Because I need to meme.

[adelynne]

Stolen cheerfully from lareinenoire and lodessa (my two English geeks. :)

Paperback, hardback or Trade paperback?
Whatever's most avaliable.

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Yes. Amazon for new things, Half-Price Books for browsing/used.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Borders by preference, but B&N does have Godiva and better caffenated beverages. And those divine Reese's Peanut Butter cookies.

Bookmark or dog-ear?
Bookmark. Never dog-ear. Have a horrible time writing in books, even in pencil.

Favourite place to read?
Anywhere. Everywhere.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
Subject/Genre, then Author, then Title.

Keep, throw away, or sell?
Keep. I only want to sell or donate one book I own (Phillipa Gregory. Oy.)

Keep dust jacket or toss it?
Keep.

Read with dust jacket or remove it?
With it - use it as a bookmark.

Short story or novel?
Novel, but I am aquiring new appreciation for short stories every time I pick up a particularly good anthology. (And I'm really looking forward to Datlow & Windling's Coyote Road and mroctober's So Fey.)

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Haven't read Lemony Snicket.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
Chapter or section breaks. I have been known to pass out with a book in hand.

"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?
Usually "Once upon a time" these days. Though I do harbor an intense fondness for "It was a dark and stormy night."

Buy or borrow?
Buy. I'm a packrat. And if I own it, I can lend it to my friends.

New or used?
Used for most things, new for things that I can't wait to read, or is the continuation of a series that I have new books in.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?
Recommendations, mostly, these days. Though reviews and browsing has led to some wonderful gems.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Thematic end to the protagonists' arc(s). Whichever fits best.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
Yes.

Stand-alone or series?
Depends more on the work itself, and how long the series is. ASOIAF is a fluke - I typically wait until a series like that is done before picking anything up.

Favorite series?
Riddle-Master by Patricia McKillip
A Song of Ice and Fire by grrm
Swordspoint and The Priviledge of the Sword by ellen_kushner, The Fall of the Kings by deliasherman and ellen_kushner
The Jenny Casey books by matociquala (if only for convincing me that I still love science fiction)
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

Favorite children's book?
A Wrinkle in Time by Maddline L'Engle
Changeling by deliasherman

Favorite YA book?
A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels by [Bad username or site: ~libba_bray @ livejournal.com]
Tithe by blackholly

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Uarda by George Ebbers

Favorite books read last year?
Riddle-Master by Patricia McKillip
Firebirds sdn, ed.
Mélusine and The Virtu by truepenny
Carnival by matociquala

Favorite books of all time?
Le comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Least favorite book you finished last year?
I tend not to finish books I don't enjoy. And I went on such a reading binge last summer I don't recall any I didn't like.

What are you reading right now?
A lot of stuff about 14-3-3sigma, eIF4B, eIF2alpha, and internal ribosome entry site translation. Yeah, you really wanted to know that. ;)

What are you reading next?
NOT science. I'm thinking The Colour of Magic, though maybe Doyle & I will finish reading The Orphan's Tales aloud, first.

Favorite book to recommend to an eleven-year-old?
I was reading A Thousand and One Arabian Nights then. Definitely worth a go.

Favorite book to reread?
Swordspoint again.
A Harpist in the Wind portion of the Riddle-Master trilogy.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Do you ever smell books?
Oh yeah. Especially old ones. I used to sniff the books we brought from the USSR.

Do you ever read Primary source documents?
I better, or else this whole grad school thing's going to go down the tubes.

Comments

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

I always feel weird admitting that I abuse my books. I think it is because I do it in the velveteen rabbit sort of mindset... they are well loved.

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

Oh how awesome, another person who loves the Riddle Of Stars trilogy...

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

My love for that trilogy is sacred and knows no bounds. And I only found it last year!

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is the awesomest of awesome set of books. I love everything by her, but that trilogy holds a special place in my heart.

[hamsterwoman]

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Uarda by George Ebbers

Certainly true in my case... What sort of book is it?

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

It might be more available in Russian (which is the language I read it in, though now I have both) than English, actually. In which case it'd be Уарда. It's a self-described "romance in Ancient Egypt" written by the guy who discovered the Ebbers Papyrus (and was German).

It's the story of a young monk and his healer pal, a grand-daughter of a man who mummfies bodies, and the eldest daughter (Bent-Anat) and the 14th (or 15th? It's been a while) son of Ramses II. He takes elements of known history, but the story itself is obviously fiction. Good stuff, though.