Tag Archives: Booking through Thursday

Booking through Thursday: Long and Short of It

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Yet again, I am dreadfully late at responding to BTT.

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On Thursday, May 27th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Which do you prefer? Short stories? Or full-length novels?

In my world, having nothing to read is just as bad as not taking vitamins. I need to have a book or two near the tub, the toilet, and the bed, as well as various other places in the house, so asking me to choose between novels and short stories is difficult. If it’s well written, I like it.

After further thought, however, I decided that while I like short stories in small doses, I much prefer novels, because they give me the time to really submerge myself in a story, and breathe in a completely different world for a while. Short stories entertain me, but they never really give me the satisfaction I need.

Booking Through Thursday: Bedside

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I never answered last week’s Booking Through Thursday, so am doing so now, to get it in under the wire:

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On Thursday, May 27th, Booking through Thursday asked:

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

My book collection is rather eclectic. I have books that I’ve had since childhood, books that I kept that still have notices reminding me when I could sell textbooks back to the bookstore for cash, and books that I bought and never read.

My to-be-read pile lives in a combination of piles on my nightstand and books still in Barnes and Noble bags, waiting for me. I am embarrassed to admit that I bought a second copy of Three Cups of Tea a few weeks ago, forgetting that I already had a copy in my TBR queue.

Tonight, sparked by this question, I went through the stacks, and listed, in no particular order the books that I have yet to read. Or the bulk of them, anyway. There are others, because sometimes something appeals to me in the moment and then by the time I get to it my mood has changed. It’s not a problem though, because eventually everything does get read.

But anyway, the list:

  • Barefoot, by Elin Hilderbrand – IN PROGRESS
  • Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland
  • Ground Up, by Michael Idov
  • The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, by Syrie James
  • Acedia & Me, by Kathleen Norris
  • Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
  • Touchstone, by Laurie R. King
  • Muse and Reverie, by Charles de Lint
  • Changes, by Jim Butcher
  • Hope in a Jar, by Beth Harbison
  • Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard
  • The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks
  • The House on Oyster Creek, by Heidi Jon Schmidt
  • The Blue Bistro, by Elin Hilderbrand

So, what’s on YOUR list?

Booking Through Thursday: Influences

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On Thursday, May 13th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Are your book choices influenced by friends and family? Do their recommendations carry weight for you? Or do you choose your books solely by what you want to read?

While I’d like to think I make all my own decisions, the reality is that everything I use, from anti wrinkle cream to books to hair styling products is at least partly influenced by my friends – we talk about it all, you know?

True confession: I’m nearly 40 and my mother still has the power to destroy me if she doesn’t like my hair, clothes, or home decor.

Books however, are the area where I’m least influenced. Partly this is because I tend to read very quickly, when I’m in a reading mood, and partly it’s because I usually know what I want, but sometimes, my friend Deb will get a book to review, and hand it off to me when she’s done, and I’ll often do the same. I tend to hand off more books than I receive, but that, again, is because I read quickly.

And because I’m an addict, and I like to BUY my books, because the ones from the library smell like old people, and not the kind of old people I want my books to smell like.

Sorry for the rambling answer.

But there you have it.

Booking through Thursday: Restrictions

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On Thursday, April 29th, Booking through Thursday asked:

God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.

What genre do you pick, and why?

*Whether you believe in God or not, pretend for the purposes of this discussion that God is real.

I would like to be the person who chooses the classics, because they’re timeless, really, and generally incredibly well written. However, there are a finite number of the classics, and frankly, women in them weren’t treated all that well. So, I’ll choose Mystery, please, because within Mystery there’s all those nifty little subsets – paranormal mystery, horror, thrillers – and ranges – cozies, hard boileds, procedurals, etc. And some Mysteries even have a dash of romance, so, simply because I believe it offers the most options, and is a genre that remains popular, that’s my pick.

I mean, where else can an insurance quote or the recipe for the perfect flan be equally valid plot points? What other genre visits historical settings as well as modern ones, has existed since Poe, includes Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, appeals to children (Nancy Drew? The Hardy Boy?) and adults (Come on, tell me YOU don’t want to see Penelope and Jack figure out how a bookseller and a ghost can have a relationship while fighting crime), and incorporates humor as well as drama?

Mystery, please, with a serving of tea and scones.

Booking Through Thursday: Which End?

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On Thursday, April 15th, Booking through Thursday asked:

In general, do you prefer the beginnings of stories? Or the ends?

It would be easy to cheat on this and say that one end of a book isn’t much good without the other, but the truth is, I do have a preference. In acne solutions, I prefer the end, but when it comes to stories, books, anything written, it’s the beginning that does it for me. The opening chapters of a good book hook you – seduce you – they’re not mere teasers, but introductions to characters and situations. Once you get to the end, there is definition, but until then, anything can happen.

Well, anything that fits within the established rules of the world that book inhabits.

I’ve said before that nothing disappoints me more than when a really enjoyable book ends, but the reverse is also true: nothing excites me more than the beginning of a really good story.

Booking Through Thursday: Learning

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On Thursday, April 1st, Booking through Thursday asked:

I spent the day with my friend’s twins the other day. Twins who are learning to read, sounding out the words, trying to make sense of the stories in their books, and it made me nostalgic for when I learned. I still remember the distinct moment that the concept of reading clicked, with a meglomaniacal realization that, all I needed to do was learn the words and I could read anything in the whole world. (That’s my kind of world domination.)

Do you remember learning to read? What’s your earliest reading memory?

I would like to say that my earliest reading memories are of something wonderful like Winnie the Pooh or A Child’s Garden of Verses, but while those were two of the things I read very early in life, the early reading I remember most is Highlights magazine. I don’t think I ever had my own subscription, but it was an ubiquitous presence in any doctor’s or dentist’s office I visited until I was eleven or twelve. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s sitting on the table in some Plano cosmetic dentist‘s office right now.

Admittedly, Highlights wasn’t great reading, but those oversized pages kept me occupied during many excessively boring doctor visits, and for that I am grateful.

As to learning to read, I don’t remember the process at all. I don’t even remember NOT being able to read.

Booking Through Thursday: Sensual

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On Thursday, March 18th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

(You thought I was going to ask something else, didn’t you? Admit it!)

I like vivid imagery as much as the next person, and I really appreciate it when an author can surprise me with a description, but I’m not a particular fan of lurid writing. I find it gets tiresome after a while. Give me a Diane Ackerman book – fiction or non – and I’m a happy woman. Give me Michael Perry, Kathleen Norris, or Madeleine L’Engle, and I’m completely satisfied. But even though all of them are extremely descriptive writers, none of them is particularly lurid or fruity.

Well, except when they’re writing about actual…fruit.

Booking Through Thursday: Twisty

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On Thursday, January 28th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Jackie says, “I love books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. What is your favourite book with a fantastic twist at the end?”

  1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?
  2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?

Just as auto insurance quote don’t always give you the result you expect, nor do good novels, but it should be noted that a complicated plot means nothing if the characters aren’t well-drawn, and the story well-told. There are great writers who tell fairly simple stories, and great plotters who pretty much suck at storytelling. Given that, however, I do like it when a book surprises me – it doesn’t happen often. I vaguely recall being surprised by Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy, but I don’t remember if the twists came within the meat of the stories or at the end.

There’s a novel called The Stake that was completely twisty (it’s a vampire novel that opens with someone finding a body with a stake in its heart and moves forward and backward in time until the story is made clear. Richard Laymon wrote it, but it’s nothing like any of his other work…sort of melding classic horror conventions with a true crime sensibility.

And then there’s Possession by A. S. Byatt. Byatt is always difficult for me to read, and I’m not sure why…but that novel’s ending really surprised me, and not particularly pleasantly.

Booking Through Thursday: Favorite Unknown

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On Thursday, October 29th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

I don’t know that any of the authors I read are particularly obscure, but I do think both Kathleen Norris and Lauren Willig are underrated. Kathleen Norris’s most famous work is The Cloister Walk which had quite a lot of media coverage when it originally came out, but her other works, most notably Dakota: a Spiritual Geography tend to be underplayed, and her poetry is just amazing. She’s one of the authors I would most like to meet. If you like poetry, consider a copy of Little Girls in Church.

Lauren Willig, on the other hand, is prolific and amazing. I don’t know what kind of anti aging product she keeps hidden in her bathroom, nor do I understand where she finds the energy to be an attorney and write historical novels, about a book a year, in hardcover, but as a long-time fan of The Scarlet Pimpernel, I was instantly hooked on Willig’s work when I picked up, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation several years ago. The newest book in the series, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is new this month.

Booking Through Thursday: Mark!

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On Thursday, October 29th, Booking through Thursday asked:

What items have you ever used as a bookmark? What is the most unusual item you’ve ever used or seen used?

True confession: Whether it’s a serious novel or a catalog offering a great selection of unique gifts for her, I tend to dog-ear, or use the flaps of a dust cover, rather than an actual bookmark, at least with my own books. I’ve even been known to – horror of horrors – leave an open book face down.

With books that belong to other people, however, I’m much more respectful, and always use bookmarks. What kind? Typical choices are:

  1. Business cards, usually other people’s, sometimes my own.
  2. A clean square of toilet paper (I read in the bathroom a lot.)
  3. The receipt telling me when a book is due back to the library.
  4. A used boarding pass from an airplane flight.
  5. Receipts from recent purchases.
  6. Emery boards.
  7. A dollar bill.
  8. Movie or theatre ticket stubs.
  9. Postcards.
  10. Hang-tags from new clothing.

Sadly, I’ve never noticed any particularly unusual or interesting bookmarks.