Weekend Reading Survey

I got this 'survey' in an email (yahoo group) and thought it would be funner to answer in my blog.

Some of these questions are ones you have answered before in one form or another, I know, but our answers are ever changing--sometimes , at least. :-) Answer as many or as few as you like.

(1) What book are you currently reading? Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen; Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

(2) How do you decide what book to read next? Good question. It's completely random most of the time. UNLESS the due date of a library book has to be considered.

(3) Do you always finish books, or do you give up on them? If you give up on them, how many pages does it usually take? I rarely give up on books. I may put them aside for later, but I rarely give up completely. Maybe 2 or 3 a year out of 200 or 300 read. I may "give up" on more books than that through the year but for different reasons. For example, some books get returned to the library unread simply because I didn't get to them in time and I don't want to bother with renewing them. But that's nothing personal. It wasn't the book. It was time.

(4) Do you ever re-read books you love? If so, how often? Please give examples, if possible. Yes. I do reread books. Ender's Game I read each and every year (since 2000). Right now I am planning a lot of rereads in the upcoming months and year. I would love to blog about some of my favorite books, and that will "require" a reread. BUT my rereads are mostly of children's books. I can read a Ramona book in under an hour. So while it may seem like my lists are exceedingly long, I can read very quickly. I don't plan on letting these "rereads" dominate my time. I still plan on reading EVERY 2008 book (children's & YA)

(5) Can you read books in noisy places (e.g., on trains and buses, crowded rooms)? I can read with the tv on. I can read with music on sometimes. But I'd never "read" while in motion.

(6) Where do you acquire most of your books? If you are a library user or borrower, how many books do you borrow at once? If a buyer, what is the average number of books you buy at once? I'm very very lucky to receive ARCs (galleys) and review copies. But I still read MANY MANY library books. This past week, I checked out 16 books. The week before that, 11 books. I would say some weeks I go as low at three or four, and other weeks I really push the limits of what I can carry back to the car.

(7) Do you use bookmarks, or dog-ear the pages of your books? Do you make marginal notes? If so, do you use pencil or pen? 98% of the time I use a bookmark. My bookmark might be a scrap of paper--a receipt, an index card--or an 'actual' bookmark that is attractive. But I rarely dog-ear pages. My rules with writing in books is relatively simple. It has to do with whether I have multiple copies of a book, if its fiction or nonfiction, if its for school or for pleasure, and if its a "favorite" of mine. When writing a research paper on a classic novel, I do underline typically in pencil, passages that I want to come back and study (analyze) more closely. But if I'm reading strictly for pleasure, it is rare I'll mark in a fiction book. Nonfiction, on the other hand, especially Christian nonfiction is MEANT to be underlined in my opinion.

(8) Do you have any unusual tendencies, while reading? Me? Unusual in any way? Never!

(9) Do you skim through pages at top speed, or do you stop to savor the sentences along the way? I read each and every page. But I read quickly. On occasion, I might skim a page. For example, in Les Miserables, I didn't read every line whenever it would go off on a tangent about war, battles, etc. I just didn't care. And I've been known to skip a few descriptive paragraphs now and again. But typically, I read everything.

(10) We know most of us can read just about anywhere, but let's be more specific: Where, and when, do you do your best reading? I read in bed. Day or night. Mostly at night between the hours of 9PM and 1AM.