they’re all still great.

My favorite manga-ka is, without a doubt, Kubo Tite, the author/creator of Bleach. He’s never dropped the ball with the storyline once. Even when it seems as though things are dragging, due to the lack of heavy action (fighting) there is still plenty going on. In every scene there is some detail, some minor hint dropped, that helps to unlock some part of the puzzle down the road. The truly ingenious thing is that it can be the most innocuous of things as well.

Mercedes Lackey is one of the few fantasy writers whose works I have all read and enjoyed. I have my favorites, of course, but all of her works sparkle. As a fantasy reader, I get irked if I see the very basic and common place conceptions being utilized over and over. While I enjoy fantasy, I am very picky. Lackey has never let me down, she thrives on taking things down a new path and hitting the old from various angles. That woman couldn’t write a bad book if she tried.

With Kim Harrison I found a replacement for Laurell K Hamilton. Hamilton’s earlier works in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series were enthralling and ground breaking. And as I’ve ranted numerous times, they just took a turn for the worse and went completely downhill fast and all in the supposed name of “character growth”. Harrison is an author who enjoys letting her characters grow and develop, but not in crazy OOC (out of character) ventures and not by gaining a truckload of special abilities. Harrison has a kick-ass female character who has worked to overcome her personal flaws, and succeeded to an extent, while developing new ones and refining the abilities she has. Hamilton’s deal was, make the character more bitchy, throw in more special powers, and add in twice as much sex as the last book and you have character development. Gee, wonder why I stopped reading her books.

I’m actually a day late, but better late than never, right? This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is a combination of two suggestions from two different BTT followers and asks:

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (ot, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?

Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

Truth be told, I’ve never really understood the appeal of book clubs. They feel too much like being back in school and stuck trudging along with the rest of the class. That’s mean, I know, but it’s how I feel. If I’ve found a book I like, I’ll pick it up, read it and be done with it. Here lately that hasn’t been the case, but believe me, that’s the exception not the norm. In school in always killed me that a book that would, at best, take me a handful of days to get through took weeks, sometimes a month or so, for the class to get through. That’s generally why I was in advanced reading and English programs – I hated being held behind.

That still holds true to this day. If a book is good, I’ll read it through. If it doesn’t hold my attention then I will rarely force myself to finish it. The exception being if it’s one that is just so bad it’s hysterical.

I have joined a few book clubs over time, but for the most part I found myself disappointed. I joined a fantasy and science fiction one and found myself stuck reading poorly written drivel that seemed to be packed with every cliche imaginable. The problem I found with that group was that they liked the very stereotypical Fantasy and Science Fiction books where as I tend to prefer books that incorporate many genres. Learning from that experiance I didn’t even bother with trying to join a romance book club or the horror one.

I did find myself joining a general book club though, again big disapointment. Lots of books that were in no way interesting to me, but I was normally severely outvoted. When it came time to read books I found myself rushing through certain ones that held no interest to me so that I could be done with them, only to find everyone else just crawling along at a snail’s pace.

And let’s not even get into all the religious, especially Christian, junk I had to read. *twitches* Seeing as how I don’t believe in or follow that stuff it was real mind numbing torture for me to read multiple books from that genre over and over. Needless to say, I happily cut ties there.

Right now the only “book clubs” I am a member of are book clubs where you can buy books at discounted prices. I was a member of an online one once at the old TSB boards, but when those boards went down so did it. Too bad too, because it was enjoyable while it lasted. Perhaps that one was more enjoyable because there was more diversity? Perhaps I can start one up at the new Vertigo. Something to consider for sure.

The book clubs that I was a member of generally had a clique mentality. The one I stayed with the longest, about five months, passed around forms at every meeting. You could write down your suggestions, authors or titles, and the leaders of the club would pick out the ones that seemed most popular and hold them for a vote-slash-discussion. So say you nominated a vampire novel and three other members choose vampire novels as well, but not the one you picked. There would be a group discussion on that genre, some titles would be brought up and discussed and then a vote cast.

It seemed good on paper, but in reality the members who were good friends and held officer positions tended to dominate the nomination and discussions. Hence how I got stuck with all the Christian lit books.

Did I feel obliged to read books because of the club? Yeah, tons of books were read that I would never have touched and there were only a few gems amongst them too.

Yowza! This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is a bit of doozy:

What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance.

Let’s take this in bite size chunks. Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books – all of these qualify as “reading” to me. Audio books? No, that’s not reading, that’s listening. While it is a book on disc/cassette it is no longer something that you process with your eyes but with your ears. As such, audio books are no more reading than a seminar on disc or a brand new Nightwish album. That is not to say that audio books do not hold value or anything, it’s just no longer qualifies as reading in my eyes.

Manga, comics, graphic novels – I know people have a hard time considering these things reading material, but to me they are. They tell a story through a combination of words and illustrations that convey thoughts, meaning, and feeling.

Now does hearing that a story I was interested in reading is only available in one medium deter me from reading it? For the most part, no. The exception to this is audio books however. I have tried, honestly I have, to like them. I can see the appeal in them and thought about getting some of my most favorite books in audio format, but I just can’t stand them. It’s like being back in college, stuck in a lecture class where the professor does nothing but lecture for hours on end. I know some of the readers try to inflictions in their voices, but they just fail. I can last about twenty minutes before my mind wavers and I either start spacing out, nodding off, or I just want to smash the thing. Audio books are a no-go for me.

In regards to my definition of reading, well it’s vague and not something I’ve ever really bothered to put into words until today. To me reading is the action whereby we take in information by sight (or touch for the blind) and mentally process it. Reading materials can be as complex as a text on fiberglass columns or as laid back and relaxing as a Cat in the Hat book. One thing that connects them, however, is substance. They have a purpose; to tell a tale, to instruct, and it is carried out in a manner that will grasp the reader and hold them.