I don't think I can resist this meme that has been making the rounds lately. I grabbed it from Litlove, but I see it popping up all over the place.
What are you reading right now? Although I have a nice, healthy stack of books started, I tend to focus on just a few at a time and then rotate them out, and new ones in (sometimes new ones get rotated in faster than old ones out, however). My current books du jour: The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (one of the Booker nominees, but I had planned on reading this anyway!), The River by Tricia Wastvedt (for the Reading Matters book group that will be discussed September 8), The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (very enjoyable--it's my daily lunchtime read), Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge (also enjoyable--I'm moving rather slowly on this one) and an essay from Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare After All.
Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that? Better late than never--I am finally going to start Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (the Garber essay was in preparation!), Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset--yay (if you want to read along see yesterday's post!), A Time for Dying by Reina James, High Rising by Angela Thirkell and one of my other Persephone titles! Hmm. That's sort of a long mental queue, isn't it. Two are library books, though, so they tend to cut in line.
What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now? I'm afraid the only reading material in this room is the back of shampoo bottles!
What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read? I honestly can't think of a book that I really hated that I had to read. There was probably something in school, but I must have disliked it so much that I blocked all memory of it.
What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone? I am a little leery of recommending books as tastes vary so much. I post lots of lists, I admit, but people can pick and choose from them as they like (if they like). I'm always afraid I will love something and recommend it and the person who reads it will hate it ,and then of course I'll feel bad. If I do recommend books, it is usually pretty general and it's whatever I just finished and liked (most recently Barbara Pym!).
Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they? Actually I am known there (the public library that is--I hope I am known at the library where I work)--at least at the circulation desk. Usually I will come in, drop off my returns, and go look at new books. Depending on who happens to be working, my stack of holds will be waiting for me on the counter even without having handed over my library card! Now that's service!
Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all? No doubt I gush often over books all the time, but you guys are just too nice to tell me that it's just not your thing! In the past I have had that problem with Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. I've given it away for gifts, but it was not always well received.
Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you’re on the computer? While you’re having sex? While you’re driving? I do read while I eat (if I am alone), but otherwise it has to be the only thing I am doing. I can't concentrate on more than one thing at once generally (not even listening to music while reading).
When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits? No. My best friend when I was a kid read more than I did! As much as I loved to read, I also had lots of other things to do as well, so reading never seemed to stick out as anything particularly unusual.
What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? I wish I could stay up late reading, but I get up too early these days. Usually I can handle a few pages before I am ready to fall asleep, if it is late, but that's it. When I was younger, though, I remember vividly staying up half the night reading The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons and books by Diana Gabaldon (the Outlander books that is). While neither is exactly overly literary, they both know how to tell a thumping good story!