a reading questionnaire nicked from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
phantomtomato
This week I'm reading: finished Mayhem & Mass, a cozy mystery; started ... She Who Became the Sun and As You Like it and uh... there's also a mystery audiobook I fell asleep during... I think I ostensibly have 11 in progress books right now on Storygraph. Why am I like this!
My favourite book of all time is: ...I have no idea
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): uhm... The Widows of Malabar Hill and Maisie Dobbs both left significant impressions; and I was reminded on reread of how I like/how formative both Fforde's Nursery Crime and the first 4-5 Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) books were for me.
The last book I bought was: ...an armful of Very Cheap! library book sale nonfiction (sub $10 for the armful!), including a few textbooks (analytical chem, cellular biology, ~rhetoric), a few quilt books, something about electrical transmission, and a gardening/cooking squash book... I have an issue with book acquisition...
The first book I bought with my own money: I don't know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I suppose that one memorable childhood purchase might be The Westing Game, although there's one or two bits I wish were not embedded in my brain (not traumatic, just Weirdness about eg women's bodies).
Also I was privileged enough that I got to be part of a couple of Scholastic Book Fair historical fiction diary subscriptions that came with crafty kits for a bit... Including an intro to rosewater, and a very basic version of something that I think persists in one (dormant) facet of my taste in jewelry...
The first book I received as a gift: That was probably pre-memory, as I'd bet I got Christmas or birthday books as a wee thing? The most memorable early such is probably the set of Nancy Drew books, Nos. 46-50 (The Invisible Intruder, The Mysterious Mannequin, The Crooked Banister, The Secret of Mirror Bay, and The Double Jinx Mystery) that were probably more or less a 9th birthday present. Crooked Banister is probably particularly memorable to me :)
The last book I received as a gift was: ...well there was the now customary Taste of Home annual (I forget whether it's numbered '25 or '26) at Christmas, from my aunt.
The last book I borrowed from the library: ...another armful, mixed cozies and sff, including The Tombs of Atuan and the sequel to Mayhem and Mass
The book physically closest to me right now: well, there's Murdle: School of Mystery, and The Secret of Red Gate Farm which I mean to reread before probably donating to a little free library or similar...and there's the Rancho Gordo Bean Book...
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? um, well, I don't avoid it but I don't consider myself well-informed in the subgenre, and other than one or two incidentally bookshop ...involved fics, I don't particularly remember any.
(one is not necessarily a general rec because it happened to be kinky, and on second thought the other doesn't especially involve Aziraphale's shop... plus, well... *gestures at the authors on my copy of the book* ...and I think I have somewhat more conflicted thoughts about that fic, which is a sequel.)
Physical book or e-book: either for different purposes? there are advantages (...and disadvantages) to a physical copy for anything I am referencing, but then it's a lot easier to carry an ebook reader...
Used or new: it's not that I dislike new books but I am drawn to the thrift and eco-friendliness of used books, plus anything slightly obscure and out of print is apt to be used... When possible I will get fiction from the library 80-90% of the time, but I like to buy craft and cookbooks, and instructional books, and...
Fiction or non-fiction: I don't know! until recently I felt like I was in a phase of reading closer to 50/50 of each. but fiction does tend to supply more low-demand books? and so effectively it's usually a majority of my reading by number of books. And often by pages, but that may sometimes be less dramatic.
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: ...I'm technically more likely to read at the park, but it can be difficult to achieve a good scenario? I have never really gotten in the habit of hanging out at coffee shops for longer than it takes to finish any food I've bought. (I'm also bad at reading at the library, because of the allure of all their other books!)
Paperback or hardcover: There are cases where I do appreciate hardcover but in a lot of cases I do find advantages to paperback (lighter, for one, and not apt to have an annoyingly flappy slipcover... though if I could persuade myself, in theory I could remove those from my own copies... hmmm) I don't have strong preferences here, basically.
Romance or Crime: I suppose Crime here, although I'm not sure that my mystery reading qualifies as Crime-the-genre much of the time. I have been reading the occasional romance, but mostly queer ones, or occasionally relatively feminist het.
Stream of consciousness? ...sure
Poetry? now and again I'm in the mood.
...despite the fact that it's like, purportedly a more natural meter in English, the way that iambic meter sticks in my head bothers me way more than say, trochee's similar tendency ("any fairly practiced writer with the slightest ear for rhythm could compose for hours together in the easy running meter of the song of Hiawatha." ;) -Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll)
Memoirs? rarely. but sometimes.
Philosophy? ...sometimes. depends on the philosopher as to how often I feel like reading it.
Thrillers? occasionally. not necessarily my usual taste.
Chronicles? ...I don't know what this constitutes as a modern genre, tbh? I suppose that tells you that I don't really consume these. so ...more of a no, I guess? I mean, I did read Chronicles of Narnia as a kid.
Dialogue heavy? ...sure
and! I sorted out how to do this-- for any of your ask meme using-copy/pasting needs:
...and, today I ran what I worked out was probably 1.7 miles, in 25 minutes. (Yes, I'm relatively slow at running.) Saturday (when I will probably try to get to 2 miles despite the "25 minutes" instruction) and then two more weeks left of C25K...
phantomtomatoGeneral Questions
This week I'm reading: finished Mayhem & Mass, a cozy mystery; started ... She Who Became the Sun and As You Like it and uh... there's also a mystery audiobook I fell asleep during... I think I ostensibly have 11 in progress books right now on Storygraph. Why am I like this!
My favourite book of all time is: ...I have no idea
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): uhm... The Widows of Malabar Hill and Maisie Dobbs both left significant impressions; and I was reminded on reread of how I like/how formative both Fforde's Nursery Crime and the first 4-5 Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) books were for me.
The last book I bought was: ...an armful of Very Cheap! library book sale nonfiction (sub $10 for the armful!), including a few textbooks (analytical chem, cellular biology, ~rhetoric), a few quilt books, something about electrical transmission, and a gardening/cooking squash book... I have an issue with book acquisition...
The first book I bought with my own money: I don't know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I suppose that one memorable childhood purchase might be The Westing Game, although there's one or two bits I wish were not embedded in my brain (not traumatic, just Weirdness about eg women's bodies).
Also I was privileged enough that I got to be part of a couple of Scholastic Book Fair historical fiction diary subscriptions that came with crafty kits for a bit... Including an intro to rosewater, and a very basic version of something that I think persists in one (dormant) facet of my taste in jewelry...
The first book I received as a gift: That was probably pre-memory, as I'd bet I got Christmas or birthday books as a wee thing? The most memorable early such is probably the set of Nancy Drew books, Nos. 46-50 (The Invisible Intruder, The Mysterious Mannequin, The Crooked Banister, The Secret of Mirror Bay, and The Double Jinx Mystery) that were probably more or less a 9th birthday present. Crooked Banister is probably particularly memorable to me :)
The last book I received as a gift was: ...well there was the now customary Taste of Home annual (I forget whether it's numbered '25 or '26) at Christmas, from my aunt.
The last book I borrowed from the library: ...another armful, mixed cozies and sff, including The Tombs of Atuan and the sequel to Mayhem and Mass
The book physically closest to me right now: well, there's Murdle: School of Mystery, and The Secret of Red Gate Farm which I mean to reread before probably donating to a little free library or similar...and there's the Rancho Gordo Bean Book...
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? um, well, I don't avoid it but I don't consider myself well-informed in the subgenre, and other than one or two incidentally bookshop ...involved fics, I don't particularly remember any.
(one is not necessarily a general rec because it happened to be kinky, and on second thought the other doesn't especially involve Aziraphale's shop... plus, well... *gestures at the authors on my copy of the book* ...and I think I have somewhat more conflicted thoughts about that fic, which is a sequel.)
This or that
Physical book or e-book: either for different purposes? there are advantages (...and disadvantages) to a physical copy for anything I am referencing, but then it's a lot easier to carry an ebook reader...
Used or new: it's not that I dislike new books but I am drawn to the thrift and eco-friendliness of used books, plus anything slightly obscure and out of print is apt to be used... When possible I will get fiction from the library 80-90% of the time, but I like to buy craft and cookbooks, and instructional books, and...
Fiction or non-fiction: I don't know! until recently I felt like I was in a phase of reading closer to 50/50 of each. but fiction does tend to supply more low-demand books? and so effectively it's usually a majority of my reading by number of books. And often by pages, but that may sometimes be less dramatic.
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: ...I'm technically more likely to read at the park, but it can be difficult to achieve a good scenario? I have never really gotten in the habit of hanging out at coffee shops for longer than it takes to finish any food I've bought. (I'm also bad at reading at the library, because of the allure of all their other books!)
Paperback or hardcover: There are cases where I do appreciate hardcover but in a lot of cases I do find advantages to paperback (lighter, for one, and not apt to have an annoyingly flappy slipcover... though if I could persuade myself, in theory I could remove those from my own copies... hmmm) I don't have strong preferences here, basically.
Romance or Crime: I suppose Crime here, although I'm not sure that my mystery reading qualifies as Crime-the-genre much of the time. I have been reading the occasional romance, but mostly queer ones, or occasionally relatively feminist het.
Yes or no
Stream of consciousness? ...sure
Poetry? now and again I'm in the mood.
...despite the fact that it's like, purportedly a more natural meter in English, the way that iambic meter sticks in my head bothers me way more than say, trochee's similar tendency ("any fairly practiced writer with the slightest ear for rhythm could compose for hours together in the easy running meter of the song of Hiawatha." ;) -Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll)
Memoirs? rarely. but sometimes.
Philosophy? ...sometimes. depends on the philosopher as to how often I feel like reading it.
Thrillers? occasionally. not necessarily my usual taste.
Chronicles? ...I don't know what this constitutes as a modern genre, tbh? I suppose that tells you that I don't really consume these. so ...more of a no, I guess? I mean, I did read Chronicles of Narnia as a kid.
Dialogue heavy? ...sure
and! I sorted out how to do this-- for any of your ask meme using-copy/pasting needs:
...and, today I ran what I worked out was probably 1.7 miles, in 25 minutes. (Yes, I'm relatively slow at running.) Saturday (when I will probably try to get to 2 miles despite the "25 minutes" instruction) and then two more weeks left of C25K...
