Ten Things About Books And Me

This post is inspired by this week’s Weekly Geeks prompt.

1.) I dog-ear pages.  Sacrilege to some, but I can’t keep track of bookmarks; bookmarks get lost when my book falls out of my hands when I fall asleep reading, which is pretty often.

2.) I read soft-back when I’m buying, but my mom sends me lots of hard backs, so my bookshelf is a mix of both.

3.) I rarely buy second-hand books, though I love the ambiance of second-hand bookshops.  I don’t check books out of the library, though I’m a supporter of public libraries and use them to research and, sometimes, as a quiet (and inspiring) place to write.  The truth is that I love reading brand new books that no one’s ever read.  I love being the first to crack a spine; I see it as sort of an honor, plus I figure that every time I buy a new book (which is pretty often), I’m supporting the literary world—and a specific author—in the most direct way I can.

4.) I’m usually reading two books at once, but sometimes three.  I’ll go through stints where I have an upstairs book, a downstairs book, and a car book (no worries on this last category: it’s for when I’m waiting, not for while I’m driving).

5.) Though lately I’ve been on a blog-inspired YA kick, I read widely in lots of genres, new and old, “literary” and “genre,” though there are lots of areas I have yet to foray into including romance and westerns.  But there’s still time and seemingly endless possibilities.

6.) As with any reader, my favorite authors are constantly evolving, but on my current list: Amitav Ghosh, e.l. konigsburg, Orhan Pamuk, J.D. Salinger, Barbara Kingsolver, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and (always!) Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  (I’ll stop there before I go on forever.)

7.) I’ve kept a book journal with the title and author of every book I’ve read since June of 2006.

8.) My best book recommender is my mom.  We have a book club of two.

9.) I’m pretty picky about non-fiction, yet two of my all-time favorite books are non-fiction: Electric Universe and E=MC2, both by David Bodanis.

10.) I’ve been book blogging since last August.  I started my blog as a project for my MFA program, and as I near the end of that requirement, I’m faced with the decision of where (and if) I want to go next with the blogging world.  Do I continue writing into the void (because really, it often feels that way)?  Do I change the scope or style of the blog?  Do I move on into other adventures?  We’ll see what happens…but no matter what, I’ll always, always, always be a reader.