1. Favorite childhood book? Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. The illustrations are beautiful and it began my lifelong love affair with biographies.
2. What are you reading right now? The Patriarch, a mammoth biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, the President's father. As I read, I'm reminded of the nursery rhyme about the girl with curl in middle of her forehead because when he was good, he was very, very good but when he was bad he was horrid.
3. What books do you have on request at the library? None. I should use the library more often. It's right around the corner, after all.
4. Bad book habit? Buying books I could check out the library.
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? See answer #3.
6. Do you have an e-reader? Yes, but I only use it for magazines.
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? I often have two going at a time, but I like to mix genres. Two concurrent biographies or, especially, two mysteries can get me twisted up.
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? Not really.
9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far)? At Risk by Patricia Cornwell. It was beyond disappointing. It sucked.
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? Leading Man by Benjamin Svetkey. Written by a former Entertainment Weekly reporter, I thought this was going to be a fun, juicy Hollywood expose. And it was. But it also had a jaw-dropping plot twist and some genuinely moving observations on love.
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? Never. Not since a teacher made me.
12. What is your reading comfort zone? Mostly biographies and mysteries, with the occasional light fiction mixed in there. I don't like sci-fi, fantasy or bodice-ripping romance. And you can't make me read it.
13. Can you read on the bus? Yes.
14. Favorite place to read? Exercise bike.
15. What is your policy on book lending? I try to avoid it. I frequently give books away, but I don't lend. If I care about a book enough to keep it, odds are I'll be upset at its condition when I get it back.
16. Do you ever dog-ear books? Not intentionally.
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? No.
18. Not even with text books? Not even then.
19. A book you didn’t expect to like but did? Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. It was a compulsively readable book about seriously flawed men. I related to it more on a personal level than I expected to. After all, I don't know any nationally-recognized, powerful multimillionaires.
20. What makes you love a book? When moments are captured in a very real way so I can relate the story to my own life. Nora Ephron was terrific at that. So was Robert B. Parker.
"Leading Man" sounds good. Thanks for the tip. I'll be looking that one up.
ReplyDeleteOh, Nora Ephron. . . I miss her!!!
ReplyDeleteI may check out the one on Carson and Kennedy. Being from MA, I do love all things Kennedy ;-)
ReplyDeleteLending tends to be giving something away. I only do it if I don't need (whatever) back. Even with money. I lent a friend 5 or 6 thousand for his art show. I never expected it back. But 5 years later he arrived with a check I was shocked...
ReplyDeleteI was a huge Cornwell fan and I still read her, but you're right...her latest books suck. Something happened around the time she wrote "Blow Fly" and she has never come back to the Cornwell of old. I miss Kay Scarpetta and I hate, hate, HATE what she has done to Lucy and Merino!
ReplyDelete#7 could probably happen, it would be good to mix it up.
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading Cornwell a long time ago. I couldn't take the gore after a while.
ReplyDeleteI borrow e-books from the library but not many physical books. We've got the same kind of comfort zone. I'm not much for science fiction/fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI hardly ever visit my library any more. I'd rather just buy the books on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteI miss Robert Parker tremendously. He was just excellent.
ReplyDeleteAnd I too loved the d'Aulaire books as a child. They're still hanging in there, too, because they really were well-written.
Patricia Cornwell should just stop writing. I gave up on her a decade ago. Sad. Love(d) her early stuff.