Reading Survey

I found this tho other day posted by Ashley at The Book Labyrinth. It was fun to take, so copy and paste or answer one of questions in a comment below!

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Definitely my crime books, both fiction and non-fiction. Before I really got into young-adult, I read a lot of mystery/crime books and true crime, serial killers in particular. May sound strange, but I guess it was for the same reasons that I watch CSI and all those shows. They're interesting.  

 

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

I just finished Blood Lite II: Overbite by multiple authors - short stories. I have a strange way of picking my next read. Sometimes I know. When I don't, I stare. I just stare at my bookcases and contemplate every unread book, feel them out, and the one I keep going back to is the one. Lately I've been looking at Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith. 

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?

The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Of course I wanted to like whatever book the author of Twilight wrote but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't even finish it. My intention is to make another attempt if it is to become a movie one day. If not, I probably won't pick it back up any time soon.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

Dracula. I have it because I'd like to experience the original for myself and be able to make comparisons and know when a Stoker reference is being made. However, I think the time for this book will be when I have run out of other books to read first. Which might take a while.

5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?" 
Lucy by Laurence Gonzales. I'm intrigued enough that I want to read it but I'm in no rush to do so.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end? 

I can usually resist the temptation to peek at the end but sometimes I give in, just a little. Never enough to spoil anything, just enough to get a name or last words.

7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

I like to read acknowledgments of my favorite authors, to get a glimpse into their lives and the process they went through for that book. Sometimes they get help in unexpected areas which make for interesting shout-outs. 

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Laurel of Aprilynne Pike's Spells. She's a faerie that grows a giant flower out of her back once a year and has special abilities. Plus this super great guy is madly in love with her. She practically lives between the human world and the faerie world. Best of both. 

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

The Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale. It reminds me of a friend I had in the fourth grade. She gave me this book and it sparked my love of poetry. I started writing my own. If she never gave me that book, I wonder who I'd be.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

Wicked Nights by Nina Bangs. My bestie and I were in the dollar store, tossing through books in a bin when she picked one up and laughed at its corny title and told me to "look at this one". I said, "I need that one!" It was part of a series I only had one other book to. Lucky find!

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I wish I could say yes. I only buy people books I know they want - I'm not gonna spend good book money on something they may or may not read! And I do NOT give away my books. Uh-uh.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
I don't like to travel with my books for fear that they will get ruined. However, I did take Liar by Justine Larbalestier to Aruba with me, thinking I'd clock in some good book-on-the-beach time. I did not. And I just slept on the plane.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later? 

I haven't re-read anything from high school but I don't remember hating any of it. I particularly enjoyed Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mocking Bird. 

14. What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?

Nothing interesting. Probably just old bookmarks.

15. Used or brand new?
My YA books have to be new. I'm picky with my covers. I like them to be in good condition. I also love really old books. The look, the smell, the sound of crinkly pages.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

I've never read a Stephen King novel and his movies usually scare the crap out of me.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

There have only been four (three of them Twilight books) and all the books were better.

18. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

I can't think of one in particular but any time a character mentions eating a piece of chocolate or having steak and potatoes for dinner, my mouth waters.

19. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

My bestie. No one else reads what I read and it's just one more thing we have in common. If she says a book is good, it's good.