I started the year aiming to read a book every week on average and to blog about them here. Well, it looks like I got up to the Mons book in February and came to a halt! I didn't come to a halt reading books though and I have been documenting them in Goodreads. What happened was I got frantic in the lead up to going on long service leave (as well as my home PC being in death throes) and then I went off overseas for a couple of months.
When I came back I discovered that everyone (well everyone who matters!) had undertaken to blog every day of June! I was back too late to start this exercise but thought an easy way to get back into this book blogging thing would be to do a reading meme that Con (@flexnib) introduced to the June blogging crowd.
What is your favourite drink while reading? Coffee (strong black), tea or herbal tea. I often read in bed in the evening with chamomile or in the morning with coffee. People who follow me on Twitter (@polyxena) will be more than aware of this.
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? I never write in books. I stick bits of paper in or post-its or make a note if anything strikes me. Evernote is good for that.
How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat? I bookmark. I have heaps of bookmarks but they never seem to be with me when I want them - so scraps of papers, dockets, public transport tickets. I don't turn over pages: this aversion may go back to the very strict rules instilled in me by the local public library when I was a child.
Fiction, non-fiction or both? I read both fiction and non-fiction. I particularly like crime fiction and am a member of Sisters in Crime. In terms of non-fiction I read history, biography, archaeology and cookbooks mainly though I have been reading a bit of travel lately :).
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere? I prefer to stop at the end of a chapter but as I read in bed sometimes sleep overtakes me.
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? I don't throw books (or anything else) across the room.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? I don't usually look a new word up as I can normally work out the meaning by context or by its roots. If I am puzzled I'll look it up later.
What are you currently reading? Nothing. I will have to make some choices about books on my to be read pile.
What is the last book you bought? The little stranger by Sarah Waters (in paper form) and Three act tragedy by Agatha Christie (in ebook).
Do you have a favourite time/place to read? In bed
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? No preference.
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? No - I recommend different books and authors to different people depending on their interests and reading tastes.
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)? My fiction is in one bookshelf with authors loosely together (I don't always reshelve very well). Non-fiction is organized in broad DDC i.e. all the 700s in one bay etc In some areas e.g. history they are in chronological order, in others they are random within the hundred e.g. cookbooks.
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence? I usually prefer "silence" in the sense that I don't have music or the radio on (though sometimes I do). "Silence" does, however, mean lots of ambient noise like traffic or cats purring or the dishwasher going.
