Book meme.
May. 2nd, 2009 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeWhich I got from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
calapine.
01. Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I like to read while I eat, so anything that requires only one hand to eat is useful. I don't have a particular foodstuff I associate with reading. Also things that will not leave greasy marks on the books.
02. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I don't mark my books when I read at all. The reasons are threefold:
1. I find it difficult to read smoothly when things are underlined or otherwise marked, so
2. I like my books not just as vehicles for words, but as objects in their own right. I like them to be as unmarked as possible
3. I am also aware of them as objects that it is likely I might need to pass on/sell at some point, so partly I don't want to do anything that would reduce their value, and partly I don't want to have marked them if their next owners wouldn't like it.
Other people can do what they like with their books. But people who write in library books are awful people, and people who do so "but only in pencil" are if anything WORSE, because they never erase the marks themselves, just leave them for other people, and the lines, the lines never go away.
03. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Mostly I grab the nearest piece of paper and use that. I don't use special bookmarks - I have the persephone ones in a neat pile somewhere, and occasionally people give me nice ones as presents and I feel guilty for not using them, but I don't see the point in trying to remember to bring along a special bit of thing to mark a page when a ticket stub will do. I do occasionally leave a book open on a surface, but usually only if it'll be there for a short while.
04. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Fiction, by some way.
05. Hardcopy or audiobooks?
Actual books, because otherwise I zone out and find I've missed bits and it's more difficult to flip back and find where you should be in an audio book, and I can't listen to music or watch TV at the same time.
06. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
I am mostly able to put a book down at any point. I only read to the end of chapters if I'm having trouble getting through a book and need to set targets. Usually what happens is I tell myself I'll read tot he end of the chapter, and then the start of the next chapter is too exciting, and then it's 3am.
07. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? Write it down to look it up later? Just try to infer what it means from the rest of the sentence, and keep going?
I don't usually come across words that not knowing spoils the rest of the sentence. I try to write it down to look up later (I used to have a list of words but somehow stopped), but more often I just skip it.
08. What are you currently reading?
I am reading The Cockhouse at Fellsgarth by Talbot Baines Reed, which is great but has very small text, and The Making of Our Bodies Ourselves, which I'm really enjoying but it's taking me a long time to get through because I'm reading it for review so have to concentrate. Oh, and my "not quite work but close enough to count so's not to feel guilty" book for reading between chapters of Focault is Sex and the British. While answering question 10 I have realised that I'm also nominally in the middle of a book about working class suffragettes, but I haven't read any of that for about two months.
09. What is the last book you bought?
I don't know! I have cut right down on buying books recently, I am properly proud of myself. Oh, actually it's probably The Fourth Was Fun for Philippa, but that's not just buying random books, that's buying stuff I collect, which is entirely different.
10. Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can read more than one at a time?
More than one at a time, definitely. This is quite a lot down to laziness - if I am in bed and my book is not at hand, I start another. Also wanting to read different things at different times, so that if I'm reading a social history thing I'm more likely to feel like what I really need in my life is teen fic. (I mostly feel like teen fic all the time anyway.) Unfortunately what tends to happen is that I end up with too many books on the go at once, get overwhelmed and abandon half of them part the way through.
11. Do you like re-reading books?
Yes. I have so many books precisely because of this. I want to keep everything I like because I imagine I'll want to read it again, and what if I got rid of it and couldn't find it when I wanted? I think I reread Antonia Forest the most of all my books, but also Hilary McKay, Noel Streatfeild, Caroline B Cooney. Mostly children's books, but then they are easier to reread.
calapine.01. Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I like to read while I eat, so anything that requires only one hand to eat is useful. I don't have a particular foodstuff I associate with reading. Also things that will not leave greasy marks on the books.
02. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I don't mark my books when I read at all. The reasons are threefold:
1. I find it difficult to read smoothly when things are underlined or otherwise marked, so
2. I like my books not just as vehicles for words, but as objects in their own right. I like them to be as unmarked as possible
3. I am also aware of them as objects that it is likely I might need to pass on/sell at some point, so partly I don't want to do anything that would reduce their value, and partly I don't want to have marked them if their next owners wouldn't like it.
Other people can do what they like with their books. But people who write in library books are awful people, and people who do so "but only in pencil" are if anything WORSE, because they never erase the marks themselves, just leave them for other people, and the lines, the lines never go away.
03. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Mostly I grab the nearest piece of paper and use that. I don't use special bookmarks - I have the persephone ones in a neat pile somewhere, and occasionally people give me nice ones as presents and I feel guilty for not using them, but I don't see the point in trying to remember to bring along a special bit of thing to mark a page when a ticket stub will do. I do occasionally leave a book open on a surface, but usually only if it'll be there for a short while.
04. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Fiction, by some way.
05. Hardcopy or audiobooks?
Actual books, because otherwise I zone out and find I've missed bits and it's more difficult to flip back and find where you should be in an audio book, and I can't listen to music or watch TV at the same time.
06. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
I am mostly able to put a book down at any point. I only read to the end of chapters if I'm having trouble getting through a book and need to set targets. Usually what happens is I tell myself I'll read tot he end of the chapter, and then the start of the next chapter is too exciting, and then it's 3am.
07. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? Write it down to look it up later? Just try to infer what it means from the rest of the sentence, and keep going?
I don't usually come across words that not knowing spoils the rest of the sentence. I try to write it down to look up later (I used to have a list of words but somehow stopped), but more often I just skip it.
08. What are you currently reading?
I am reading The Cockhouse at Fellsgarth by Talbot Baines Reed, which is great but has very small text, and The Making of Our Bodies Ourselves, which I'm really enjoying but it's taking me a long time to get through because I'm reading it for review so have to concentrate. Oh, and my "not quite work but close enough to count so's not to feel guilty" book for reading between chapters of Focault is Sex and the British. While answering question 10 I have realised that I'm also nominally in the middle of a book about working class suffragettes, but I haven't read any of that for about two months.
09. What is the last book you bought?
I don't know! I have cut right down on buying books recently, I am properly proud of myself. Oh, actually it's probably The Fourth Was Fun for Philippa, but that's not just buying random books, that's buying stuff I collect, which is entirely different.
10. Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can read more than one at a time?
More than one at a time, definitely. This is quite a lot down to laziness - if I am in bed and my book is not at hand, I start another. Also wanting to read different things at different times, so that if I'm reading a social history thing I'm more likely to feel like what I really need in my life is teen fic. (I mostly feel like teen fic all the time anyway.) Unfortunately what tends to happen is that I end up with too many books on the go at once, get overwhelmed and abandon half of them part the way through.
11. Do you like re-reading books?
Yes. I have so many books precisely because of this. I want to keep everything I like because I imagine I'll want to read it again, and what if I got rid of it and couldn't find it when I wanted? I think I reread Antonia Forest the most of all my books, but also Hilary McKay, Noel Streatfeild, Caroline B Cooney. Mostly children's books, but then they are easier to reread.
