I always try and start my blog posts the night before I actually save them for all the world to see. Sometimes I have all sorts of things I want to share, and sometimes I sit in front of my computer hoping it will give me some good suggestions. It's generally silent unfortunately. I've been saved however, as Stefanie has kindly tagged me to answer Kimbooktu's Bookish Meme.
1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? I prefer paperback as I have no more room for books and paperbacks at least take up less space. I will still buy hardcovers, though, if it is by a favorite author or I just can't wait for the paper and I want to own it. Now if I just had more room and more bookshelves...
2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…This is a hard one. I would want something literary and catchy at the same time. It might also depend on where the bookstore was located--sometimes addresses or street names lend themselves well to store names. Off hand I can't think of anything really good, so maybe I'll come back to this one later.
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…I'm not very good at remembering quotes. How about the first sentence from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Jane Austen is very memorable and very quotable!
4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be ….Since she is a recent discovery for me, and I find her very witty, I think it might be entertaining to have lunch with Barbara Pym.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…I've actually thought about this one before. It's a hard question to answer, but most likely I would bring along Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged of course). It has a little of everything--love and war and revenge and adventures and islands with buried treasure. And it is about 1,400 pages, and chock full of good stuff, so you wouldn't get bored quickly and it is a book I could happily read and reread.
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…. One that cleans the house, cooks, and does the laundry, so I would have more time to read, would be nice.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…. They remind me of used bookstores. If a book is musty smelling however, I try and steer clear of it. Musty smells remind me of garages and basements. I have a hard time reading musty smelling books--they're too distracting.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…. Maisie Dobbs (of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear). She's educated, and intelligent and very likeable. She's also independent and went off to France as a nurse during WWI.
9. The most overestimated book of all times is…. I tend to like or at least appreciate (on some level) most books that I read. Off hand I can't think of one (but maybe I'll come back to this one later, too).
10. I hate it when a book…. I hate it when a library book has highlighting in it, or worse yet a grubby library book. I admit I eat while reading, but I do my very best not to spill and splatter food and drink on any book. I've gotten books (these would be books I have waited in long lines for) that were so nasty I returned them unread. One book had chocolate smears all the way through. That scared me, so we won't go there....
Oops...forgot to mention...if you like memes--consider yourself tagged!