This was posted a while ago on Booking Through Thursday – never a better time than now to answer it 😉
It’s long – 55 questions! – so I’ll be posting it 10-ish questions at a time, for the next few Thursdays.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
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46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Ahem… Too much.
Ok so went I went to Portland, OR in April 2006 for an undergraduate symposium in Art History in which I was presenting, I was directed to Powell’s Bookstore. Oh my gasp – what a bookstore!! It’s HUGE! It’s themed room is about the size of a Chapter’s, it’s a whole city block square, with multiple stories. I spent a whole evening in there – and left with many, many new (and gently used) books. I don’t remember the amount, but I do remember it became problematic when I packed my luggage – it didn’t fit! It was packed to exploding, and the clerk at the airport check-in wasn’t sure it wouldn’t just literally burst open. So a fellow presenter I had met at the conference, a local, who had kindly given me a ride to the airport, rummaged through his car to find plastic bags, and I carried-on part of my purchases. I love that story 🙂
More recently, I went to a Book Show with my sister for my birthday. I had about $120 spending money, my sister and her boyfriend gave me ~$30 as a gift, and my parents $60. Yea, I had nothing left.
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47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Always – I skim the table of content, and get a grasp of what each chapter is about, for textbooks, or how the chapters/parts of the story are divided, for novel. I have a very organized mind: I like to know how long is a chapter, how many there are, how the book is divided. When I start a new chapter, I often look to see at which page it ends – not that I can’t wait to get through it, but I like to know what to “expect”, so to speak. I don’t usually skim the book itself though, when it’s a novel – but I might do it for a textbook.
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48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Pretty much nothing, although, again, I’m re-evaluating that, as mentioned in question #37.
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49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes – I’m an organization junkie! Right now, they are roughly organized by type, mostly by size (I’m visual – the look of books organized by size trumps the by type/subject) in my bedroom bookshelf. On my Nook, they are organized by type/genre.
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50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep. Although I’m starting to have a lot, and I’m actively trying to reduce my clutter. So those I know I’ll never re-read (mostly novels, that were good, but not memorable), I put in my Book Exchange bin, and I regularly host Book Exchange playdates with my various playgroups. Worst-case scenario, I can always rent them back from the library 😉
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51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Not really. I avoided reading Twilight until I had all 4 books in trade paperback – I prefer that format, and I hate starting a series and not being able to continue it (unless it’s because the following book is not out yet). Then again, I might wait until all books are out too 😉
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52. Name a book that made you angry.
Chat : -), Connect }:-), and Crash ; -), by Nan McCarthy – the ending pretty much killed it for me. I talk about it here.
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53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill, and Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafidi, which were both Book Club selections. They were so uninteresting to me, that, after reading their synopsis, I didn’t even vote for them in the selection poll. But I’m glad I read them, they were both very good indeed!
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54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Brick Lane, by Monica Ali, another Book Club selection, which I had that time voted for, and was looking forward to read. It just – didn’t like. I’ve linked to my review in an earlier question, here it is again.
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55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Twilight Saga 😛
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The End.
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