What’s your guilty pleasure, reading-wise?
I’m sure there are people who think that everything I read is a guilty pleasure. 🙂
Superhero comics and O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise books certainly qualify.
Booking Through Thursday
Archived Posts from this Category
December 8, 2016
October 20, 2016
Somebody walks up to you and says, “I need a really good book to read–any genre. What do you recommend?”
What’s the first book off the top of your head?
I would first ask what they prefer to read and what their current favorites are. But off the top of my head: Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (for character centered science fiction).
September 29, 2016
Last week, the question was:
In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. But how about books? Does where a book is set affect your reading choices? Are you more or less likely to read books set in places you know or love?
Yes and no. 🙂 I love and “know” Babylon 5 and the Enterprise-D, not to mention Chalion, Dragaera, Ankh-Morpok, and many others) and I’m likely to read novels set in them. But I’m less likely to read books set in Finland where I live.
In SF and fantasy I’m attracted to places which aren’t real and sometimes can’t be, (although I’m hoping we will get starships, large space stations, and settlements on other planets in the future).
But I also read historical mystery and there the setting, and time, definitely influce my choices. Most of all I enjoy ancient world: Rome, Greece, Egypt. I’d love to read about ancient China and Japan and India if anyone can recommend books from then.
I’d love to read more books set in Venice.
And today:
An off-shoot from last week’s question: Do you read books from places you DON’T know and haven’t been as a substitute for actually travelling there?
A little bit, yes. I’d love to travel to all those ancient sites (and Venice!) but don’t have the money. (Traveling to Venice is actually possible. It’s the staying which would cost a lot.)
July 1, 2016
Do you write in your books? Highlight? In all books or just things like college textbooks?
No. I don’t even use bookmarks and highlights in ebooks.
When I was a student I did highlight but wrote the notes in a booklet, since the books were usually from a library.
June 16, 2016
Do you own fewer books than you used to? More?
Or do you find the quantity in your library stays pretty much the same from year to year?
(And yes, digital and audio books DO count.)
I definitely own more books than ever before, when counting ebooks. I have the bad habit of downloading every free ebook which sounds interesting. Since audio and ebooks only take up space on my computer, I don’t weed them. I’m a member of Audible so the number of audiobooks I own goes up every month.
However, I own significantly fewer print books (and comics) than I used to before my previous move.
May 19, 2016
Last week’s question was: What do you do with books you weed out of your library? If you’re like me, you find this VERY hard to do, but you want your old books to have a good, happy life somewhere … so where do you send them? What do you do with them?
Most of the time I take them to a second-hand bookstore… and get more books from them. Or DVDs. Some I’ve donated to the library and some given to people I know. I also use BookMooch.
When I love a book (or series) I get it from Audible as an audio book (when its available) and put the book on BookMooch or take it to a second hand bookstore.
And today: How often (if ever) do you weed out your library?
I used to weed my printed books and comics before moving. However, now I live in a smaller place so in order to buy more I should get rid of others. (But I’m terrible at weeding.) I haven’t yet weeded ebooks or comics.
December 10, 2015
I’m guessing most of you like reading (or why would you be here), how do you feel about audio books?
For me, “reading” means using my eyes, not my ears. As much as I acknowledge their usefulness while doing chores or using your hands, I only ever use audiobooks for the rare long drive–listening, no matter how pleasant, is not READING, yet people persist in telling me they like to read and that audio books are their favorites. Am I the only one to feel that’s just not the same thing?
You’re right of course: reading and listening are different skills. Listening an audiobook is a different experience than reading the same book. For one thing, the reader is an integral part of an audiobook and he or she matters a lot. For example, I’ve listened most of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books and they have the same narrator, Simon Vance. However, I’ve read the last three books in the series (the audiobooks aren’t available here) and I just couldn’t help but “hear” Vance’s voice.
I also think that, at least for me, it’s easier to get distracted while listening and doing something else. Of course, it’s possible for the mind to wander while reading but I think it’s easier to notice it while reading.
However, I think that listening a book takes practice, just like every skill, and not all people like to do it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Wouldn’t it be boring if we all liked to do the same thing and also the same way?
April 17, 2015
What proportion of the books you own are unread?
I moved last summer and then I weeded a lot from my print book (and comics) collection. Most of them were books I’ve read but don’t intend to reread. So, I’d say I haven’t read about 80% of my print books. I’ve also bought as audiobooks some of the series I really like.
Like many others, I have a tendency to download free ebooks when they’re available so I think out of ebooks maybe even 90% are unread. However, I own only one audiobook which I haven’t listened yet. When I buy a new audiobook I almost always listen it immediately.
April 10, 2015
Do you read books recommended by friends? Or do you prefer to find your own books to read.
Sometimes I read books recommended by friends when they are from genres I like.
March 12, 2015
Two part question:
In an ideal world, what kind of book cases would you have? Built-ins? Barrister ones with glass doors? The cheapest you could find so you could have lots of them?
And … what kind of bookcases do you REALLY have?
I’ve seen pretty awesome bookshelves in various fantasy works which I’d love to have. Morpheus’ library in the Sandman comics comes to mind; not just books which are but which have been dreamt of…
I’d love to have lots of built-in bookcases. In reality I have a pretty haphazard collection of various bookshelves. But they’re still sturdy and able to carry the weight of hundreds of books and comics. Of course, more and more of the books I buy are in electronic format so they don’t require cases at all.
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