Channeling My Inner Bookworm

I'm stealing this from The Frisky Virgin, who stole this from another blogger. Who doesn't love some stolen blog post ideas???  ;o)

1. Favorite childhood book?

That's easy - the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley. I was never without one of those books. That series is the reason I fell in love with Arabian horses, and I was ecstatic that my first horse was an Arabian.

2. What are you reading now?

I just finished a book today actually - Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline. I enjoyed it - totally never guessed the "whodunnit". I now have a small stack to pick through.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

None. The library in Sticksville is only open a total of 8 hours  a week if you're lucky. And it's tiny - like my living room tiny. The next nearest library is about a half hour away. At this point, it's actually just a hassle, which is highly unfortunate. I remember Nana used to take me to the library in Redding every week in the summer. I miss those days.

4. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

Nothing.

5. Do you have an e-reader?

Technically yes as I can use my phone as one. However, I haven't downloaded any books onto it. It came with three free books, one of the being Pride & Prejudice, which I read when I go to lunch on Saturday's in Town, or if I have to sit in my car and wait. However, I don't really want a Kindle or Nook. I much prefer to have the book in hand. I'm a book lover, and I love the smell of books. Now if I traveled a lot, that would probably be a reasonable thing to have.

6. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

I typically read just one at a time. When I was younger I may have read a couple at a time, but I am definitely no Rory Gilmore. I find that sometimes I'll get plots confused or characters or events mixed up. Keep it simple.

7. Can you read on the bus?

Oh yes. Car, bus, plane - you name it. That's how I often passed my time on the school bus as a kid. It's the easiest way to keep me entertained in an airport or on the plane. And my parents will vouch that I passed many silent hours in the back seat of the car on road trips. Even had a little book light so I could still read after the sun decided it was bed time.

8. Favorite place to read?

My couch or my bed. Now that it's winter, if it's a sunny day, I open the blinds in my bedroom and lay on my bed in the sunshine. I almost always read before going to bed officially. And some days are just good days to curl up on the couch with the cat and read until my eyes go buggy.

9. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Only my text books! I may have dog-eared a few books in my time, but only when necessary. That's why humans invented that cute item called a "book-mark". Although I'm down to one, as I can't find one that someone gave me a few years ago - one I really liked. But I'm too cheap to buy any so this one better last!

10. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

NO!

11. What makes you love a book?

Oh, so many things. Characters, plots, the setting. Some books are tougher to get into than others. The first time I read Pride & Prejudice it took me quite awhile to get into it because it was written around 1800 in a form of English that we no longer use, with words I had to look up in the dictionary. I was often lost as to why the phrased things they way they did. When I reached the half-way point I couldn't put it down. It's now one of my favorite books of all time. 

12. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

One that brings my emotions to the surface - like The Diary of Anne Frank, Sarah's Key, The Help, Look Again, Harry Potter, Marley & Me, Seabiscuit, any of Jen Lancaster's Memoirs, among so many others. Books that make me laugh out loud for half an hour (one of Jen Lancaster's books) before I can calm down. Books that make me cry like Sarah's Key. Books that make me fall in love with the characters like Harry Potter or Pride & Prejudice. Or books that allow me into someone's life like Marley & Me.

13. Favorite genre?

I really like Mystery. Currently Harry Potter is the only Fantasy I've read and enjoyed.

14. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

I hate to say that a book sucked. I don't think I've come across any yet that truly sucked. There have been random books that just couldn't suck me in because of they way they were written. Like Secretariat. I think I went into that one thinking it would be written like Seabiscuit, but I was very wrong. I absolutely loved the way Seabiscuit was written. I got about 6 chapters into Secretariat and I realized I had absolutely no freaking idea what was going on because the author went into too much history about the horse's linage and their purse winnings, not to mention the people that owned these horses. I was so lost and disappointed I finally gave up. I may try again, but I'm not sure. Too much jargon.

15. Favorite poet?

I'm really not into poetry. The only poetry I ever read was in school because I couldn't escape.

16. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

None now. But as a kid, I could check out several at one time. On average I probably only checked out two or three at a time because Nana took me every week in summer.

17. How often have you returned books to the library unread?

I don't think I was ever guilty of that.

18. Favorite fictional character?

Alec Ramsey from the Black Stallion series. Elizabeth Bennett. Tempe Brennan. And pretty much the entire cast of Harry Potter.

19. Favorite fictional villain?

Voldemort and/or Dolores Umbridge. Both are evil, but two very different types of evil. But you still love to hate them.

20. Books I'm most likely to take on vacation?

Anything by Dean Koontz or Kathy Reichs.

21. The longest I've gone without reading?

Probably in college. I just simply had a hard time keeping up with my studies with work as well. Once breaks hit, though, I was all over normal books like flies on . . . um . . . well, you know.

22. Name a book you could not/would not finish.

So far, Secretariat. Which really disappoints me. And Uncle Tom's Cabin - I couldn't understand what they were saying!

23. What distracts  you easily when you're reading?

Anything going on outside my window. And if I'm at an airport, I often get distracted by the people around me.

24. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

Seabiscuit, Marley & Me, Pride & Prejudice (BBC mini-series with Colin Firth), The Help, Harry Potter's, Sense & Sensibility, Princess Bride. To name a few.

25. Most disappointing film adaptation?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Only in that I don't understand why the beginning had Harry in a train station - made absolutely no sense at all. I mean, I couldn't have been the only person dying to see wine goblets dancing on the Dursley's heads as Dumbledore lectured them. And at the end, Harry should have been petrified by the Petrificus Totalus curse by Dumbledore, because Harry doesn't just stand around and do nothing by nature - everyone knows that. Knowing that David Yates was also directing Deathly Hallows, it made me extremely nervous about how the final movies would turn out. Fortunately, I loved them.

26. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

Too busy. But more than likely it would be because I can't relate to what's going on in the book. Like in Secretariat, too much information that I don't need or give a crap about.

27. Do you like to keep your books organized?

Sort of. I keep authors together. If they are random books, then they just get stacked or placed on a shelf in no particular order.

28. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you've read them?

I tend to keep. I will loan out books, like I share them with Mom or her circle of friends, or K if she's interested. My BFF will share books with me, but I don't think I've shared them with her, because I don't always read books that are up her alley. She will try books and if she doesn't care for it, she'll ask me if I'm interested. Every so often, I will clean out my book selection and send some to the  yard sale.

If you've read this, than consider yourself TAGGED - share your inner bookworm!!