Tag: memes

I saw this meme at The Book Zombie, and have been thinking about doing end-of-the-year stats instead of looking at the numbers on my blog\’s birthday (middle of August). So even though I kind of did this just four months ago, I\’m looking at a year\’s worth of reading again. The questions are a bit different, and it sounds better to say \”I read so many books in 2009\” than it does \”I read so many books in the last year since my blog began\” ha ha. (So this is probably going to be tradition here from now on, with some other kind of hoopla going on here on my blogiversary).

The actual questions here are borrowed from Savidge Reads.

How many books read in 2009?
94. Not the most I\’ve ever done in a year, but pretty good when you consider I\’m raising a toddler, tending to the demands of two cats, and trying to get back into drawing and painting again.

How many fiction and non fiction?
31 fiction and 63 non-. Wow. I was surprised by that. I knew I was reading more non-fiction lately, but not that it was twice as much as fiction. I used to read so much more fantasy, too.

Books about animals?
(I added this question, because I read so many of them!) Fiction and non-fiction featuring animals: 51. Everything else: 43.

Male/Female author ratio?
40 women authors and 52 men. And two written by a man/woman team, which I assume were spouses. Pretty even. I never even thought about this before; I don\’t pay much attention to whether the authors I read are male or female. I don\’t really have a preference, either.

Favourite book read?
It\’s so hard to choose, but I think I would have to say Kon-Tiki. It was just so thrilling to read, and I remember at the end feeling charged with excitement and wonder, and blabbing on and on about it to my husband. I hadn\’t felt that worked up about a book in a long time.

Least favourite?
Emma. Sorry to say. There were a lot of other books that disappointed me, or got dull and I had to force myself to finish. But they were all within my normal reading interests, whereas Emma was not only a very dull book, but one of a genre I don\’t usually read, so it was more difficult to make myself read the whole thing.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
16. Once or twice a month I usually encounter a book I just can\’t get through. Usually just because they\’re boring me- or I\’m much more interested in another topic at the time. For more details, you can always read the posts about each abandoned book.

Oldest book read?
No question that it\’s Emma. First pubished in 1816. Next-oldest was The Egg and I, published in 1945.

Newest?
I read nine books published in 2008. (Only half of those were sent to me by the publisher). Had to look at the actual month they were printed in to find the very newest, and I think that would be Chalice, which came out in November.

Longest and shortest book titles?
Assuming I can include the subtitle (some of those get really long!) the longest would be Compost This Book! The Art of Composting for your Yard, your Community, and the Planet. Three tied for short ones: Sand, Frogs, and Fluke.

Longest and shortest books?
The whopping door-stopper was Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, at 782 pages. The next contender was Daughters of the Sunstone, 697 pages. And Wolf Totem, 527 pages. Then a few four-hundred pagers, the rest in the normal range (two or three hundred pages). Shortest book was Poop, 61 pages.

How many books from the library?
3. Very, very few. I know I\’ve been trying to plow through all the piles and piles of books that make their way into my house, but I really do want to support my local library more. I\’m working on that this year.

Any translated books?
4. They were Wolf Totem, My Beaver Colony, The Little Prince and Kon-Tiki. The one that definitely felt the most foreign was Wolf Totem. (By which I mean that the sentence structure and use of foreign words made me feel like I was reading a work written in another language. Sometimes I like that).

I think it was Clare Bell. I read 3 of her books.

Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Mongolia, Sweden, England, Scotland, Argentina, Ecuador, Israel, Egypt, Chile, Kenya and several other countries in Africa. If I could count the imaginary places from fantasy and sci-fi novels, this list would be longer!

I don\’t know if this really counts as a recommendation, as I can\’t recall her actually telling me I should read it, but I know I picked up Their Eyes Were Watching God because I\’ve always seen it on my sister\’s shelf, and I think it\’s one of her favorites.

A few. Betty Macdonald, Edward Abbey, Susanna Clarke, Thor Heyerdahl, Thalassa Cruso.

5. They were Red Fox, The Cats of Lamu, Daughters of the Sunstone, The Little Prince and Ratha and Thistle-Chaser. All but one are books I read as a child and loved (but didn\’t necessarily love the second time around) and they were fun to re-visit. The Cats of Lamu I had read once back in college when I found it in the library; read it again after finally acquiring my own copy.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
Yes. I\’d had The Other End of the Leash on my TBR for ages, and when I finally read it I could see why it was always hard to find at the library! A very good book.

This question comes from Booking Through Thursday, and it\’s rather long, so I\’ve just included highlights here (or what I want to answer):

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control…?

The last (and pretty much only) time I seriously weeded my library was when we moved from California to Virginia. We had a volkswagon type van and filled it to the brim with all the stuff we could carry, and drove it across the country. There was little room (or weight capacity) for all my books. I left half of them behind (a few hundred). It really hurt to cull them all out! Once we found a permanent place here I settled all my books on the shelves, and after a while started missing many of those left behind. Over the past few years I\’ve gradually found new copies of many of them. If I run out of shelf space I might start getting a little more picky, or ferret out those books I don\’t truly love, but for now I\’m not putting a cap on it. Dangerous, I know!

Only two times ever have I thrown a book away. Both had come to me used. One had such an awful odor I felt sick every time I tried to read it. Trash can. The other had some pages stuck together with gum, no way I could get that apart and still read it. That book got composted into my garden.

Books that I don\’t want to keep- that I\’m not enthralled with or don\’t see myself reading again- either get traded on Paperback Swap or Book Mooch. Sometimes I make up a box and send to Powell\’s for credit so I can buy more hard-to-find books I really want from them. (I used to trade books in for credit at used bookstores in person, but there aren\’t any close to where I live now). At my local community center they have a book trade every month, I take a lot of books there and look for new ones. And the last time I traveled to my in-laws I left a book behind that I read on the trip, decided not to keep and found someone who wanted to read it. One route or another, the books I don\’t want find their way into the hands of new readers.

What about you? Do you regularly cull through your book collection, or only (like me) in dire straits? What happens to the books you decide not to keep?

Sandy Nawrot at You\’ve GOTTA Read This! tagged me for this fun ABC meme several weeks ago, and I never got around to it until today. So here you go, some tidbits about me: Available or single? Nope. Married! Best Friend? my husband Cake or Pie? Cake Drink of choice? Horchata Essential item for every day use? Birkenstocks Favorite color? Blue Google? Yeah, I google everything Hometown? Born in San Francisco, grew up in Seattle. I consider Seattle my hometown. Indulgences? Chocolate. Books. Steaming hot baths. With candles. Preferably all together. January or February? um, what? Kids and their names? Isabel, 4 Life is incomplete without…? A cat in residence Marriage date? Jan 2nd. We wanted it to be New Year\’s Day, but that didn\’t happen Number of siblings? Three sisters Oranges or apples? Apples. Organic, so you can enjoy chewing the skin without a bitter taste of pesticides. Phobias and fears? Mold. Especially on food. Freaks me out. I can squash spiders and chase snakes, but have to call hubby to remove a fuzzy orange from the fruit bowl. Quote for the day? \”A good novel tells us the truth about is hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.\” – G.K. Chesterton Reason to smile? The smell of rain in springtime. Blooming nasturtiums. A purring cat. Season? Fall. I love the crisp smell in the air, and the colors of the leaves. Tag 3 people? Caribousmom, Jenny, Trish or anyone who wants to join in! Unknown fact about me? I played the clarinet in high school (not very well) Vegetable you hate? Turnips Worst habit? Chewing my nails X-rays you’ve had? My broken toe! Your fave food? Right now I\’d love some chicken mole Zodiac sign? I don\’t read horoscopes, but I\’m a Libra

quick questions and answers, from Booking Through Thursday

• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? Depends on my mood
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? No preference
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction? A good mix of both
• Poetry? Or Prose? Prose
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies? no preference
• History? Or Historical Fiction? Historical fiction
• Series? Or Stand-alones? I like both
• Classics? Or best-sellers? Something in between
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? Again, in-between
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? Plots
• Long books? Or Short? Medium
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? Non. I like to think up my own images
• Borrowed? Or Owned? Library! Owned books are for keeps
• New? Or Used? Used suits me just fine.

Hm, I think I was really undecided on a lot of those. O well, it was fun. How about you? Any preferences?

From Booking Through Thursday:

There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.) But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.What niche books do YOU read?

I think books about making compost tops the list. Vegetable gardening books, natural history, animal training/behavior and novels from an animal\’s viewpoint are more favorites of mine that don\’t seem that common with other readers. What about you?

At first when I saw this meme from Booking Through Thursday on so many blogs, I thought it was a \”sticky post\” about favorite books, but actually it\’s about books that stick in your mind. \”Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.\” For me these are books I might have read years ago, but they made such a lasting impression on me I could easily tell you all about the characters, the setting, the plot, practically quote lines and conversations right out of the book. Perhaps when I\’m not quite so tired I\’ll come back here and mention something about the less familiar ones…

Roots– Alex Haley
Amy\’s Eyes – Richard Kennedy
Gentle Gorilla– Susan Green
Ratha\’s Creature– Clare Bell
Ender\’s Game– Orson Scott Card
The Poisonwood Bible– Barbara Kingsolver
Watership Down– Richard Adams
Call It Sleep– Henry Roth
The Chosen– Chaim Potok
Dogsbody– Diana Wynne Jones
The Hobbit– J.R.R. Tolkien
Ariel– Steven Boyett
Dragonsbane– Barbara Hambly
An Edge of the Forest– Agnes Smith
The Clan of the Cave Bear– Jean M. Auel

from Booking Through Thursday:

Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

Of course I\’m a book glutton! I simply can\’t resist. The last time I remember having actually read everything on my shelves was back in high school. Usually I have more books on hand than I can catch up to and still acquire more, somehow. Currently (if my Library Thing tags are up to date) I have about 125 books sitting in the bedroom that haven\’t been read yet. The only way I make any inroads on the piles is due to the fact that if a book just isn\’t interesting me, I have no qualms about clearing it off my shelf. So out of those 125, I probably won\’t like -and won\’t finish- maybe a third of them. And just yesterday I was thinking it\’s about time to go to that thrift store nearby where I can get thirty books for four dollars…. wouldn\’t you?

from Booking Through Thursday:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?

Right now I\’m reading two books (see the sidebar). Usually it\’s just one at a time, occasionally two or more. (They have to be on different subjects. Currently, it\’s a large historical fiction novel, and a book on gardening). My current reads rest on the bedside table, or hang around the couch during the day. (They often go along in the car, too!)

from Booking Through Thursday, the flip side of last week\’s question:

What’s the best ‘worst’ book you’ve ever read — the one you like despite some negative reviews or features?

I can\’t really think of any books I\’ve liked that got lots of bad reviews. I have plenty of favorites that seem to be kind of obscure or unpopular- like Call It Sleep, The Bone People, The Lute Player…. Oh, and I do still like The Clan of the Cave Bear (read it at least four or five times) even though it\’s sexist, the protagonist is practically a Neanderthal superwoman and a lot of the historical details are totally inaccurate. (The rest of the series was junk, though. I struggled through The Valley of Horses and quit a few chapters into The Mammoth Hunters. Too much sex, flat characters, pointless plots).

As for a book I really liked in spite of negative features, I still have admiration for Richard Monaco\’s books Parsival and The Grail War, even though I found a lot of the details distasteful, nothing admirable in the characters, and the storyline wandering to the point of confusion, there was just something about the descriptions and the writing that enthralled me. I continue to puzzle over those books and wonder what to do with them- I can\’t imagine reading them again, yet I can\’t quite bring myself to pull them off my shelf for good, either.