Let's Talk About Books!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
Paper backI have to REALLY REALLY want to read the book to buy it in hardback. which is usually the case so I guess I should just say hardback.

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Amazon. Yes - incredible as it sounds our local Borders (we don't have Barnes and Noble) sucks.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
borders. I would LOVE to have Full Circle at my disposal, but alas.

Bookmark or dogear?
Bookmark hardbacks, dogear everything else.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
Random sounds so much better than "all over the damn place."

Keep, throw away, or sell?
Keep. Always. Forever.

Keep dust jacket or toss it?
Keep it! What kind of uncultured savage would TOSS THE DUST JACKET?! I do tend to take the jacket off while I am reading it so I don't get it messed up.

Read with dust jacket or remove it?
Yeah, what I just said.

Short story or novel?
Usually novel. I have to be in the mood for short stories.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
I don't care. I have both.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Yes.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
Both. Either. And then there have been the nights when it is neither and I must drag my happy self to work looking like something the cat coughed up. Also see later question!

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
GACK. I am ashamed to say both

Buy or Borrow?
Buy, always. I HATE to borrow books other than the library. I must confess that I actually write in some of my books. I know. I heard the collective gasp of everyone on that confession

New or used?
Either, but if used it has to be in like-new condition. No sqicky stuff in the pages or irky smell

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?
All of the above.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Tidy endings! Cliffhangers make me feel ripped-off. Like the last chapter of the book is missing and I should get a discount, and then I feel I should write the author a letter of righeous indignation. Really.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading?
Usually nighttime, right before bed. IN bed. Then Steve can come move the book off me, take my glasses off, tuck me in, and turn out the light.

Stand-alone or series?
I used to like series books, but my attention span for them has waned as I've gotten older and I'm leaning more toward stand-alone stuff lately.

Favorite series?
Nancy Drew, Madeleine L'Engle's Time "trilogy", Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books (I know; I can't help it). The Lord of the Rings (HEY I liked it before it was COOL to like it)

Favorite children's book?
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub (Oh WHO knows WHAT to DO?) Ok that last part was purely for my children because that is how that particular book had to be read. Wind in the Willows - is that really a childen's book? Bruno the Beagle - that is for John Forrest. The pigeon book being read by Steve to Theo

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Pigtopia by Kitty Fitzgerald

Favorite books read last year?
If "last year" means the twelve months prior to today, then: A Cooks Tour, Looking for Mary, City of Fallen Angels

Favorite books of all time?
Our Lady of the Lost and Found, Memoirs of Cleopatra and there are a bunch more but I cannot remember them all!

Least favorite book you finished last year?
Something by Sue Monk Kidd - not the Mermaid Chair or the Secret Life of Bees but something else that wants women to jump in the ocean while holdling red yarn to connect each other or some other such crap as that. The Life of Pi - hated it, Sorry Andrea!

What was the last book you finished?
City of Fallen Angels

What are you reading right now?
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

What are you reading next?
I have no idea.....