Booking Through Thursday: Preferences

This week's Booking Through Thursday topic is "Preferences" and asks participants to give quick answers to a series of either/or questions ("Which do you prefer? Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date").

OK, first of all – I prefer not to give quick answers to anything. I probably wouldn't do at all well on a polygraph test – they'd have me locked up in about a minute! And some of these questions aren't really the kind of thing that can be answered quickly – well anyway, not by me. So I'll play along, but only by my own rules.

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?
Sometimes one, sometimes the other.

Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?
Hardcovers unless I'm having to tote the book around with me.

Fiction? Or Nonfiction?
Both, although these days I read more fiction than non-.

Poetry? Or Prose?
Prose. I used to edit a poetry journal and it sort of dulled my appetite for verse. I'll recover someday.

Biographies? Or Autobiographies?
They each have their charm. Autobiographies are usually fun, but not always reliable in the areas of truth and candor.

History? Or Historical Fiction?
History. I've read more historical fiction lately, but in general I'm not a huge fan.

Series? Or Stand-alones?
Both.

Classics? Or best-sellers?
Both, although these days I read more current lit, I do try to read at least a couple of "classics" every year.

Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?
Again – each has its appeal and place. Although I'm really of the opinion that writing can be better than basic without being lurid or "fruity."

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?
Plots. I love a good story. Guess that's why I'm attracted to whodunits.

Long books? Or Short?
Doesn't matter that much if it's a good read.

Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?
I would love it if all books were illustrated. Although maybe not so much that they become graphic novels. But I think a few illustrations are a nice addition to any book. Guess I've just never gotten over my childhood love of picture books.

Borrowed? Or Owned?
Owned, but I'm a big fan of public libraries, too.

New? Or Used?
Love being the first person to crack open a shiny, new just-off-the-press volume. Also love the idea of reading a book that's been discovered and enjoyed by other readers before me. Love browsing all kinds of bookstores – online or brick-and-mortar. Just love getting my hands on all kinds of books – new, old, used, or freshly minted!

So, was that quick enough fer ya? Yes or no?

Tuesday Thingers: You've Won WHAT??

This week, Wendi's question for the Tuesday Thingers group is about the new feature that shows a list of the Early Reviewer books you've won and whether or not you've reviewed them:

Have you checked out your ER list? Is it accurate? Did you need to mark any books as not received?

I have checked it out. And it was mostly accurate. I had to remind it of one book I'd won that didn't show up right away. And I had to mark two books as never received.

Hmmmm. And after looking at it just now, I notice they've added a copy of a book that I received from a bonus batch one month but never reviewed. I'll have to get busy with that one – I'd forgotten all about it! So I guess this is probably a pretty valuable new feature (even if ever so slightly annoying).

Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Hot Reads of History

This week, I'm reading Ariana Franklin's Grave Goods, a mystery novel in her Mistress of the Art of Death series. The setting of the book is Glastonbury Abbey in 1176, and the story centers around Adelia Aguilar, a sort of a medieval medical examiner who is called in by King Henry II to do a little crime solving. In this excerpt (which is, alas, a bit longer than two lines – so sue me), Adelia is reflecting on the popularity of the legends of King Arthur, spurred on by that recent big bestseller, History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth:

His fame had even spread to the continent – Adelia could remember her foster mother in Salerno telling her about Arthur's exploits on Vesuvius. The stories appealed to women like no others; Emma adored them. "Don't you just love the bit where Uther Pendragon steps out of the darkness at Tintagel and seduces Ygraine?" she'd said. [p. 62]

So it seems that even in the twelfth century, readers appreciated a really good bodice ripper.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given! Please avoid spoilers!

Let's Play Thirty-two Questions

I don't usually succumb to this sort of thing. And I'm not going to pester anyone else with tagging or anything like that. But I found this meme on one of the message boards at Library Thing and thought it sounded like fun (the person who left the message called it a "funny meme thing"). If you want to borrow it and fill in your own info, go right ahead. I stole it from someone who stole it from someone else. So, feel free. Oh, and if you do – let me know. I'd love to read your answers.

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Well, if we're just counting individual books, it would be Anthony Powell. I have 25 separate works by Powell in my library; however, four of those are the Dance To the Music of Time series with three novels in each volume. But if we're talking actual physical objects, I'd have to say it's Henry James. There are 24 volumes of Henry James's writings in my library – I think we have all of his Library of America volumes, and that's an awful lot of Henry James.

2. What book(s) do you own the most copies of?
Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and Huckleberry Finn.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Yes, mightily. I'm a loyal and active member of the Grammar Police.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Sherlock Holmes, Adam Dalgliesh, Aloysius Pendergast (from the novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child), and Laurie Laurence from Little Women.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Lewis Carroll's Alice books, and Mark Twain's Huck Finn. I guess that's obviously why I have so many copies of them.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
365 Bedtimes Stories by Nan Gilbert.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Probably a tie between The Book of God and Physics by Enrique Joven, and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. Neither were terrible – just not as good as the other books on my list.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Well, I've read some really great books in this last year. I guess if I really have to choose just one it would be The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I'm not tagging anyone, and I'd never force anyone to read a book (although I strongly recommend The Age of Innocence, if you haven't read it).

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Hmmmm. Still thinking about this one. Maybe Philip Roth? Although it's not likely an American will ever win it.

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Well, since the films usually don't do justice to the books, I'd have to say I hope Hollywood doesn't decide to make a film of any of my favorite books anytime soon. But if they do, I hope they get Martin Scorsese to direct it.

12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day.

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don't dream about writers or books or literary characters. But I do sometimes dream plots for stories I'd like to write. The weirdest one of those I've ever had was not suitable for discussion here.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I could not possibly answer this. I've read lots and lots of these, and I've been an adult for a long, long time. However, I can safely say the most lowbrow book I've read recently was The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel (who, sad to say, died earlier this month).

15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
This would be a tie between Molloy by Samuel Beckett, and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
That I've seen? Well, I think I've seen just about all of them at one time or another, either live or in movies or TV productions. And I'm not sure exactly what the criteria for "obscure" would be. Maybe Coriolanus?

17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I'm assuming we're talking about writers here, not about whole nationalities of people. And with that understood, I'd say I prefer the French – or, at least, I've read more French authors than Russian authors.

18. Roth or Updike?
I like them both. Haven't read as much as I'd like by either of them.

19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Haven't read any David Sedaris, and I have no idea who Dave Eggers is. Sorry.

20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.

21. Austen or Eliot?
T.S. or George?

22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Well, I'm not embarrassed by it, but there are many works by Charles Dickens I haven't and probably never will read. And even though he's so well-represented in my library, I've only read a few of Henry James's works – and admitting that is sort of embarrassing. Never read Dante. Never read Cervantes. Never finished Paradise Lost (but I know how it ends).

23. What is your favorite novel?
I could not possibly choose just one. But something by Barbara Pym or one of the novels from Anthony Powell's Dance To the Music of Time sequence would definitely be in the running.

24. Play?
Again, impossible to pick just one. And I'm not sure my favorite play to read would be the same as my favorite play to see performed, or to perform in. (There's that sentence-ending preposition thing again.)

25. Poem?
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith, Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet CXVI) by William Shakespeare.

26. Essay?
Most likely Jonathan Swift's satirical "A Modest Proposal," although I probably shouldn't admit that.

27. Short Story?
Again, too many to choose from.

28. Work of nonfiction?
I don't read a great deal of nonfiction at the moment, but in the past I read quite a lot of it. And I usually say Joan Didion's The White Album is my favorite nonfiction work. However, I also enjoyed all of Anthony Powell's memoirs and Quentin Bell's biography of Virginia Woolf. And I love James/Jan Morris's Oxford about the history of the University and the town, and Who Killed Society? by Cleveland Amory – I've re-read both of those several times. But I suppose the one nonfiction book I've re-read the most times would be A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters by Barbara Pym. Oh, and Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi (true crime is one of my guilty pleasure genres).

29. Who is your favorite writer?
Several of those, too. Barbara Pym, Anthony Powell, Muriel Spark, Joseph Heller, Larry McMurtry, P.D. James, Jane Austen. I could go on. But I won't. You can take a look at my Library Thing list.

30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
J.K. Rowling.

31. What is your desert island book?
That would be hard. I guess something by one of my favorite authors. Possibly Some Tame Gazelle or A Few Green Leaves, by Barbara Pym.

32. And ... what are you reading right now?
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin, Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment, and Dance of Death by Preston & Child.

The Sunday Salon: Back to the Books in July

Wow, more than half of July has managed to sneak right by me. Doncha hate it when that happens? And here I was saying I wanted to try to slow down and savor (yes, I think I actually used that word) July a little more than I did June. (June was here and gone before I even turned around.) But so far, I don't seem to be doing much savoring. Well, I blame it partly on the cold I had during the first couple weeks of the month. Didn't really get much reading done. Mostly just slept and blew my nose. And watched the first season of "Man Men" via our cable company's On-Demand service. (Is it really possible Peggy didn't know she was pregnant? No, don't tell me what happens – I'm going to start season two this week.)

But the slow-down has really blown my reading schedule all to pieces. I was trying for a book a week this year, but here we are just about thirty weeks into 2009 (can that be right?) and I've only read twenty-seven books. So I'm obviously going to have to pick up the pace a bit. I'm doing a little better now, though. I finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game this past week (review, I hope, to come tomorrow), and I'm going to be finishing up Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts later tonight. So at least July won't be a total loss.

And I've got a couple more underway: Dance of Death, one of the Pendergast thrillers by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; and Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin. I suppose I should have started with Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death, before tackling Grave Goods, but I found GG among the new releases at the library the other day and it reached out and grabbed me, so I just had to bring it home.

Today I've been doing a little assessment of the books I've read this year, but haven't reviewed yet. Didn't realize there were quite so many. Out of the twenty-seven books I've read in 2009, there are a dozen I still need to review:

Blasphemy. Douglas Preston
Brimstone. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Ellen Foster. Kaye Gibbons
Index to Murder. Jo Dereske
Land of Marvels. Barry Unsworth
Moon Tiger. Penelope Lively
The Old Man and Me. Elaine Dundy
The Private Patient. P.D. James
Rest in Pieces. Rita Mae Brown
The Valley of Fear. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Mothman Prophecies. John A. Keel
The Angel's Game. Carlos Ruiz Zafon

So I need to get busy. And since I'm taking stock, I should admit that there are a few books I've started this year, but put on hold for now: Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand, Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I think I'll probably get back to Stone's Fall eventually, but the other two may just stay on the shelf, unread. Sad.

Anyway, that's where I stand at the moment. Now I need to go find out what becomes of Suora Zuana and the young Novice Serafina in that appalling convent in Sixteenth Century Ferrara. No, don't tell me what happens – I'm still hoping for a happy ending.

Friday Finds: 17 July 2009

This week I added four new titles to my "new finds" list. I have a feeling they'll all be going on my TBR list once I've had a chance to check them out a little more closely. And although I hate to admit it, I might buy the Lowry book for the cover alone!

My list:

• Girl in a Blue Dress, by Gaynor Arnold
• Evil at Heart, by Chelsea Cain
• Homer & Langley, by E.L. Doctorow
• The Bellini Madonna, by Elizabeth Lowry

I discovered the first and last books in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review supplement; Girl in a Blue Dress was released this month, but I believe The Bellini Madonna came out a little earlier this spring (Good Reads says April).

Not sure where I first heard about Evil at Heart or Homer & Langley. Shelf Awareness, maybe? Or possibly a publisher's newsletter. They're both due for official release in September, so I'll have to try to remember to track them down in the fall.

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

Booking Through Thursday: TBR

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is a follow-up to last week's topic about unread books:

Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?

Well, I've got loads of unread books on my shelves that aren't necessarily on my TBR list. So I'll just talk about the books I tell myself I am going to read someday. And those books are pretty much scattered out all over our apartment – on shelves, on tables, in boxes and bags, on the floor. Not so much like party-goers, though. More like unruly kittens, always tumbling about, and getting underfoot, and disappearing into hard-to-reach places, and never coming when you call them.

For a while, I played around with various ideas about what to do with the books on my "read soon" list. You know – those books I'm planning to read in the near future. Challenge books and ARCs. That sort of thing. Tried separating them out and keeping them on special shelves, or in a box all by themselves. But I ended up spending more time moving books around than I spent reading them. So now, I mostly just keep the TBR books shelved with the other books – those I've read and those I have no intention of reading but don't want to ditch. I do try to keep the recent ARCs in a pile all by themselves, but they frequently get mixed in with the other books – another example of best laid schemes going "aft agley."

As you can see, I've still got a few shelves in the bedroom with TBR books on them. (You can also probably tell that I'm not going to be featured on HGTV anytime soon.) This bookcase has some "read soon" books mixed in with books about to be stored, or just coming out of storage (hence the plastic covers on some). Of course, "read soon" is an extremely erratic concept around here.
The second photo is a close-up of a couple of the shelves – and I'm realizing that some of those are actually books I've started, but put aside for one reason or another. I really need to get back to those. Gee, maybe I should take photos of my unruly books more often.